Switzerland: Internet censorship applied

China and conservative Arab countries are not the only ones to practice online censorship. These totalitarian states censor to protect their power and, in doing so, violate human rights. Their practices aim to prevent the spread of information that could threaten their dominance.

Besides those countries that want to prevent freedom of expression, such as Saudi Arabia, Burma, North Korea, Iran (which has been in the news recently) or Egypt, some democratic countries use censorship to protect internet users and to fight cybercrime which very often concerns pedophilia.

Censorship in Switzerland

Only sites related to child pornography are censored; a blacklist of sites to be blocked is regularly (every 3 months) sent by the police to operators Swisscom and Cablecom to prevent access to criminal pages.