Online repression rising: Amnesty International

The internet is increasingly being used to repress free expression worldwide and technology companies are complicit, speakers at an Amnesty International webcast discussion of online censorship said Wednesday.

The discussion — marking the one-year anniversary of Amnesty's Irrepressible campaign — featured internet experts and free speech activists from around the world who described a growing phenomenon of censorship and repression being enabled by the internet even as people use the medium to gain a voice.

"Governments still fear dissenting opinion and the new technology, as well as helping out freedom, is giving new tools to those who want to curtail that freedom," Kamal Ahmed, executive editor of the Observer newspaper said in his opening remarks.

Pointing to companies like Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc., which have been accused by human rights groups of helping governments censor free speech and repress their citizens, Ahmed noted that raising awareness of the issues confronting internet users and the companies involved in them is crucial to ensure that access remains free to all.

The human rights organization Amnesty International has warned that Internet repression is on the rise. If the "virus of Internet repression" is not fought the worldwide data network could change beyond recognition, the UK section of Amnesty International declared. Last night Amnesty International organized a webcast on the topic "Some people think the Internet is a bad thing," in which, besides Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and Internet entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox, victims of Internet repression from all parts of the world took part. The webcast is Amnesty's way of highlighting the first anniversary of irrepressible.info, a campaign it launched in cooperation with the UK daily The Observer.