SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Government pressure on companies linked to social media networks is threatening to infringe civil liberties, an Internet forum in Egypt heard on Wednesday.
There is no jurisdiction on the planet in which companies do not come under some kind of pressure from government in some way to do things that arguably may infringe on the civil liberties of users, Rebecca MacKinnon, co-founder of Global Voices, an international network of blogs said.
MacKinnon, speaking at the Internet Governance Forum at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, said she was asked not to mention any United Nations member countries by name.
You ll have to restrict yourself to the moon if you really want to avoid all situations regarding civil liberties, she said.
In some jurisdictions, international sites end up being blocked. Then a robust set of domestic social networking sites that are hosted domestically are held liable for all the content that the users are posting on their site, she said.
MacKinnon told a session dedicated to Social Media that intelligent and thoughtful engagement is required to deal with restrictive markets.
Some governments, including Middle East states and China, have come under criticism for online censorship and investing in sophisticated technology to filter and monitor Internet activities.
During a visit to China, US President Barack Obama on Monday pushed for an unshackled Internet and expanded political freedoms.
I have always been a strong supporter of open Internet use. I am a big supporter of non-censorship, Obama said.
A report released in August by the OpenNet Intiative (ONI) said the governments in the Middle East and North Africa were clamping down on Web freedom.
Researchers surveyed 18 countries in the Middle East and North Africa and found that 14 of them employed Internet-filtering technology.
The IGF in Egypt grouped over 1,500 representatives of government, civil society and the private sector from over 100 countries to discuss the future of the internet. -AFP
