Topic: Censorship of the Internet
Country: Afghanistan
Delegate Name: Georgia Bayerl
School: Williamston High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Afghanistan position papers GLIMUN 2010 committees
The internet has become a tool in this world that people are able to use for both good and evil. While the internet provides many sources of information it also provides access to sites that can have a negative affect morally on the people who view them. There are sites that will allow people to plan anti-government protests, that give false, misleading information, or that promote alcohol consumption and gambling. It is the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan’s decision as to whether or not our people can have access to these distasteful, dangerous sites. Afghanistan is against any effort by the committee to restrict its ability to have control over our internet.
In June of 2010 Afghanistan began censoring some sites that were against the government and Afghani morals. These sites have a negative affect on civilians and promote immoral, dangerous behavior that will not be tolerated in Afghanistan. Certain sites that include false news, gambling, promote alcohol or contain pornography in them can not and will not be allowed to have continued access within our country. It is a necessary option for governments to able to block certain sites from poisoning their societies.
Afghanistan as a whole does not have wide spread internet use. Internet has not been around for very long and still only one million of our twenty-nine million civilians have frequent access to it. However, the number of internet users is growing rapidly and Afghanistan reserves the right to control what our civilians that are on the internet have access to, and to prevent the spread and promotion of immoral or antigovernment behavior within our borders.
Afghanistan will not put support behind the “Geneva Declaration in Internet Freedom.” This document fails to address or understand the complicated affects that the internet can impose upon people. Censorship of the internet is a needed tool in keeping nations safe and secure, to take that option and ability away from nations is a disgrace. The United Nations can not continue to decide what a nation may or may not do to protect its people in ways that undermine a local government’s sovereignty over its people. Censorship of the internet is one issue that needs to be left for individual countries to decide and should remain an option for all governments.
