With the European ministry taking action and blocking questionable Internet sites that insight terrorism or hate we see governments taking action. France was recently in the news for blocking five websites which carried questionable content, the crux, there was no court order to block the sites. Internet service providers were given 24 hours to comply and take the sites off the air. With this new action, the rules of the game may end up being changed. In the past a court order was most likely required to block the sites.
The grydscaen series which has its own take on government shows the Elite government blocking sites and taking content down. Groups like the Packrats and the T-Hack go behind the government and bring the sites back online. A recent activity much like the T-Hack was the real world example of taking down the Pirate Bay site which surfaced later at a different address. The Pirate Bay site was notorious for providing copyrighted content like music and other media, a sharing site of sorts.
We see in grydscaen the fight to keep media free and out of the control of the government. The Elite want to control everything including the people’s access to information. They do this by blocking sites and controlling the propaganda people are subject to. In grydscaen we see less freedom of the press and the media in the Echelons where in the City where the citizens live there is greater freedom. The Echelons which is virtually a metropolitan slum are subjected to hardship and the people are starving, addicts or survive with very little in stark contrast to the City.
The Elite use their power and control over the airwaves, the newsfeed and media channels to control what people see trying to engrain upon them the specific messages they want. The news about the five sites being taken down in France was to block content that subjected people to terrorism and violence or indecent images. There is a line drawn, but what we see in grydscaen could have started much in the same way as a means to protect the public.
Grydscaen shows what this could look like in an autocratic government, but in parts of the world that do not have such freedom of the press like in the United States and other parts of Europe you can see the implications. China for example and Russia do not have the same freedom of the press and much news is controlled. Those areas and others show how the government can try to instill certain messages and control the flow of information.
The United States has freedom of the press but not everyone will agree what people put out to the world. The government has the right to protect the people and must look out for the common good. But just like Democrats and Republicans which do not always agree, the line of where liberty stops and starts and it becomes an infringement on people’s rights is a thin blurry line indeed. Some topics cause heated discussion.
Where we see this move by France as one upholding the safety of the people, it does spark a debate about the limitations of free speech and what is within control of the government without diminishing the rights of the people. In grydscaen the Packrats might be freedom fighters. Depending on where you sit they might be called something else. Grydscaen makes a commentary about this line and how it can get blurred relatively easily. The author doesn’t take sides in the debate, just posts multiple positions and allows the reader to side with the Packrats or the Elite government.
What we saw in France with these blocked websites was a means to stopping negative content and the implications of it. What we do with these powers and the freedoms that many enjoy must be for the greater good. The grydscaen series looks at the definition of “the greater good” and the message the government, in this case the Elite government want to send as they try and oppress the people in the Echelons. The internet of everything blurs lines and the laws sometimes fall behind the current occurance. Net neutrality should be a reality but there are always those that will abuse and harm. Grydscaen blurs this line and comments on those implications of a government that is out for control. Blocking the websites was for the greater good. The lines are blurry on the internet, what is censorship and what is freedom, we just have to make sure that we do no harm.