Tag Archives: censorship

Blocking Woo-Woo Info in the UK

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“Esoteric” Content Censorship…. Coming Soon to a Website Near You!!Censorship (1)2nd October 2013

By Andy Whiteley

Co-Founder of Wake Up World

Graphic and introduction courtesy of reachinglight.com

Introduction:

Can you imagine a world where access to esoteric and spiritual information was blocked by the government? What if you stopped by an internet café only to find that your favourite website was banned by a public web filter? … Or your friend’s natural health website was blocked because it mentioned ‘spiritual healing’ techniques?

A disturbing movement to censor legal spiritual and esoteric information is growing – right now in the UK, and other countries are poised to jump on the bandwagon – and will continue unchecked unless people become aware of the problem and protest it.

Esoteric, anyone?

The word “esoteric” is defined by OxfordDictionaries.com as:

adjective: intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest.

Now carefully consider the implications of this definition, just as the UK government considered them in preparation for their proposal to block UK readers from accessing “esoteric” material online.

This measure would provide the UK government powers to censor information from or about any individual or group it sees as “special interest”… or in other words, “not mainstream”. In essence, the government is seeking the legal right to censor opposing streams of thought… and ancient knowledge… and new innovative ideas… then continue on in its theatre of narrow-minded corporate politicking.

If you have specialized knowledge or a ‘minority’ interest of any kind in the UK, you and the “small number of people” who share your minority standing may lose your legal right to share information online about your experiences, thoughts, learnings and practices.

And remember, by definition, “esoteric” doesn’t limit itself only to religious or “spiritual” knowledge; so consider whether your right to share information relating to your culture, language, nationality, race, sexuality, gender identity, interests, expertise, research, discoveries, history or political opinions might also be at risk.

So then, what is the intention of this legislation?

Knowledge is power

Attempting to restrict access to such information demonstrates the UK government’s intent is not to represent its people and administer services on their behalf. This move is a grasp by government at control.

If successful, this law preserves in time the status quo of majority “mainstream” thinking. It limits the public’s access to new ideas, and will therefore limit public thinking, to the ideas and ideals already embraced or unquestioned by the mainstream… and to those the non-”esoteric” media (regulated by government) will continue to peddle. By effectively outlawing access to philosophies and concepts that question or even extend upon currently “accepted” knowledge, the UK government is deliberately engendering a culture of narrow thinking and throwing fuel on a failing old control paradigm.

Welcome to the new “underground” folks!

If this proposition is successful, content from Wake Up World and hundreds of other “alternative” news and information websites will be censored from UK screens. In fact, our UK readers probably wouldn’t even be able to read this article.

So where does it stop? And does it set a dangerous precedent for other “developed” nations?

At the end of the day, knowledge is power. And call me cynical, but I don’t assume benevolence of a government that attempts to hinder its citizens from freely seeking out knowledge and information. By its definition, much “esoteric” knowledge is in fact ancient knowledge – which should be learned and preserved, not banned and hidden under the guise of protective governance.

By proposing laws that strip its people’s right to access lawful information, the UK government is not only seeking control of what people may know today, but control of what future generations may ever know. This kind of censorship is unacceptable in – and dangerous to – a true democracy.

One can reasonably assume the UK government has something to hide.

You can find out more about the UK filter and how it will affect you below.

I also recommend you visit facebook.com/esotericmaterialcensorship for more information, and to get involved.

Infographic: UK Filter to Block ‘Esoteric Content’ - Worldwide Implications

Original graphic published at www.reachinglight.com

from:    http://wakeup-world.com/2013/10/02/esoteric-content-censorship-coming-to-a-website-near-you/

 

Hidden Knowledge Course

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Here is an interesting set of course materials dealing with some of the hidden and conspiratorial aspects of these times.  As always, you can choose to investigate or not, believe or not.  Use your discretion.  Follow your intuition.

The Hidden Knowledge Course
Shining Light on the Shadow Aspects of Our World

The Hidden Knowledge Course provides an in-depth, comprehensive understanding of powerful forces at work behind the scenes in our world of which few are aware. The vital information presented here is carefully hidden from the public by various factions of the largely invisible global power elite.

The course starts with media censorship, which limits the range of public debate by failing to report some of the biggest stories of our time. The 11 information-packed lessons then go on to expose little-known facts about war agendas, banking corruption, suppressed energy technologies, 9/11 intrigues, the UFO question, and more. To verify the many astounding facts presented, links are always provided to reliable sources. And most important, the course gives hope for our future.

