Experts Point Out Four Major Threats to an Unrestricted Inte
Source: KACPER PEMPEL
A new report from the Pew Research Center, called "The Web at 25," said that in their survey of more than 1,400 experts and computer analysts, most of the respondents believe that the easy access to unlimited information in the Internet can pose threats like "nation-state crackdowns, surveillance and pressures of commercialization," according to Saving Advice.
The research emphasized on these four major issues that can be seen by 2025: "efforts by nation-states to maintain political control by filtering, blocking or segmenting the Internet; erosion of trust stemming from government and corporate surveillance; efforts by corporations to further commercialize the online world; and attempts by individuals to filter their own online exposure to combat information overload."
In the report, they stated China as an example, where they have a control over the flow of information that comes across the Internet, restricting users' access to some topics. Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt are also cited as examples of nations that attempt to hinder citizens from viewing content that are not agreeable with their governments.
"The pressures to balkanize the global Internet will continue and create new uncertainties. Governments will become more skilled at blocking access to unwelcome sites," said Paul Saffo, managing director at Discern Analytics and associate professor at Stanford University.
Christopher Wilkinson, a retired Union official, a board member of the EURid.eu and an Internet Society leader foresees "surveillance ... at the minimum chills communications and at the maximum facilitates industrial espionage, it does not have very much to do with security."
It is also said that the monetization process of Internet Service Providers threatens the users' free access to information.
"The extension of copyright terms back into the near-infinite past will reduce what can be shared," said Jeremy Epstein, a senior computer scientist at SRI International.
However, other experts still believe that the "economic benefits of an open Internet will win out" and the national laws about information access will be more flexible in the future.
Ericsson's Engineer Joel Halpern said that, "the trend towards making information more widely and easily reached, consumed, modified, and redistributed is likely to continue in 2025."
| }
|