Bloggers must fight for online freedom

Bloggers must fight for their freedom to publish in the face of increasingly draconian attempts by governments to take control of the online world, an industry expert warned today.

Speaking at Les Blogs, Blogs and Social Software Conference at the Senat in Paris, Joi Ito, vice president of international and mobility at Technorati, and chairman of Six Apart Japan, stressed that today's online freedom should not be taken for granted.

"In the US they are trying to [criminalise] peer-to-peer networks that are vital to this sharing of information," he told delegates. "There are a lot of things that are happening that could stifle our freedom of speech."

Ito believes that attempts to muzzle bloggers are not just limited to national governments.

"I am being sued for defamation right now, and Apple is suing a blogger," he said. "There is a lot of work that needs to be done in terms of protecting bloggers."

However, Barak Berkowitz, of Six Apart, said that he does not consider the threat to online freedom to be extreme.

"There are threats around DRM and other issues," he said. "As much as [the Bush administration in the US] is trampling on some areas of the constitution, I think that the one area they will have trouble trampling on is freedom of speech."