There is a disturbing tendency on the part of the US Congress to legislate the Internet. A case in point is HR 2271 backed by eleven US Representatives and submitted to review by the House Energy and Commerce and Foreign Affairs Committees last May(2009). Thankfully, there has been no serious deliberation on this proposed measure which intends to somehow regulate the Internet to promote, ironically, freedom of speech. In its preamble the intent is well articulated: To prevent United States businesses from cooperating with repressive governments in transforming the Internet into a tool of censorship and surveillance, to fulfill the responsibility of the United States Government to promote freedom of expression on the Internet, to restore public confidence in the integrity of United States businesses, and for other purposes. Reading between the lines you can discern that this bill was proposed in part in a reaction to Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft engaging in less than ethical collusion with the Chinese government; activities that have led to incarceration of bloggers and restrictions on access to information.

While the recent WikiLeaks experience [EN] reveals aspirations to build “information freedom zones” with some help from Iceland [EN], the Italian government seems to be heading in the opposite direction. A Media and Wiretapping Bill [EN] that was under consideration by the Italian parliament for two years (harshly criticized by the United Nations) [all links in Italian from here] would have introduced a “gag rule” by restricting journalists from publishing wiretapping records during investigations, possibly in the public interest. Thanks to sustained protest by citizens and journalists, these restrictions were formally removed from the text of the bill on July 21. Yet somehow the new version still includes a small clause aimed at directly restricting online free speech,the so-called “blog-killing” provision (par. 29 of art. 1).

Google Inc., owner of the world’s most popular Internet search engine, said it’s not hindered in the Middle East by government-backed censorship as it seeks to ride growing opportunities in the region. “We tend to operate in a very, very competitive industry, so users are generally one click away from changing their preferences,” Ari Kesisoglu, manager for Google Middle East, said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Dubai. “We are not censoring our own information, and we’ve never been asked to.” Google, based in Mountain View, California, is seeking to gain ground in the Middle East, where it estimates that less than 15 percent of the residents go online. The company went public with a dispute in China in January, saying it was no longer willing to comply with filtering regulations.

The Media Association has released a report called "Turkey's Internet Censorship Problem," in Turkish and English, demanding freer web access for the country. The report listed significant past events regarding Internet censorship in Turkey, such as the YouTube ban and the tax problem with Google. The Media Association proposed a change in Law No.5651 to make it more liberal and to coincide with the innately free nature of the web.