This engaging course connects the dots, allowing you to understand the big picture with its many complexities, while also examining the relatively simple principles upon which the many layers of deception are based. The powerful lessons here contain highly revealing essays, thought-provoking quotes, inspiring photos, powerful online videos, and suggested exercises designed to give you full spectrum understanding of all that is going on in our world.

Much of the revealing material in this eye-opening course was compiled from the respected WantToKnow.info website, which specializes in selecting the most reliable reports from verifiable sources to expose major cover-ups. The deeper purpose of WantToKnow.info and this course is to call readers to join together in stopping disempowering secret agendas which benefit the power elite of our world at the expense of almost everyone else, and to work together for the good of all.

This course will leave you inspired that we can and will make a difference. Yet it is largely focused on the shadowy underbelly of our world. For those who feel this information might be overwhelming, or for those who would like to read the same powerful material interspersed with inspiring lessons to balance the dark cover-ups, we highly encourage you to click here to see if one of the other free online courses designed by PEERS might be a more appropriate choice for you.

Thanks to the amazing power of the Internet, the mind-expanding Hidden Knowledge Course is able to dive right into the deepest, darkest corners of our world to shed light in places which have long been hidden. The course will not only leave you better informed than the vast majority of people in our world, it will also better equip you to deal with these hidden realities and inspire you to make a difference in our world.
Earth Hands

 

For complete course materials, go to:   http://www.hidden-knowledge.net/

Save Internet Freedom

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The Internet on Strike

What happened when major sites went on strike to offer a taste of a censored Internet.
posted Jan 18, 2012

 

Google homepage protests SOPA

Google used its homepage to protest SOPA and PIPA.

Update, Jan. 19: Following the blackout protests, 18 Senators—including 7 former sponsors of the bill—withdrew their support for the Protect IP Act, leaving it without enough votes.

Today, if you tried to find an apartment on Craigslist, Google photos of cute cats, or look up the 14th president on Wikipedia, you surely noticed something strange. These sites, cornerstones of our Internet lives, are blacked out today—and they’re not alone. A massive digital strike is underway, all in protest of what sounds like friendly legislation: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House and its peer, the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate.

So why is the Internet on strike? Because what’s at stake in the bills, opponents say, is a lot bigger than LOLCats. According to the ACLU, the legislation “would not only impact unlawful infringing content, but also a wealth of completely legal content that has nothing to do with online piracy.”

SOPA would allow owners of intellectual property to cripple foreign sites that are using their copyrighted material illegally (for example, by demanding that search engines not index them, or that ad agencies not contract with them). But since this process would be governed by the “good faith belief” that sites are infringing, rather than judicial review, there’s a lot of worry that it would be misused.

Gizmodo explains:

Potential for abuse is rampant. As Public Knowledge points out, Google could easily take it upon itself to delist every viral video site on the internet with a “good faith belief” that they’re hosting copyrighted material. Leaving YouTube as the only major video portal. Comcast (an ISP) owns NBC (a content provider). Think they might have an interest in shuttering some rival domains? Under SOPA, they can do it without even asking for permission. […]

SOPA also includes an “anti-circumvention” clause, which holds that telling people how to work around SOPA is nearly as bad as violating its main provisions. In other words: if your status update links to The Pirate Bay, Facebook would be legally obligated to remove it. Ditto tweets, YouTube videos, Tumblr or WordPress posts, or sites indexed by Google. And if Google, Twitter, WordPress, Facebook, etc. let it stand? They face a government “enjoinment.” They could and would be shut down.

The resources it would take to self-police are monumental for established companies, and unattainable for start-ups. SOPA would censor every online social outlet you have, and prevent new ones from emerging.

In fact, SOPA has been having a rough road of late: the Obama administration came out against it, knocking it off course for the time being, and three co-sponsors of the bills withdrew their support as the Internet blackout (which the L.A. Times estimates to include some 10,000 websites) began. But PIPA is still set for mark-up next week.

And so the protest continues. Google, in a petition it’s circulating, states, “There’s no need to make American social networks, blogs and search engines censor the Internet or undermine the existing laws that have enabled the Web to thrive, creating millions of U.S. jobs.” A group of artists sent an open letter to Congress, explaining that “copyright law exists to promote the arts, but the new penalties in PIPA could be used against the new social media channels we depend on to make a living, and endanger freedom of expression.”

from:    http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/brooke-jarvis/the-internet-on-strike