“Without exception Internet Filters are used to eliminate that which is deemed to be “undesirable” by an individual or group that has power over other individuals or groups”…Bob Turner
I wrote this in 1997 and it was on our website. It is as true now as it ever was.
Without exceptions Internet filters are an application of power of one group over another. Every social group defines itself in terms off what they are for and what they are against….there is always in the” universe” of information a subset of information considered undesirable. They employ filters to screen that which is considered undesirable. The simplest way to see this dynamic in operation is to examine simplest most common social institution, the family.
Example:
Dad decides he doesn’t want his daughter to see hard core pornography….for whatever reason he decides it is undesirable material.
He installs porn filter.
He can because he has power over her.
She can either accept the fact that she cant see hardcore porn and be glad she has Internet access or be pissed and get out of that institution as quickly as possible and get her own computer and download porn to her hearts content. The point is she is on the bottom of a power relationship until she isn’t….real simple.
Further example:
A cult is highly technically evolved. They are being criticized for their activities (undesirable information the universal subset) ….one way or another they get blocking software in their members computers that eliminates the undesirable information (criticism of the cult) …no problem because they have power over their members…the members can leave at any time and not have a filter…but the members believe that the filter is protecting them….standing from the outside of the cult and not believing what the cult believes this might seem ridiculous but from the inside it is the same situation as the family example.