Blog censorship wins support

[salvorhardin]

Most Americans believe bloggers should not be allowed to publish sensitive personal information about individuals, according to a new survey.

Web hosting company Hostway this week released the results of its poll of 2,500 respondents on blogging. Eighty percent of respondents did not believe that bloggers should be allowed to publish home addresses and other personal information about private citizens.

A further 72 percent favoured censorship of personal information about celebrities, and 68 percent information about elected or appointed government officials such as judges or mayors.

However, more than one-third of respondents had never heard of blogs before participating in the survey, and only around 30 percent of participants had actually visited a blog themselves.

More...
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/0,2000061791,39187965,00.htm

Over a third of the respondents had never heard of blogs before the survey, yet 68% favored censoring blogs reporting on information about government officials. Not coincidentally perhaps, the First Amendment Center's 2004 State of the First Amendment survey found that about 30% of Americans believe that "the first amendment goes too far" although that is down from 49% in 2002.
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org//sofa_reports/index.aspx?SearchString=first_amendment_goes_too_far

[Massacure]

1. The internet is a pain in the ass to regulate.

[salvorhardin]

3. It's not the distant possibility of regulation

that worries me so much as the fact that so many feel censorship is preferable when it comes to information and reporting on government officials.

[MrSandman]

2. Another civil liberty in peril...nt

[Mr. Flibble]

4. A reminder regarding the First Amendment(tm):

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

Boldface added, but the point is simple, concise, and bloody obvious - the people are unconstitutional.

[mrdmk]

5. Computer (Hacker) Blogs (Hacker) Internet (Hacker)

This is not real news, this is not a real survey, this is bullshit. Why not ask people and get an opinion about the new discovery on the dark side of the moon without seeing it?

70 percent of the people asked about the contents of a blog had never visited a site is just dumb! Period!

[LdyGuique]

7. Normally, a survey prequalifies those who will answer

Prequalification should have eliminated all of those who have never heard of blogs and/or have never even visited one.

Heck -- I've seen some of the most banal and insipid blogs. At least one of these people would have some concept of the internet and a blog.

[Iterate]

6. Interesting, but not what it seems

Here's a short self-descriptive bio of the reporter, from several sites:

"Renai LeMay is an Australian journalist who focuses on the information technology industry. He spends his time investigating stories, writing articles and attempting to find a word processor that knows what he's trying to say when he doesn't. Occasionally he moonlights as a Linux/FreeBSD sysadmin and bartender."

It other words, this is a techie who put together a political report without having much background. That's probably the reason for the alarming headline.

As far as the source, the Hostaway survey, no way to tell without the original. They seem to be better known for as boosters of e-commerce.

There are other related issues to be truly alarmed over and take action against, such as surveillance, Chinese control of their network, American ignorance of their own First Amendment, harassment of individual bloggers, etc.

The right certainly wants to discredit political blogging at this point and is making every attempt. They have little to gain and much to lose as long as they are in power. Plus, they're not about to give up the cash cow.

This also seems to be a way of misdirecting privacy concerns. If you're afraid those unknown, unseen "evil-doers" out there posting your home phone number, you might not notice that NSA/Equifax knows which side of the bed you sleep on.

[displacedtexan]

8. Bloggers don't post info that can't be found easily, anyway.

Phone books, websites, etc.

This whole deal stinks to high heaven.