Asia lags
Of course, these debates in the US are far ahead of the kinds of discussions in Asia.
Too many Asian governments are hostile not just to the web, but to just about any kind of independent exercise of civil or political liberties. The governments of Burma, China, North Korea, Singapore and Vietnam don't believe in subjecting themselves to the oversight of a free press or other elements of civil society.
We don't expect any of those to defend internet freedoms, but the real blows are being administered by those countries that see themselves as champions of civil liberties, such as the US, the UK and Australia.
The reelected Gillard government in Australia is determined to push through with its web filter, based on a secret blacklist of outlawed websites, aimed at, of course, protecting children. Whatever happened to parents and desktop filters?
The burden of carrying this out falls on telcos and ISPs. They may have thought their role was to enable people to communicate, but they are being called on to spy on people and stop them from communicating.
Telcos can play an important role here. They don't have the option, like Google in China, of walking away in protest. But because of their reputation as good citizens and their knowledge of networks they can be powerful advocates for light-touch regulation and surveillance.
Ultimately, censorship is costly and counter-productive and inevitably becomes a pretext for deeper intrusions. The leaders of Asian telecom operators need to convey that message.
MORE ARTICLES ON: Censorship, Regulation, Web freedom