On Feb, 19th, Turkish president Abdullah Gul signed a piece of legislature to filter and block access to parts of the internet that are deemed a threat to the state. As protests have boiled over into violence for days on end, many people in the United States are in ignorant bliss of the human rights violations. The suppression of criticism and ideas by a government, in any part of the world, is a threat to free speech everywhere.

One issue over internet censorship is that the UN, nor did any other organization or country, step in to intervene or enact a sanction against the Turkish government for violating freedom of speech. Many governments in the developing world with a growing level of political participation and a growing economy have done this before, such as Syria ,and recently Venezuela. These protests are organized and executed through Twitter, Twitter clones and other parts of the internet that are not known of by the average person.

During the Arab Spring, Syria had shut off internet access to its people entirely. To protests Assad, the Syrian president, became nearly impossible to do on a large scale as which the world had seen in Egypt and Tunisia. It seems apparent as the internet becomes more and more involved into our lives, it has become part of the struggle to protect democracy across the world. Never before have people had an open and uncensored forum that is the size of the internet, and has become not only the best way to receive unfiltered news, but is likely to be one of humanity’s most precious resources.

Oppressive governments are not open to this massive influx of information, and why should they? With the repression of new ideas in a region stuck in the past threatens peace, but also the government’s power to maintain control. In the beginning years of this decade many of these regimes have been taken down by the people and not military involvement from an outside power acting on their own interests.

As for Turkey, violent protests will not cease until the Turkish people’s freedoms are restored. In the Arab world, they no longer see themselves as subject to military dictators or a president-for-life, but leaders of their own country. The role that the internet has played in this time in history will always be remembered, but its protection in parts of the world will be up in the air.