When the internet was introduced, it was thought to be a chance at a world without borders. However, this belief is being scrapped out sooner than we know it. Several countries have enacted laws to control the freedom of speech on the internet; some, controlling the usage of internet altogether such as the ones enforced in Afghanistan, Cuba and even China (Stroehlein, 2006).
Why, you may ask?
Jeff Ooi (above): Malaysian blogger, being sued for defamation
For some countries like Malaysia, the government believes that internet (blogging) laws will help to maintain the integrity of internet users, as to not disseminate lies over the internet (Hah, 2006). With bloggers such as Jeff Ooi (picture above) being sued for defamation (Sohan, 2007), perhaps the government is concern over the effects of complete speech freedom on the net.
This brings up another focus which is cyber-bullying. Is complete speech freedom on the internet contributing to cyber-bullying?
As I have seen before, some bloggers uses their blog to bad mouth someone else or publish things that might not be necessarily. I have even read a blog-fight whereby people set up blogs specifically to criticise and have a fight of words with someone else (the blog name shall remain nameless). Should internet laws be enacted to prevent this sort of blogging?
Although I feel the necessity for some form of control over this type of bloggers, it worries me that internet laws may be used to eliminate internet freedom altogether, thus, cancelling out this form of alternative media that is otherwise very useful.
Therefore, I believe that internet users should appreciate the internet as a borderless world and use it appropriately and wisely, not for cyber-bullying.
References:
Hah, FL 2006, ‘Cyber law mulled to block lies in blogs’, viewed 6 June 2007; [internet], http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/12/3/nation/16212999&sec=nation.
Sohan, AA 2007, ‘Defamation suit to test the limits of freedom of speech in cyberspace’, viewed on 6 June 2007; [internet], http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2007/1/20/itedit/20070120121945&sec=itedit.
Stroehlein, A 2002, ‘Censorship wins out’, viewed on 5 June 2007; [internet], http://alternet.org/story/12965.
