They can not censor the internet, it is currently impossible with today's technology

[deprave]

I just want to make this clear to everyone. They can not and will not successfully censor the Internet any time soon. It is impossible with todays technology.

I work as a system administrator for thousands of web servers. I have control of around 5% of the Internet at my job. I will try to explain it without getting too technical but I will answer any questions you have. SOPA and all of these schemes are authoritarian dictators, bureaucrats, and money changers wet dream but too fucking bad for them as it is currently impossible to implement.


To put it simply in laymens terms:

1. All methods of doing this are easy to bypass and can be explained to anyone in 3 short steps or less.
2. Doing so would literally break the Internet and cause tons of lag and connection problems.
3. Because we have freedom of speech and don't answer to some sort of Information ministry we can freely tell people how to get around and even do so publicly, when people call their ISP to complain the technical support will simply tell them how to get around it.
4. It will destroy business and many corporations oppose it.
5. In the long term even it would be simply impossible to implement and require many hours of labor that must be paid for. Hosting companies will simply refuse to do it because it will destroy their company, not just because of this but because of the most critical component of hosting..Uptime.

SOPA and all of these pieces legislation are an absolute joke. My fellow sys admins and Internet engineers laugh about it on a daily basis.

If you are saying to yourself...but but...China, they filter their Internet and it works out good for them...No...all Chinaman get around it..they know how..If they don't then they call technical support and they tell them. Maybe one day in the future the dictators will get their wet dream..but it just isn't possible right now.Computer networking would have to be entirely redesigned. That would be a move in a different direction however, as technology has developed further the Internet has become even more free. I know I have discussed it here before but it just keeps coming up so I thought it deserves its own thread.

 

[The Cryptkeeper]

You have control of around 20,000,000 websites. I apologize, I find that declaration to be a bit dubious. Please, tell me, how that is possible?

 

[unohu69]

I still have your instruction in a txt file, just in case.....

 

[beardo]

Thay can do what they want
They can shut the whole thing down
Or fill it with propaganda
or edit out or block sites they don't want

 

[deprave]

20 million, okay maybe 5 percent is a stretch, but I do work on thousands of web servers on the back end and many have thousands of domains. Its a lot but its not anywhere near 20 million, where do you get this 20 million figure? Id say its easily at least 5 million..

 

[deprave]

Thay can do what they want
They can shut the whole thing down
Or fill it with propaganda
or edit out or block sites they don't want

No they can't, How? Maybe with Military force they can take down a lot of data centers and declare emergency and raid ISP's also..but there will still be a whole lot of internet and more internet can be created on the fly lol. They would have to just cut off all power and gasoline to everyone everywhere. Then wait for all the batteries and generators to run out.

Nothing short of a worldwide nuclear holocaust combined with a governement shut down of everything around the world can take down the Internet. It would take Armageddon.

 

[beardo]

No they can't, How? Maybe with Military force they can take down a lot of data centers and declare emergency and raid ISP's also..but there will still be a whole lot of internet and more internet can be created on the fly lol. They would have to just cut off all power and gasoline to everyone everywhere. Then wait for all the batteries and generators to run out.

Nothing short of a worldwide nuclear holocaust combined with a governement shut down of everything around the world can take down the Internet. It would take Armageddon.

Or a power failure?
they shut it down pretty efectively in Egypt when they wanted to, and China cencors theirs, i'm not an expert but they can sut down the internet for the most part pretty easily, maybe some people could still access but they can shut it down and control it much easier than you seem to think

 

[deprave]

Or a power failure?

Data centers are equipped with massive generators and some with alternative energy and they are spread all around the world. Anyway this is not about them shutting it down, but censorship.

 

[massah]

he got that 20million figure from there being about 400million websites worldwide

let me know when the data center you work in is looking for another sysadmin...I need a new job that pays me according to industry standards and not irrelevant job descriptions that haven't been updated in a decade

Now the censorship of the internet CAN be done at an ISP level...if there is a government mandate that all ISP's must install specific border firewall systems that are ran by the government, they can lock down the shit out of us using packet shaping technologies

 

[deprave]

Not if you just proxy/squid, and the main thing they are talking about is using filtered dns, you simply don't use your ISP's name servers and you've worked your way around it. My clients travel to china and they call me "I am getting this message to contact the information minister of china when I try to go to XXX site" I set them up a proxy and its the end of their problems. The message is funny it says to visit his majesty at such and such address Information Ministry of China lol

 

[NLXSK1]

First they need to be able to do what they want as it is currently not within their control.

