Censorship Without Borders

Reporters Without Borders, the association devoted to press freedom worldwide, released its annual report this week. The section devoted to the Internet reveals that Net censorship is far more pervasive than you would think.

Twenty five countries are cited specifically, including the United States, which made the list because of American companies operating in China and either censoring Websites (Yahoo and Google) or helping to build China's Net infrastructure and filtering firewalls (Cisco). The report noted that China is now passing on this censoring technology to countries like Cuba, Zimbabwe, and Belarus. So Internet censorship seems to be on the rise.

What can America, and American business, do to ensure the Internet remains free and open?