Johnny D Music News: Laws and the net in Libya - John D Radcliff

first and 2nd generation measures to regulate internet access and online activities. This includes laws and regulations, technical filtering, physical restrictions, surveillance and monitoring, and rack and arrests. There are alot of laws and regulations used to control access which include laws that go with press and publications all the way to Internet and ISP rules and regulations.

Ghadafi used several of these methods to try and persecute the anti government protests that broke out in Libya. He threatened to hire people up if they were caught using Facebook to post anti government remarks. He shutdown cellular and internet access through out the country. All of his actions are from laws that are great in early Middle East and North African countries who all share the like set of controlling internet content which is seen as insulting or offensive. Here is one example of a current law in Kuwait: "Kuwait's 2006 press law allows the enslavement of journalists for making references to Islam that are deemed insulting or for articles seen as "against national interests" (Access Controlled, p. 526)."

According to the laws setup in the middle east, Ghadafi has every expert in arresting people and close down the net in order to protect "national interests" in Libya. I bear with having laws and filters in rank to regulate certain content if it is going to get a brat or offend somebody else. For example, if there is a website that is promoting a terrorist attack on the Libyan government so I think the government has every sound in taking action against the place and its owners. The job with this is what is considered unlawful in the eyes of the Libyan government? Also, why filter the net to the level of confining a person's freedom of speech or appear in Libya? Does limiting the attack to certain online content, shutting down the net and arresting people for posting anti government information loss to end the uprising in Libya?

Currently Libya is in a state of turmoil. Rebel forces in cities across Libya are starting a revolution against Ghadafi and the current Libyan government. Ghadafi has retaliated by using the Libyan military to pay a war against his own people. It may appear strange to pursue a war against one's own cititzens until we look at the laws, policies and structures in space which allow for these actions. So in the eyes of Ghadafi this could be deemed as a noise to the land and he is acting with "national interests" in mind. This does not have anything to do with the rules and regulations of content being filtered or blocked on the net in Libya. But it does point to how the people in Libya are being treated and why they are being treated this way. Since Libya is a despotic government the people's rights and freedom of expression will be hampered no matter what they do in this country.



These kind of laws can stifle Libya's economy and which we have seen can get to a revolution. If people are stifled online then this can do a government start to get away freedoms in real space as well. In the edition I found that countries in the middle east like Libya are blocking sites for political campaigning and social activism. Of course the people in these countries are asking that these restrictions be lifted. Of course these countries are not going to produce these restrictions since they know that the net is associated with sound and power. Ghadafi understands this and that is why he has not lifted restrictions on the net or changed any of the laws in his country. The worst part about this is that U.S. companies are helping to leave these technological restrictions for these countries so that they can take a profit. It is a shame that content filtering companies do not give a conscience or a concerns about the issues going on in these countries. I think if they did it would give a big impact on how these countries would go about filtering their internet content.

A balance of laws and content filtering must be reached if the middle east along with Libya want to keep peace in their countries. If not, then these governments will extend to experience excitement and uprisings.