Can you read this?

Apparently, the internet is being censored like never before. At least, that is the finding of a report into net filtering by the Open Net Initiative.

Worryingly, the found that while only a couple of countries filtered web content five years ago, now there are at least 25 countries doing this (including China, India, Ethiopia Pakistan, Tunisia, Morocco, Thailand and South Korea). Researchers also see evidence of many new techniques being applied to circumvent state sponsorship.

The internet clearly remains a place where traditional battles between state and citizen take place, only in new ways. This, it has to be said, has a positive interpretation to it. Please forgive me while I go off on a tangent, I am sure there is a grain of truth to what I say.

I am thinking of the sci-fi writer Ursula Le Guin. Her Hainish series of novels described a piece of equipment called an 'ansible'. This technology allowed instantaneous communication between any two points in the universe - but not, crucially, the movement of people or objects.

The internet is our ansible. The point is, it is an inherently peaceful means of communicating, and a far more peaceful way to conduct political conflict. In the past, campaigners for any cause might have met in person, and demonstrated on the streets. This would often be met with violent opposition by the authorities.

With the internet, campaigns can be organised without this physical presence. In many respects, campaigning has become about the distribution of ideas rather than the mobilisation of force. And when the authorities want to clamp down they use computers, not guns. So, while humans fight each other like they always have, we can at least hold out that in the future they'll do it in a less destructive way.