South Korean government still thinks that the benefits of censorship are worth the opprobrium. They block dusscusion sites, arrest bloggers for rediculous reasons; for instance, they publish controversial opinions or propagating falsehood online. Since many popular foreign websites such as Google and Youtube decided to require its users to undergo identity verification, Korean internet users have nowhere to have the freedom of speech on the web planet.

It does not talk about email spam, but SMS spam. It is interesting that email spam is a 5,000,000% bigger problem than SMS spam, and it seems not as big problem as I am annoyed every time when I receive text spam on my mobile. SMS spam is not as big as email spam, but it is getting bigger and actually some companies have been hit with penalties for contravening the Spam Act in Brisbane. I attach the URL for more information on $16m SMS spam fine. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/technology/16m-sms-spam-fine-20091023-hd7t.html

Governments say they need Internet censorship, surveillance of the Internet, internet filtering system and so on to protect their citizens. But they should know that they are taking the freedom of choice away from the individual and also taking the responsibility away from the individual.

It seems like Internet censorship is compatible with democracy. It is shame that South Korea is with the countries of the Islamic theocracies of Saudi Arabia and some of less than democratic countries in the Middle East. South korea seems fond to mimic the US and Japan, but is the freedom of speech on the Net a thing they particularly want to stand up for themselves?

Internet censorhip and interenet surveilance in South Korea have been very harsh in recent years; therefore, the freedom of speech and the public's right to know has been restricted. Internet surveilance has been less tolerant on not only violent and explicit content but also on the political issue-related online discussion. After the South Korean government has arrested the netizens for posting personal and critical views on the goverment, internet users in South korea are now silenced. South Korea is allegedly a "democratic country."

The Internet is changing every seconds and obviously getting to be worriyng in some aspects. However, free access to information, free expression and participation, and thus free access to the world is now becoming narrowed due to govermental regulations and censorship. And who is going to decide which websites should be banned or not? It seems to be worried that increasingly soficiticated leak could be created by computer geeks to retrieve the freedom of the internet.