Watchdog group declares United States an ‘enemy of the Internet’

[Origanalist]

BY ZACH EPSTEIN ON MAR 17, 2014

Watchdog group Reporters Without Borders publishes its updated “Enemies of the Internet” list each year. The report looks to shed light on the current state of the Internet, revealing which countries across the globe stand in the way of unfettered access to the wealth of information the Web has to offer. Places like North Korea and China are regulars on the list, as you might have guessed, but the 2014 version of this important report includes a troubling new addition: America.

Reporters Without Borders is clear in stating that the U.S. government as a whole is not the troubling issue here, but rather particular government agencies like the NSA. As you might have guessed, the string of leaked documents unearthed by Edward Snowden and all of the revelations that ensued is the cause of America’s newfound presence on RWB’s Internet enemy list.

“Identifying government units or agencies rather than entire governments as Enemies of the Internet allows us to draw attention to the schizophrenic attitude towards online freedoms that prevails in in [sic] some countries,” Reporters Without Borders wrote in its report. “Three of the government bodies designated by Reporters Without Borders as Enemies of the Internet are located in democracies that have traditionally claimed to respect fundamental freedoms: the Centre for Development of Telematics in India, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in the United Kingdom, and the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States.”

continued....http://bgr.com/2014/03/17/internet-censorship-report-nsa/

[DamianTV]

America in general has become the greatest threat to Freedom in and of itself. Everthing our Govt gets their hands on they seek to replace with less free, more restrictive, and worse functioning versions of it by creating Illusions of what previously existed. Our Govt would not uphold free speech, but ban anything considered to be offensive, from outright Bullying to barely offensive terms like Bossy. Our Cops are not held accountable, the Bankers that wrecked our economy not only get off scott free but receive bonuses while we get cuts in our jobs, pay, and our futures in general. Our representatives represent Mega Corporations, Banksters, Big Pharma, and total monopolies on the businesses we used to be able to provide for ourselves. They threaten land owners for attempts to become self sufficient, raid businesses that used to be perfectly legal for distributing things that used to be perfectly safe, confiscate property without due process of law, suspect us all of being guilty until proven guilty, and twist all things to suit their wants and needs at the expense of the people the repress. They value surveillance over speech, illness over health, and regulation over restoration. They have abused their powers to nearly unlimited ends and only seek to make the future as dystopian as they can possibly make it.

It should come as absolutely no suprise to anyone that a tool used to discuss the problems at hand would end up being sought to impose restrictions all the people of the world, instead of liberating them.