How OpenWeb Helps Fighting Internet Censorship
As the Internet has expanded over time, regulatory bodies, due to the centralized power in their hands, across multiple nations have censored a variety of websites and applications as per their will. Given the impact that the Internet, especially social media, has on its users and way it influences people’s decisions, it’s crucial that people have free access to information on the internet.
The internet, without a doubt, has been a revolution that contributes a major chunk to most of the technological advancement that we see around, but sadly, it’s highly centralized. It wasn’t supposed to be so, but the power has eventually landed in the hands of a few companies/parties that mediate a major part of the internet. This gives authorities complete freedom to edit, limit, and remove information.
Knowing and understanding the grounds of censorship is something not every citizen of different countries are aware of. While many might deem this as a positive phenomenon, thinking that censorship is going to make the internet a lot more “safe” for kids & adults alike, the same is not necessarily the case at all. When it comes to democracy, censorship does no good since it limits information access which is a primary human right.
Mature Content
The very first and one of the most critical aspects of the centralized internet is the ability to ban porn websites. This censorship is based on the ideological beliefs of a few people in power who create such a blanket ban on adult websites. Such measures cause other mature content that is of an educational, scientific or artistic nature to be blocked as well.
The decision to access mature content should be left in the hands of consumers, not the government or any centralized authority. The adult industry is a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States while it’s negligible in many countries. Such disparity is a clear indicator of the authoritative ban on mature content in these countries. It also put a question mark on people’s right to expression and the right to privacy.
Political Censorship
Political views are the rights of every citizen in a democratic system. Whatever the circumstances are, every single person is entitled to their views and opinions, especially when it comes to politics.
For a democratic country, it is essential that every person has the freedom of speech on the internet as well.
Political censorship might prove out to be right in some aspects, especially when it comes to blocking out false rumors from spreading, but it is not the best option when it comes to representing democracy and information access. The lack of information on the crucial political issue could end up creating confusion that could stem negative thoughts in the mind of the people as well.
Some Examples…
Talking on a nationwide basis, China has a blanket ban over Facebook, WhatsApp, Google and so on. In North Korea, only a handful of people have complete access to the internet. Saudia Arabia keeps a close watch on YouTube so that YouTubers may not release such news on the platform that the leaders don’t want to be seen or heard by the world.
Decentralized Internet to the Rescue
Decentralized Internet doesn’t hand all the power to a single person or entity. The distribution of power and authority is done proportionally amongst the users themselves, irrespective of any worldly differentiations.
The decentralized internet is intended to render back the freedom to internet users and help them share and consume information as per their needs, without a central authority restricting them from anything. On the other hand, by distributing the control of the internet across people, it also assures that there are no vulnerable central parties that can be hacked to steal information.
The most significant power today is not money but data. People/entities who have control over data are possibly capable of doing anything, anytime, and anywhere. Decentralized internet puts off this power and makes the internet more secure and democratic. It helps prevent the spread of altered information via hashing technology.
Conclusion
The complete decentralization of the internet has only just begun and the adoption for a DWeb (decentralized web) will grow with time. Decentralized technologies like blockchains and Dapps build on these blockchains are a strong beginning to the internet 3.0 (the decentralized, peer-to-peer internet). OpenWeb Network is leading this initiative with its DApp for decentralized hosting. Riding on Ethereum’s reliability, OpenWeb is designed for simplicity and mass adoption.
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