Irrepressible.Info

I remember the first time I used the internet (or at least the World Wide Web). It was 1993 and I was at university studying for my engineering degree. I downloaded a picture of a dalek, the picture was not very good and it took about half an hour. I can only begin to describe the excitement I felt. The internet was full of promise; it would let people share their thoughts, ideas, feelings and troubles with the world and by doing so we would all be brought closer together. It was a new fresh frontier that would not obey the old rules and it could not help but empower ordinary people. Sitting in front of the screen looking at the dalek felt like the start of something incredible, like watching the first few pebbles move and knowing that an avalanche is not far behind.

It is now 13 years later and to be fair the internet has lived up to most of my dreams and in many cases surpassed my wildest imaginings (I certainly never saw eBay, Amazon, Google Earth or Flickr coming). However there have also been some bitter disappointments. I watched as the internet bowed inevitably to the rules of established economics and politics as governments and corporations started to notice this new creation. It started in simple ways with pay for use services and adverts included on pages. The realist in me knew that the only way for the internet to move forward was for large companies to be involved and they would only do so if there was money to be made. The romantic idealist in me felt like he was watching a newly discovered rainforest get bulldozed to build a shopping centre.

The one dream that I though was holding true was the empowerment of ordinary people. At first glance it seems ok, I am sitting here writing a blog and sharing my photos on flickr, I can use email and websites to contact my politicians find out what my local and central government is up to and protest if I feel the need to. I can contact likeminded people and join with them in common cause. The internet has given us a voice and when we make the effort that voice can be very loud. However we are the lucky ones there are many countries where the new electronic frontier comes to sudden stop. In these countries speaking your mind online is just as dangerous as speaking it anywhere else. Governments with a history of repression have extended their grip to the internet and many major IT corporations have been happy to help.

Criticizing the government, exposing human rights abuses or calling for democracy has led many internet users to be imprisoned or persecuted by their governments. China, Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia are amongst the countries where this has happened. The governments of these countries have been aided by major western IT companies who have contructed filtering systems to aid censorship, shut down websites and handed over email addresses and other personal information belonging to people who have been wrongly imprisoned as a result

Amnesty International has launched a new campaign called irrepressible.info to put pressure on companies and governments to stop political repression on the internet. From the site you can sign their petition and link your blog (if you have one) to their site and undermine censorship by displaying fragments of blogs that someone in power somewhere in the world never wanted to be read.

I honestly believe that this is a cause worth supporting. That romantic idealist in me feels that maybe if enough people take action then the internet can become the incredible tool for freedom of thought and expression that it looked like becoming 13 years ago.