Online freedom has some big backers… can the financial freedom to choose short term installment loans without interference from big banks and big government be far behind?
In what has been shaping up to be a year of bad economic news for Americans, here’s something we should all sit up and take notice of. I’m talking about the protection of online speech. If juggernauts the size of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo can get behind a global code of conduct that protects our online freedoms, it seems to me that legislation protecting an individual’s financial freedom to select payday installment loans when they need them.
It’s the Global Network Initiative
Clearly, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo had something to learn about freedom of speech, so they’re looking to mend the error of their ways. Specifically, they’re looking to turn a new leaf after cooperating with Chinese government censorship and demanding information from the companies regarding political dissidents.
But it appears they have the right idea now. According to a draft of the Global Network Initiative, the “Big Three” are committed to “avoiding or minimizing the impact of government restrictions on freedom of expression.”
Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are poised to avoid the kind of mistakes AT&T, Verizon Communications and Sprint Nextel made in 2005 when they cooperated with the National Security Agency in episodes of warrantless surveillance that President Bush signed off on.
Oddly enough, the three offending telcos haven’t signed on with the Global Network Initiative. Installment loans are supported by small-business legislation, however.
Who’s supporting the Big Three’s efforts?
As if they needed help…
The Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights in China, Business for Social Responsibility, the Center for Democracy and Technology, Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society and the Calvert Group are all behind this global stand for freedom of speech online.
Yet there are detractors. Morton Sklar of the World Organization for Human Rights USA sees the Global Network Initiative as a very broad list of guidelines. Sklar has some experience with matters of human rights in China. That does pertain to the online censorship in China, so his opinion has weight.
I’m entirely more hopeful, however.
I see the Global Network Initiative as a very positive step in the direction of a global market that permits the free exchange of ideas. This is a human rights issue, much as individual financial freedom is a human rights issue. Short term installment loans are the right on any consumer who needs monetary assistance in an emergency. Exercise you freedom of speech online and your economic freedom with a loan if you need one.
Discussion of The Global Network Initiative and Short Term Installment Loans