China, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan Propose Internet “Code Of Contduct”.

Posted at 2:09 pm September 20, 2011 by


How would you feel if your internet usage habits were governed by an initiative led by China, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan? Yeah, positive words aren’t exactly floating to the top of our minds either. Nonetheless, it could become a possibility if a new proposal by the aforementioned countries submitted to the UN gets ratified. The gist of the proposal:

“curbing the dissemination of information that incites terrorism, secession-ism, or extremism, or that undermines other countries’ political, economic, and social stability, as well as their spiritual and cultural environment.”

Not overly broad at all…. /sarcasm.

It’s worth noting the proposal and its requirements would be voluntary for each and every country which makes any form of governing of actual laws seem a lot less reliable.

But before your nerves get too paranoid, don’t forget that such a decision would require a mountain of negotiations (and concessions) before anything remotely close to a “global internet law” could become official. Not to mention there are some countries that will just never get a long.

When will governments realize the internet cannot be and never will be (hopefully) governed by any one power?

Full proposal can be found here (PDF)

Via: Ars Technica

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  • surfer

    If you saw how much just the incitement of hatred can cause, then you’d realise that countries could do better than just let hatemongers and extremists flourish. Yes, there is freedom of expression but it doesn’t include freedom to abuse spread ethnic slurs.

    • Mike Norris

      Very true. But one would be incredibly naive to believe governments would only use their newfound power for legitimate, anti-hate spreading purposes.

      It’s odd you mention ethnic slurs. These are mere words, and yes, hurtful to many. But at their core they only have meaning because we give them meaning. Saying something hurtful is inherently different than bluntly telling someone to go kill someone or group. The latter should be monitored as with the great freedoms the internet provides, it also requires a good deal of responsibility on our part (as humans). The former, however, are again words. They do not directly cause physical harm. Unfortunately it seems political correctness is trampling common sense these days.

      Tying in with your mention of freedom of speech — You, I, and any other person has the right to say whatever they want (obvious exceptions for telling people to murder others/cause harm). If someone doesn’t like it there’s a simple solution: turn off the tv, radio, close the web page.