• Stemming political dissent in China
• Curtailing bloggers' rights in Egypt
• Preserving community standards in Europe
  • Censored web content in the E.U.
  • How content is censored
  • Why content is censored
  • Where censorship in the E.U. is headed
• Walking the constitutional tightrope in the U.S.

How Content is Censored

In looking specifically to the proposed idea of filtering, the process of blocking online content, related to terrorist activity, European Union officials have proposed and enacted 3 ways in which to censor content:

• Removing Websites from the Internet: This was a strategy referred to by Franco Frattinini, the European commission vice-president with responsibility for security and justice. This involves some way of erasing or permanently removing the offending website from the Internet so that no one at anytime can access it. This tactic is impossible, due to the fact that nothing can be permanently erased from the internet.
• Cooperating with ISPs to filter Internet access: This method has been used in the case of filtering child pornography in places such as Britain, Norway, and Finland. It involves an agreement between the European Union’s government and the Internet service provider as a company on what content will not be allowed to appear anywhere on the Internet they provide. This solution does not cover complicated content such as web-forum conversations, which can contain offensive content.
• Cooperating with internet search-engines, such as Google, to filter results: This technique is currently used in places such as France to filter Nazi content. It involves an agreement between the European government and he search-engine company, and does not prevent the Internet user from viewing the content if he or she finds it without the search-engine.