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The Internet has been referred to as a “global brain,” a “collective consciousness,” “the new home of Mind." Necessarily, limitations on access to information via the Internet
are comparable to mental censorship, in that “undesirable” thoughts, ideas, or behaviors are indirectly restricted. Freedom of information and freedom of expression on all topics are necessary elements of a healthy democracy. The 1996 Communications Decency Act violates
First Amendment protections of the right to receive and exchange ideas. Internet filtering software specifically designed to block information based on its content, inevitably prevents access to certain viewpoints, and thereby threatens cognitive liberty and creative, innovative thought.
See Also
Intellectual Freedom
Academic Freedom
Book Banning
Free Speech
Resources
Banning
Books in the Digital Age: New
Federal Law Makes Librarians Internet Censors
by Richard Glen Boire
Chilling
Effects
A Berkman Center/Electronic Freedom Foundation project and website to
empower Internet users with detailed information about their rights in the
online environment.
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
A non-profit, non-partisan organization working in the public interest to
protect fundamental civil liberties, including privacy and freedom of
expression in the arena of computers and the Internet.
Peacefire
Organization that monitors Internet filtering software, and provides
evasion technology.
Free
Access to Information & Freedom of Expression
International
Federation of Library Association and Institutions
The
Constitutionality of the Communications Decency Act: Censorship on the
Internet
See
No Evil: A Self-Censored Internet
by Douglas Rushkoff
"The ability to dictate what we think
about is controlled, to some extent, by the people who decide on the
content of our media--which headlines will be printed, which groups will
win recording contracts, and which stories will appear on the evening
news. The ability to dictate *how* we think is controlled by the people
who produce the tools of media--the browsers, file-sharing programs, and
networks through which all this content is disseminated and, with any
luck, discussed."
If you would like to expound on any of these issues or suggest additional
resources, please contact us at
info@cognitiveliberty.org.
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