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Filtering Aids Repressive Governments

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Differences should be noted
7/20/2002 5:21:54 AM
Posted By: Rick Brown


I believe there needs to be a distinction made between filtering by governments and filtering by
private companies and individuals. The posted item seemed to mention all in one breath, even
though the study dealt only with government censorship. ISPs are motivated to filter out mass
e-mail in order to conserve bandwidth costs and as a convenience (albeit imperfect in its execution)
for customers. Individuals are motivated to filter by a desire to stop unsolicited and unwanted material.

Thus, individual filtering is an exercise of personal choice, company filtering decisions are driven by
economics, and government filtering limits personal and economic choices by taking control away from
individuals and companies. Each of these filtering scenarios should not be lumped together to be
praised or criticized to the same degree.



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