Tonight, Amnesty International will be webcasting a discussion entitled “Some People Think the Internet is a Bad Thing.” They point out that an increasing number of countries (at least 25 countries, according to Open Net Initiative research) have some form of state-controlled mandatory filtering of what appears on the internet. They do this to maintain order and political authority.
The problem is that the internet is increasingly the vehicle of choice for businesses to maintain competitive advantage and promote themselves in our interconnected economy. How will the Chinese manufacturer or the Ethiopian coffee collective remain competitive and connected to companies further up the value chain if they have limited capacity for online communications?
Maintaining a two-tier system of openness, for political and economic communications respectively, requires huge investments in time and resources (The Chinese government allegedly employs tens of thousands of internet police) and seems like a band-aid solution to the more permanent — and increasingly obvious — problem that the internet is democratising global communications.