Systematic Site shutdowns in the works

By Robert L. Pritchett

I've been witnessing systematic takedown of websites online recently. It is not an issue of right, left or in between. It is an issue of the right to free speech.

I wrote this article because of issues we have been having at PESWiki.com. We were "taken over" for a day in February, 2009.

We have over 15K of pages, over 5K of contributors and somebody got in there and took over at the server level. The host was able to get in there and wrest control back to us. A very busy organization, according to the log and host admin, has been blocked from further participation.

"Hegelian Dialectic" - Problem, Reaction, Solution explained John F. Kennedy's Speech: "The president and the press" (1961). "Clear and Present Danger".

The Patriot Act and Patriot Act II permits monitoring (wiretaps) of all computer systems and Internet activities. Wiretapping against US citizens was authorized way before 9/11.

We used to fight Nazism and Communism. Now we live under Fascism/Corporatism. A Corpagopoly.

Shutdown

It is extremely easy to shut down a website and kill off information.

How to shutdown a website

How to take down a website in seconds

Take down someone's web site--no evidence needed

Five million emails take down website...

Censorship

It is just as easy to declare a reason for turning off a website in the name of national security (either advocating dissent, militant uprising or "terrorism"), violation of "fairness" (tit for tat), being blacklisted as a scam site, "excess bandwidth" or for other kinds of censorship. I've even seen in my own case, where domain name re-registrations are conveniently "forgotten", so the site no longer becomes accessible or is taken over by "others".

And then there is the convenient "No information found here" pages – like this one regarding an exposé report on NorthCom' s preparations for "civil unrest" to attack citizens of the US.

I also removed a lot of links regarding Barry Soetoro, before he bought into the Office of the Presidency that was posted here on macCompanion a few months ago. Now that I think about it, I should have left them. I'm already a target anyway.

"Fairness" Doctrine

List of the 13 Internet enemies (the US government is not on the list – yet)

Over 1,500 Web sites banned in Turkey for various reasons

Silenced: Censorship and Control of the Internet

Emerging U.S. limits on Internet freedom

Internet Thought Control Bill Under Fire - Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007

Internet Terrorism

10 ways the Internet is under attack (video)

Cyberwarfare

And the spy vs. spy activities continue between competing political camps around the world. The Internet is not immune to such antics. In fact, it has taken center stage.

INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCED STUDY OF INFORMATION WARFARE

Cyberwar and Netwar:  New Modes, Old Concepts, of Conflict

China winning cyber war, Congress warned

Cyber War Mercenaries

Another Cyberwar: Kyrgyzstan, This Time

Air Force Unplugs Bases' Internet Connections

Pentagon official says list of banned Web sites could grow

Debate

When the "bad guys" control the little ones and zeros, what do we do? We have to win control back somehow.

Your Internet: Open or Closed?

Save the Internet

Conservative Talk Radio Will Not Be Shut Down by the Fairness Doctrine

When Anti-Christ controls the Internet

Commemorating Banned Web Pages

Specific site shutdowns

I was asked to list a few "for instances", so here goes…

Wikileaks whistleblower site shut down in the U.S.

Hackers from China force Pennsylvania to shut down state government's Web site

Canadian Health Network Web Site To Be Shut Down By Government

British Intelligence may be behind Recent al-Qaeda Website Shutdowns

The Mystery Of 56.com’s Shutdown: Beginning Of Chinese Government Takedown Of Video Sites?

Thailand Seeks Web Site Shutdowns Thai officials say they are seeking to shut down hundreds of Internet Web sites as part of their state of emergency decree to counter anti-government protests.

More conservative blog sites shut down by Blogger/Google

Google's Pattern Of Harassment Against Conservative Sites

Homosexuals Seek to Shut Down Canadian Pro-Family Websites

Lights Out For Talon News

Conservative Blog Shutdowns Linked to BarackObama.com IP Addresses

Google Shuts Down Anti-Obama Sites on its Blogger Platform

Dotster Ordered To Shut Down Al Shabaab Website

Who’s responsible for shutting down a number of anti-Obama Blogspot accounts?

There have also been instances of official "boo-boos" and snafus, such as the state of California shutting down all sites in their state last year (2008) in an attempt to censor porn sites. This is the cover story.

Or the recent Google "mistake" of labeling all sites as malware sites. But they did it before by labeling blog sites as Spam sites.

Google unilaterally continues to "unlist" specific sites from search criteria, so they cannot be tracked or accessed. That used to be an owner-only option.

We have seen a marked increase in YouTube videos that have become "unavailable" too. Viacom did it to one of the PESWiki participants. It was 100% his original content and his development and Viacom convinced YouTube to shut the video off. He is appealing for restoration. He ended up reposting it, because they have not responded.

And it is way too easy to get a site blacklisted.

The All-Seeing Eye

I believe nothing is coincidental regarding the Internet.

Internet of Things

Internet of Things + Internet of Services

SmartDust

Arming Big Brother Revisited

Exploring the European Union Research Policy in Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing

An Internet of Senses

Web 3.0

Web 3.0 refers to the third decade of the Web starting 2010 to 2020 and the technologies expected to "upgrade" the user experience. Some new upgrades include:

Transformation of the Web from a network of separately soloed applications and content repositories to a more seamless and interoperable whole.
Ubiquitous connectivity, broadband adoption, mobile Internet access and mobile devices.
Network computing, programs you can use online instead of buying on CD and installing.
Open technologies, Programs no one company owns, instead lots of people help build it and maintain it.
Open identity, one simple ID that goes everywhere with you, like a username and password that works everywhere.
The intelligent web, The web can better guess what you need in simple English questions or requests.
Distributed databases, the "World Wide Database" better access to more data from lots of sources.
Intelligent applications, natural language processing, machine learning, machine reasoning, autonomous agents.

Ubiquitous Computing: Big Brother's All-Seeing Eye - This looks at two videos.

Note: This information (All-Seeing Eye and Web 3.0) was gleaned by "Bella" over on the LDS Freedom Forum.

Accessing "Banned" Websites

How to access blocked websites - Top 10

And if we are banned?

If you see maccompanion.com go down, you will at least have an idea of what happened. We are not above being controversial and continue making enemies. We prefer to make friends. However it is a cruel and unusual world out there and it has invaded the Internet.

Information may want to be free, but there are those who want to control everything, so information will not be free.