37,000 persons in 26 nations were asked whether access to the internet should be a fundamental right of all people. 50% said they strongly agree and 29% said they agree somewhat. This 79% agreement in the world is slighter higher than in the U.S. which is only 76% positive. 9% disagree somewhat and 6% strongly disagree. The remainder don’t have opinions. South Koreans are the most ardent supporters of the internet – 96% believing access to it is a basic human right.
Americans are more likely to search the Internet for a girlfriend or boyfriend, according to the recent BBC poll of 27,000. That is also the main use of internet in Pakistan. Other nationals are looking for news.
Google often honors the requests of oppressive nations to censor or remove content from its postings. It complies with 80% of government requests. The two nations most busy spying on its citizens are Brazil and the U.S.A. For Brazil, there have been 291 removals and 3,663 government requests. For the U.S.A., 123 and 3580 respectively. All other countries trail far behind. U.K. 59/1166; India 142/1061; France 10/846; Germany 188/458; Spain 32/324; Australia 17/155; Argentina 42/98. These are the top ten abusers of the fundamental rights of internet users. Information on China is not available for information on censorship is a state secret. Clearly, there is not room for it to be much worse than in the United States.
In Brazil, the chief worry of Big Brother is over pedophilia, hate speech, and racist, homophobic, or defamatory material. When the Big Guy suspects something serious, he monitors phone calls. 409,000 phone calls were taped into without judicial orders. Probably, this is higher than in the U.S. For details on Brazil, CLICK HERE. As of May 27, 2009, Freedom House had not issued a report on the USA.
