Friday, July 06, 2007

Disturbing Blog Censorship -- in the USA

I have seen a few complaints about this in the last few days. People have been complaining that they cannot access various conservative sites while at work (in their lunchtimes of course!). Far-Left and Jihadi websites are always accessible, needless to say:

"The latest in this series of assaults is the banning of MEMRI, Hot Air, and Jihad Watch websites from the internet systems of the U.S. Government, the City of Chicago, Fidelity Investments, Site Coach, and Bank of America-and surely there are more-over the last few weeks. The reason given: complaints of "hate speech."

Source

The writer attributes these bans to CAIR but I think it is more likely to be the work of much bigger players -- such as some elements in the U.S. government bureaucracy or some of America's Muslim-loving Leftists.

He does however have a point in saying that it is mainly sites that are openly critical of Islam that are blocked. He also points out why it is absurd to equate the criticisms appearing on such sites with "hate speech". And even if it WERE hate speech, it is still protected under the First Amendment as far as U.S. government sites are concerned.