Censorship's Grave: Observations, Tools, and Tips for Taking the Internet Back from Autocracies (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798392422364)

Censorship is DeadFreedom of expression is a cherished right in free societies. It has not been recognized and protected by governments until fairly recently in history. Almost three quarters of all people live in countries with autocratic leanings, where media, internet, and free speech are restricted. Primarily, censorship is a political tool used to assert narratives and control what a society considers to be true. However, censorship barriers have been found to be imperfect and porous. This book is about how weaknesses in censorship are exploited, so strongly that censorship may be considered a failed policy.
Information Wants to Be FreeSince creation of the internet, autocracies have been gradually losing the ability to censor speech, and have resorted to using disinformation and propaganda in acts of information warfare. Even though censorship was never completely effective, every advance in communication technology has burdened monarchs and dictators, while it enabled opponents of censorship. The inventions of radio and digital communication blew up these trends. Recent versions of anti-censorship tools are so effective as to make internet censorship trivially easy to evade.
The Rise of Information WarfareBreaking free of a national censorship bubble with tools like Tor or VPNs does not mean a person can easily find the truth. A more recent development is that countries with broad freedoms of expression, who's media is sought by people escaping censorship, are being flooded with disinformation. Autocracies are attacking democracies with disinformation of many kinds. The new challenge is to find and consume truthful media without falling prey to conspiracies and propaganda traps. A great many people are losing interest in what is true.

Censorship's Grave looks at modern methods of circumventing censorship and counteracting effects of information warfare. It argues that autocrats are losing the battle of censorship in an information age they no longer control. Unfortunately, the new information age contains a spectrum of arguments - from truth to blatant lies. The book was written by an author who has traveled extensively in countries with restricted media and used circumvention tools in all of them.

Author: Philip G. Collier
ISBN-13: 9798392422364
Publisher: Independently Published
Language: English
Published: 04/25/2023
Pages: 138
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.43lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.30d