在互联网审查方面，中国也许算头号公敌。但要是问一问硅谷那些知名公司的高管们，还有哪些国家让他们感到不安，许多人嘴里蹦出的第一个名字也许会令人意外：澳大利亚。
澳大利亚总理陆克文(Kevin Rudd)领导的工党政府，以打击儿童色情为由，支持采用成熟民主国家中最严格的互联网过滤器。不少互联网公司担心，这仅仅是一个开端。
澳洲“或许有意对付冒犯基督教的内容”
上周出面与中国审查机构摊牌的谷歌首席法律顾问戴维•德拉蒙德(David Drummond)最近警告称，除了其它在其看来有害的内容，陆克文政府“或许有意对付那些冒犯基督教的内容”。他补充道，在不加严格控制的情况下采用这样的互联网过滤器，这种诱惑“确实像（西方国家出现）危险的滑坡，除非我们能扭转趋势”。
对于澳大利亚正在发生的事情，中国官员也注意到了。中国国务院新闻办公室(SCIO)最近在自己的网站上，以赞许的口吻报道了澳大利亚政府代表本国公民的利益，夺回对网络的控制权。
澳大利亚的现状所突显的事实，与互联网作为自由言论媒介的形象相左。互联网审查范围已远远超出一般的罪犯和可预料的目标，如政治对手。谷歌与中国摊牌，让世人重新关注监控这一在线媒介的最明显企图，但其连锁效应必然会让人注意到，对互联网的管控正在世界范围内悄然增强。
万维网正被割裂成一块块
在公众意识里，互联网仍代表着一个没有国界的世界。网络上信息的自由流动，威胁着民族国家人为设立的边界。但随着各国掌握了互联网监控技术，互联网正迅速被各国法律法规所分割——无论其宗旨是钳制舆论，还是对付色情内容或身份盗窃。正如用户现在看到的那样，万维网如今正被割裂成一块块，根本谈不上是一个世界性的媒介。
哈佛法学院(Harvard law school)的杰克•戈登斯密斯(Jack Goldsmith)表示：“企业必须遵守经营所在国的法律和习俗——这对网络空间和真实空间都是如此。”
德拉蒙德表示，唯一的规避途径就是躲开限制最严的国家。例如，谷歌已避免在越南运行其搜索引擎，以避开像中国一样严格的审查体制。但由于谷歌在土耳其拥有业务，当该国法院命令其封锁YouTube子公司上的某些视频时，谷歌几乎没什么招架之力——法院认为，这些视频冒犯了土耳其国父穆斯塔法•凯末尔•阿塔土尔克(Mustafa Kemal Atatürk)的形象。
谷歌最初决定配合中国的审查机构，现在又在试图避开审查的同时，保留其中国搜索业务，这让人们深刻认识到了这种现实政治。
多伦多大学(University of Toronto)教授、追踪全球审查情况的开放网络促进会(ONI)的创始人罗纳德•德贝特(Ronald Deibert)表示：“人们今后会看到，围绕互联网的未来，全球正发生一场较量。”
ONI的资料显示，目前共有40多个国家在网络上设置了某种壁垒，而不到十年前，这样做的国家寥寥无几。审查最严厉的国家是中国、伊朗、越南、叙利亚、缅甸和突尼斯。即使在那些尚未利用电子手段加以封锁的国家，也开始加大执法力度，要求互联网公司提高自我审查的水平。
谷歌法律顾问在意大利被判缓刑
例如，谷歌的德拉蒙德现在可能要避免去意大利旅行。在2月份一宗里程碑式的案件中，意大利一家法院判处他及另外两名高管6个月缓刑。三人的罪行是未能阻止YouTube传播一段显示一名自闭症儿童受到骚扰的视频。
正如意大利和澳大利亚等例子所显示的，互联网审查并不局限于那些威权政体。“互联网自由有点儿像罗夏测验(Rorschach Test)：各人有各人的理解，”中国审查制度专家、普林斯顿大学(Princeton University)信息技术政策中心的麦康瑞(Rebecca MacKinnon)表示。
在这场辩论中，谷歌停止遵从中国审查机构的决定是一道分水岭。北京方面费力过滤大量涌入中国这个全球最大互联网市场的在线内容的做法，为其它政权树立了一个榜样。对于谷歌将搜索业务搬至香港、跳出中国审查机构管辖范围的策略，如果北京方面做出激烈反应，其影响将是广泛的。“这可能进一步鼓励其它威权政体，增强它们的合法性，”德贝特警告称。
互联网自由的拥趸们警告称，中国已开始向其它国家出口其审查技术，该国一些网络安全公司夸耀自己在海外的扩张，在孟加拉国等市场培训警察。不过，很难获得相关证据。
谷歌在25个国家受到限制
就连那些民选政府、对法治更为注重的国家，也以保护本国公民免受在线侵扰为由，开始发威。谷歌一名高管表示，已至少有25国政府对谷歌采取了这样那样的限制。
如何抵制针对互联网自由的压制及不合理的攻击，同时仍给政府留有余地，使其得以保护本国公民不受在线侵扰，解决这个难题并非易事。谷歌作为全球相当大部分在线信息看门人的角色，让其处在了这场辩论的中心。该公司显然已得出结论，是时候划出一条更清晰的界限了。麦康瑞表示：“随着他们与更多的政府闹翻，他们意识到，自己需要一个一致的立场。这不仅关乎中国，还关乎在全球范围如何监管互联网。”
（待续）
译者/何黎
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001031989
China may be public enemy number one when it comes to internet censorship. But ask executives at Silicon Valley's leading companies about other countries that cause them concern and the first name that springs to many lips may seem surprising: Australia.
