• Stemming political dissent in China
• Curtailing bloggers' rights in Egypt
• Preserving community standards in Europe
• Walking the constitutional tightrope in the U.S.
  • Web censorship in the U.S.
  • Corporate & localized censorship
  • Problems with censorship
  • Influence of U.S. censorship policies abroad
  • The future of web censorship in the U.S.

The Influence of U.S. Censorship Policies Abroad

As the birthplace of the internet and the epicenter of its study and innovation, the US has an undeniable influence on the internet policies of foreign nations. More importantly, however, the US is an economic superpower, with influential business interests throughout the world. Its prominent status in international governing bodies like the World Trade Organization and financial institutions like the World Bank allow the US to protect these business interests &emdash; most notably their intellectual property &emdash; on the world stage, even at the expense of internet freedom abroad.

Letter from the MPA to the Swedish Government urging action against The Pirate Bay.

This conflict drew international attention in May of 2006, when, faced with threats from the US Embassy acting on behalf of the Motion Picture Association, Swedish police raided the servers of a popular Bittorrent indexing site, the Pirate Bay, in Stockholm. The incident touched off a storm of protests from the European internet community, especially after Swedish television reported that the US had threatened WTO trade sanctions against Sweden. By the following month the Pirate Bay was back on line with new servers located in the Netherlands.