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A war is mounting between censorship and 
the free internet.
So, what’s the common ground shared by 
resistance to copyright laws, digital locks and 
censorship? They all point to one simple truth: 
people want to be free and want the internet to 
be as free as they are. But naturally, that won’t 
happen without a fight.
In fact, over the last few years, the battle 
between censorship and the free internet has 
intensified. For instance, digital locks have been 
broken by internet “pirates,” censorship is being 
protested across the globe, hackers are waging 
escalating cyber wars against governments and 
state secrets are being exposed on pages like 
WikiLeaks. No matter which side you’re on, the 
free internet is a controversial topic.
So, while multilateral contracts like SOPA and 
PIPA were designed to reduce internet piracy 
and protect copyright laws, these contracts have 
only produced outrage online. Millions of angry 
citizens called the US senate, and the legislation 
was repealed.
In fact, more restrictive copyright laws will only 
make this “copyfight” worse. If customers feel 
that copyright restrictions are impinging on their 
freedom – if, say, videos critical of the 
government are banned or corporations attempt 
to control internet content by demanding the 
removal of copyrighted material – these 
consumers will join forces and more people will 
turn to the illegal corners of the internet, like the 
deep web.
But censorship happens in other ways, too. For 
instance, tech companies like Facebook, 
YouTube and Google are becoming more 
powerful by the day, increasing the risk for 
greater censorship in the process.
How exactly?
Well, most people rely heavily on sites like 
Facebook, YouTube and Google, which puts 
tremendous power in the hands of these 
companies. They literally determine what 
content you’re most likely to see. If you doubt 
this, ask yourself how often you look past the 
first ten search results on Google? By controlling 
the content of the top search results, Google is 
essentially deciding which content makes it 
through to you, and, by extension, which 
companies go broke and which ones succeed.