By Jacqui Depares
This week, Amnesty International and The Observer launched irrepressible.info, a campaign demanding freedom of expression over the internet and the end to repression online, as people continue to be persecuted just for voicing their opinion on the net.
In a country where freedom of expression is taken as the norm, we often close our eyes to the fact that this is not a right afforded to all. In countries such as China, Vietnam, Tunisia and Iran, governments censor access to the internet and imprison political dissidents, using cameras in internet cafes, internet police and even search engine providers, such as Yahoo, to track down and convict so-called offenders.
The Web as we know it is a constantly evolving source of communication - allowing us to see, at a click of a button, the views and opinions of people worldwide. It has revolutionised not only the way we communicate, but more importantly, the way we think. It is this that has struck fear into governments abroad and prompted them to restrict what their people view and say online.
Like the Big Brother of '1984', repressive governments watch their citizens' every move on the web. Some even place a little policeman in the corner of all screens as a reminder that the government has changed the very nature of the World Wide Web to We Will be Watching. However, unlike the Big Brother of 2006, getting caught breaking the rules doesn't just lead to a verbal warning - it all too often means prison, for anything up to 12 years, for simply Googling the term "democracy".
Amnesty International has called upon us to question the acts of these governments and do something to stop it. If you would like to join the campaign, go to: http://irrepressible.info/
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