Internet Censorship heating up from Planck's Constant

Here's a roundup of censorship and the Internet:

Back in January of this year:

Australia's TheAge, Vietnam knocks back grapefruit 'sex' site
Vietnam's internet authorities rejected a website for a grapefruit wholesaler this week over fears web surfers might think it was a sex site, an official said. The attempt to register www.buoi.com.vn was turned down because without proper Vietnamese tone and vowel markings the word 'buoi' (grapefruit) might be confused with 'buoi' (penis), said Minh Ngoc, an officer at the Vietnam Internet Network Information Centre.

The man who tried to register the apparently legitimate site, advertising a grapefruit wholesaler in central Ha Tinh province, was advised to look for a new name, she said.

Good to know. Imagine how embarrassing it would be to meet a pretty young thing in VietNam and compliment her with "nice grapefruits, babe!"

I wonder if that whole VietNam imbroglio was only a misunderstanding when John F. Kennedy at a White House luncheon said to the Vietnamese Minister, "Hey, you gotta taste the grapefruit!"

I know it sounds outrageous but you'd be suprised what a few million people get upset about these days.

American Daily, Congress Threatens Internet Censorship
Thanks in part to sensational media reports, websites such as MySpace.com have gotten a reputation for attracting various kooks such as pedophiles and other nefarious miscreants.

Now to make them look like they are doing something, the House of Representatives is considering a bill that would make it illegal to access networking sites such as MySpace.com from a school or library.

While it can be hard to counter the Mrs. Lovejoy from The Simpsons screech of, "But think of the children!", why is this any of Congress’ business?

Individual schools and library boards should be free to adopt policies as they see fit regarding these technologies; that is after all, one of the beauties of a little thing called federalism.

However, one cannot really get around that little clause in the First Amendment declaring, "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech”. Should be rather self-explanatory.

American Thinker: Is Left-Leaning Google Censoring Right-Leaning Websites? Excerpt:

May 22nd, 2006

Something frighteningly ominous has been happening on the Internet lately: Google, without any prior explanation or notice, has been terminating its News relationship with conservative e-zines and web journals.

Right Voices: Google Censorship and Ties to Gore: Excerpt:

This is taken directly from Newsbusters, and is a collaboration with writer and software developer Marc Sheppard that first appeared at The American Thinker! Please take the time to read it! Let me know some of the things you have noticed as of late when looking things up!

From Alter-slash: MSTCrow5429 writes to mention an article published by WorldNetDaily attacking the policies and actions of Google News. The author takes issue with the practice of removing sites that offer very frank discussions about radical Islam and terrorism as "hate speech.” Several sites have complained about removal including The Jawa Report, MichNews, and most recently The New Media Journal. In the termination email to The New Media Journal Google cited several stories as objectionable in order to further explain the action.

Wonder what banana means in Vietnamese?