World Day Against Cyber Censorship

The Internet can be a free place where the exchange of information and ideas is unrestricted. But some governments try to control it, through censorship and surveillance. The purpose of World Day Against Cyber Censorship was to gain the target of an accessible and unrestricted internet for everyone.

Some facts about World Day Against Cyber Censorship

The Internet gives a special chance for people around the world to access to huge amounts of information. Not only can people get information on nearly any topic imaginable, but they can get it quickly and often at low cost. They may also despise the idea of ​​sharing things with others over the worldwide web. In other hands, some people in the world have a desire to restrict the Internet. These people don't want people to use their freedom of speech on the worldwide web.

Every year, this problem becomes more and more a dilemma. Recently, Reporters Without Borders revealed some of the digital predators of freedom and showed that these digital predators are very dangerous to freedom of opinion and expression, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights show the guarantees about it.

Some of these digital predators include:

• Modi's Yoddhas in India
• Kremlin Troll Army in Russia
• Iran's Supreme Council on Cyberspace
• National Telecommunications Commission in Venezuela
• Cyber ​​jihadist unit in Sudan
• Zerodium in the United States

When talk about controlling the Internet, there are some of the worst countries include China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Vietnam. Other countries, including Egypt, France, India, Russia, Thailand and Turkey, are under scrutiny for Internet restrictions.

History of World Day Against Cyber Censorship

The Internet can be a free place where the exchange of information and ideas is unrestricted. But some governments try to control it, through censorship and surveillance. World Day Against Cyber Censorship was created to help support a "single, unrestricted internet" accessible to all and "to draw attention to the ways in which governments across the world is blocking and censoring free speech online." It was founded by Reporters Without Borders, an international NGO based in Paris that fights for press freedom.

2008 is the first World Day Against Cyber Censorship, after Jean-François Julliard, Secretary General of Reporters Without Borders, along with Larry Cox, Executive Director of Amnesty National fact, ask to the CEOs of Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, about the date to be observed. Reporters Without Borders has since presented the Day's Netizen Award, which honors a person or group of people who have contributed to the defense of freedom of speech and expression online. They also created an emblem for the day, which includes a computer mouse detached from the necklace.

In 2006, two years before the holiday, Reporters Without Borders started a list of Enemies of the Internet, which named countries that restrict the Internet, suppress users, and censor news and information. The following year, they added a category of Countries Under Surveillance, which pointed to countries that had gone the wrong way when it came to internet freedom. After the holiday started in 2008, they started updating these listings on the date. The United States was added to the list of Enemies of the Internet in 2014. It was also this year that the list was expanded to focus not only on censorship but also surveillance.

How to celebrate World Day Against Cyber Censorship

Celebrate the day by working for an Internet free from censorship and surveillance. Below are some ideas for this day celebration:

• Read information and reports on online freedoms around the world at Freedom on the Net.
• Learn about filtering the internet around the world with the OpenNet Initiative.
• Support groups like Reporters Without Borders or Electronic Frontier.
• Read a book about internet censorship.
• See if your agent(s) support free and open Internet by supporting network neutrality.
• Share information and ideas on the internet!