Ai Weiwei, Edward Snowden, And Pussy Riot Join Hands To Fight Against Cyber Censorship
On the eve of World Day against Cyber Censorship, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, Russian feminist punk rock group Pussy Riot, and American whistle-blower Edward Snowden have together launched a campaign to spread online protests against growing government restrictions on citizens’ expression, the Verge reports.
The World Day against Cyber Censorship is celebrated on March 12 each year and brings together internet activists from all over the globe rallying support for a single, unrestricted internet that is accessible to all. Supporters also want to draw attention to the ways that governments around the world are employing to deter and censor free speech online, according to the Atlantic.
Weiwei, Snowden, and Pussy Riot have partnered with Amnesty International and AdBlock to create awareness in a unique campaign, which is set to launch later today and will only be visible to AdBlock users. Instead of where the ads are normally placed on a web page, the campaign will make sure that you see messages from activists urging people not to give up their freedom on the internet.
According to a statement released by Amnesty International, this is one of the best ways of reaching across to people who do not yet know that government agencies around the world are heavily monitoring their online movements.
“Throughout the day, AdBlock’s 50 million users will be shown messages from Amnesty International where ads would usually appear. The messages will click through to content from people who governments have tried to silence.”
Generally, when censorship is talked about in the online space, countries like China and North Korea are touted as prime examples of states curbing online freedom. But during the course of the one-day campaign, activists will seek to inform AdBlock users that even countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as some other European nations, are actively involved in shutting down channels of online dissent.
The campaign by Ai Weiwei, who has been a long-standing critic of China’s repressive policies against freedom of speech, has created a lot of buzz in online circles, but he has also drawn criticism from some quarters, including advertising juggernauts who see the current campaign as being hypocritical since it uses the same methods employed by companies to reach their potential users.
But, for the campaign promoters, it is a tool for subversion.
AdBlock CEO Gabriel Cubbage summed up the need for the campaign perfectly with the following words.
“What if instead of merely blocking ads, you could see content that was relevant and enjoyable to you? What if you could support the content you like to see on the Web without having to give up your privacy? We’d like to move in that direction. Blocking ads is both easy and ethical, and it’s up to you to decide which ones to let through, if any. And it’s up to the advertisers, websites, and yes, maybe even the ad blocking industry itself to earn back your trust with ads and content that you actually might want to see.
“And maybe we’ll pull that off. But regardless of how Web content gets paid for, no one except you has the right to control what shows up on your screen, or who has access to the contents of your hard drive. Not the websites, not the advertisers, not the ad blockers. And not your government, either.”
Although the entirety of the content that will become accessible later today is not yet known, some of the messages that will be seen by internet users are as follows.
One of the messages from Edward Snowden will read, “Even if you’re not doing anything wrong, you’re being watched and recorded.”
While a message from Ai Weiwei will say, “Without freedom of speech there is no modern world, just a barbaric one.”
Pussy Riot’s message will focus on the manipulation of media by governments around the globe, stating, “Authorities don’t just use handcuffs and arrests but also media attacks.”
[Photos by Carl Court, Ian Gavan, Sean Gallup/Getty Images]
