The internet has become a fundamental component of our life. We rely on it for work, education, communication, entertainment, and many other aspects of our daily life.
Thanks to the internet, all you need today to play your favorite slots is to do a Croco casino login. While the internet has brought so much freedom, opportunities, and convenience, some communities cannot benefit from it due to internet censorship.
Governments across the Asian continent have followed China’s lead and decided to censor the internet. This censorship is illegal and unlawful, as it intends to make criticism aired through the digital world disappear into oblivion. China, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Cambodia are among the Asian nations which have adopted this illegal censorship.
They monitor how you use the internet, block any international sites that seem critical of these governments, and ruthlessly silence dissidents.
- Vietnam
In Vietnam, a version of Facebook is run by the state. The state may befriend you there. As long as you are ready to share all your personal information, you can access the site. Here, there is direct censorship that blocks any form of political dissent.
This is made possible by the repressive laws that have been put in place by its government. Vietnam has also built strong firewalls to stop dissidents from accessing any crucial content available on the internet.
- Burma
Political unrest of any intensity is silenced by cutting off the country from access to the internet. Like Vietnam, they have very repressive laws which ensure that you can’t post or access articles that are critical of the government.
Additionally, the government uses arguments of decency and morality as an excuse for squashing any criticism and blocking you from accessing information.
- Thailand
Thailand is highly intolerant of critics of its government. Website moderators risk facing decades in jail. Multiple cases of internet censorship have been reported in Thailand. This is made worse because you don’t need to be the author of these comments. Simply reposting a comment injurious to this monarchy will earn you a tough sentence.
The government has developed new crime laws dealing with computer-related crimes. These, combined with the lese- majesty legislation, mute any criticism on the websites. The legal charges hanging over many netizens in the country make it difficult for them to plan for their future.
This concoction of very strict laws and equally heavy punishment makes earnest discussions on the country’s political state on websites and blogs non-existent.
- China
China has spearheaded media censorship, and this control is widespread throughout the entire country. Various administrative and legal regulations facilitate the P.R.C’s control over what you can access. A study done by CNN puts China as the first in internet censorship globally.
Authorities, as well as the Chinese government, monitor your access in addition to blocking website content. They achieve this through different methods, including; DNS poisoning, analysis and filtering URLs, resetting connections, packet inspection, and blocking access to these IP addresses.
Among all these countries, China hosts the highest number of imprisoned netizens. Common offenses for imprisonment include; communication with foreign groups, signing online petitions, and calling for reforms in the government. The government’s effort to neutralize online critics has escalated.
This comes after numerous anti-pollution protests, anti-corruption protests, and ethnic riots. However, many means have been devised to ensure these censors are outsmarted.
Ways Communities are Fighting Illegal Internet Censorship
Many communities have taken proactive steps to fight illegal censorship and attain freedom for internet usage. Some of the approaches employed include:
- Outwitting the Censors
Creative netizens have developed more advanced ways to bypass the censors, s that you can access the internet freely. Various tactics are employed to ensure that you are steps ahead of the government in terms of accessing crucial information. They include; digital technology and wordplay.
- Wordplay
In China, homophones are used to evade censors. Censored words are replaced with their homophones. Terms that the government is conversant with are replaced with characters that combine to sound the same as these terms. This, therefore, ensures that censorship is evaded.
It also ensures that what you intended to communicate gets across. For open letters or longer posts, images texts are put up. They may be rotated or inverted to get past the censors. However, the ever-evolving algorithms eventually identify and censor these images as well.
- Digital Technology
This is in the form of blockchain technology. It is a public digital ledger originally created for bitcoin, a digital currency. It is decentralized, and is also distributed throughout a network of computers. This way, it is permanent. This also makes it impossible to be altered by censors.
Final Thoughts
Freedom of speech is essential in today’s world. You rightfully deserve to air your views on the governance in your country. Suppressing citizens, as witnessed across Asia, goes against the very grain of democracy. You should champion media freedom and better governance.
As the firewalls censor information that is important for you to advance, the same tactics are employed to break these censors. Asian netizens are determined to ensure that you can access and put up information freely, even in Asia.