In the name of suppressing child pornography, the Labor government of Kevin Rudd, prime minister, has championed the imposition of some of the toughest internet filters proposed by any established democracy. Many internet companies fear that this is just the thin end of the wedge.
David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer who fronted its showdown with the Chinese censors last week, warned recently that Mr Rudd's government has “designs perhaps on things that were offensive to Christianity”, along with other content it deems harmful. The temptation to adopt filters such as this without strict controls “does seem like the slippery slope [in the west] unless we turn things around”, he added.
Nor is the significance of what is happening in Australia lost on Beijing officials. China's State Council Information Office recently reported approvingly on its own website Canberra's efforts to wrest back control of the web on behalf of its citizens.
The situation in Australia highlights a fact that jars with the image of the internet as medium for free expression. Internet censorship has spread well beyond the usual culprits and predictable targets, such as political opponents. Google's showdown with China has drawn fresh attention to the most conspicuous attempt to regulate the online medium but a knock-on effect will be to draw attention to creeping controls worldwide.
In popular consciousness, the internet still promises a borderless world, a place where the free flow of information threatens artificial barriers erected by nation states. But the web is fast being carved up by national laws and regulations, whether aimed at suppressing opinion, tackling pornography or identity theft, as countries around the world learn the techniques of control. Far from being a universal medium, the world wide web is becoming balkanised – as users are now learning.
“It's true of cyberspace as it is of real space – companies have to bow to the laws and customs of the countries they operate in,” says Jack Goldsmith of Harvard law school.
The only way around this is to avoid the most restrictive countries, says Mr Drummond. Google, for example, has avoided operating its search engine in Vietnam to avoid a censorship regime as strict as China's, he says. But having set up shop in Turkey, it could do little to resist when a local court ordered it to block videos on its YouTube subsidiary deemed offensive to the memory of national patriarch Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
This realpolitik has been brought home by Google's decision first to bow to Chinese censors, and then last week to attempt to retain its Chinese search presence while dodging the effects of censorship.
“People will now see that there's a global battle going on over the future of the internet,” says Ron Deibert of the University of Toronto and a founder of the OpenNet Initiative, which tracks global censorship.
More than 40 countries now apply some sort of barrier on the web, compared with a handful less than a decade ago, according to the ONI. The most severe censors are China, Iran, Vietnam, Syria, Burma and Tunisia. Even where electronic blocks have not been imposed, laws requiring higher levels of self-censorship are being enforced more aggressively.
Google's Mr Drummond, for instance, would probably want to avoid travelling to Italy right now. In a landmark case, a court there last month handed him and two other executives six-month suspended prison sentences. Their offence was to have failed to prevent YouTube from carrying a video showing the harassment of an autistic child.
As examples such as Italy and Australia show, internet censorship is not limited to repressive regimes. “Internet freedom is a bit of a Rorschach test: it means different things to different people,” says Rebecca MacKinnon of Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy and an expert on Chinese censorship.
In this debate, Google's decision to end compliance with Chinese censors is a watershed. Beijing's strenuous efforts to filter the tide of online content washing ashore into the world's largest internet market set a standard for other regimes. If it reacts aggressively to Google's gambit of taking its search business offshore to Hong Kong, beyond the reach of mainland censors, the effects could be widely felt. “It could further embolden other authoritarian regimes and add to their legitimacy,” warns Mr Deibert.
Internet freedom advocates warn that China has exported its censorship technologies to other countries, and some of the country's web security companies have boasted of expanding abroad, training police in markets such as Bangladesh. However, proof is hard to come by.
Even countries with elected governments and a stronger claim to following the rule of law have taken to flexing their muscles in the cause of protecting their citizens from online abuses. For Google, that has brought restrictions of one kind or another from no fewer than 25 governments, one company executive says.
Working out how to counter repressive and unwarranted attacks on internet freedom, while still leaving governments room to protect their citizens from online abuse, will not be easy. Google, whose role as gatekeeper for much of the world's online information puts it at the centre of the debate, has apparently decided it is time to stake out a clearer line. “As they butt up against more governments, they are realising they need a consistent position,” Ms MacKinnon says. “This is not just about China – it's about how the internet is going to be regulated globally.”
(to be continued)
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