Once they get the power to filter the internet they will start requiring hosting companies to alter protocols to allow them to do it.

 

[massah]

Not if you just proxy/squid, and the main thing they are talking about is using filtered dns, you simply don't use your ISP's name servers and you've worked your way around it. My clients travel to china and they call me "I am getting this message to contact the information minister of china when I try to go to XXX site" I set them up a proxy and its the end of their problems. The message is funny it says to visit his majesty at such and such address Information Ministry of China lol

yes if you just use a proxy...even encrypted...there are ways to detect proxy usage my friend...you just haven't been privy to that information yet

 

[deprave]

First they need to be able to do what they want as it is currently not within their control.

Once they get the power to filter the internet they will start requiring hosting companies to alter protocols to allow them to do it.

which is impossible currently, servers are not powerful enough to do such a thing its not practical and the software is not sophisticated enough. Everything would have to be completely redesigned from the ground up. I don't see that happening, much of the Internet is run on Open Source software, A government can't compete with the whole world. This would all need to be done worldwide also.

 

[NLXSK1]

which is impossible currently, servers are not powerful enough to do such a thing its not practical and the software is not sophisticated enough. Everything would have to be completely redesigned from the ground up. I don't see that happening, much of the Internet is run on Open Source software, A government can't compete with the whole world. This would all need to be done worldwide also.

The model T didnt have GPS installed but most cars are having it installed automatically now.

The government operates on a different time scale than you or I.

However, the danger here is we are giving the government the power to filter the internet. We are going to take tax money and develop a buracracy to do that. If they cant do it effectively they will pass legislation to force it. This will add costs and overhead to the internet reducing service and raising prices. You dont think so? Look at your cell phone bill sometime.

But yeah, nothing to see here folks... Government just passing another do nothing piece of legislation to slice off a tiny part of our liberties. The massive infrastructure will come later.

 

[deprave]

yes if you just use a proxy...even encrypted...there are ways to detect proxy usage my friend...you just haven't been privy to that information yet

Yes google has that technology actually but allegedly they can't detect proxy though a proxy...maybe if they really wanted to..but I'm still not seeing wikileaks and anonymous people get busted just as an example. I am still seing chinaman watching porn without getting beheaded and other political dissidents.

 

[deprave]

The model T didnt have GPS installed but most cars are having it installed automatically now.

The government operates on a different time scale than you or I.

However, the danger here is we are giving the government the power to filter the internet. We are going to take tax money and develop a buracracy to do that. If they cant do it effectively they will pass legislation to force it. This will add costs and overhead to the internet reducing service and raising prices. You dont think so? Look at your cell phone bill sometime.

But yeah, nothing to see here folks... Government just passing another do nothing piece of legislation to slice off a tiny part of our liberties. The massive infrastructure will come later.

You make some great points, I am not saying I am for their shitty legislation...I am just saying they couldn't make it work with current technology no matter how many green backs or legislation is thrown at it..They better start hiring a bunch of programmers they are like 30 years behind, I am not confident that they could catch up in 60 years..We should fear for our great grand children sure...but not in our lifetime.

 

[billy2011]

what about the hidden wiki??

 

[NLXSK1]

You make some great points, I am not saying I am for their shitty legislation...I am just saying they couldn't make it work with current technology no matter how many green backs or legislation is thrown at it..They better start hiring a bunch of programmers they are like 30 years behind, I am not confident that they could catch up in 60 years..We should fear for our great grand children sure...but not in our lifetime.

They were just taking about this on Fox news with Senator Lieberman. He was mentioning how much of the internet was private.

I view this like the government TSA with the airlines. Sure you can use the internet but first you have to show ID, take your shoes and all metal items off and agree to a rectal scan.

 

[deprave]

Yes I understand where you are coming from but its not possible, the Internet runs of very simple and open software. It must be like this or it wouldn't even be possible with todays technology. To put it simply: Its not possible to do these complicated things without breaking the Internet completely all while costing trillions of dollars and destroying the IT industry and wrecking havoc on the economy.

It is like they are trying to break the sound barrier before the steam engine is even invented.


At this time, Nothing short of Armageddon or World Government Takeover will censor the Internet completely.

 

[fenderburn84]

How were they able to shut down the internet in Egypt though I'm no computer buff and I never really understood the how of how they did it. And also how does one protect ones self from the aforementioned how?