Berlin, where ever: The freeware „skype“ is used by many in the world. But there´s a problem: if you want to start a public discussion, a so-called „skype-cast“, you should name it „ob-la-di“ or „ob-la-da“ or something. Otherwise you simply might not get connected.
Just read what happened today about a planned skype-cast (I was there, too..)http://www.nowpublic.com/skype_and_the_freedom_of_speech
Skype and the Freedom of Speech
Let me tell you an innocent story of three friends who wanted to hold a Skypecast. Skypecasts are Skype‘s version of telefonferencing. A theoretically unlimited number of people should be able to audio-conference on any topic.
Two friends and I thought that the Iran-Situation was getting somewhat imminent, so we felt the urge to invite guests to a conference through our web pages. About a week before March 25, 2007 we registered a Skypecast titled: „Die Iran-Situation“ (the Iran Situation).
When we tried to enter the audio chatroom, none of us was admitted.
Well, OK, I thought, it is Sunday evening, and so Skype‘s servers may be at their bandwidth limit. So we held a private conference, and were not too worried.
For today, about an hour and a half ago, we had registered another chatroom under the same topic. We did not get access.
So I registered a chat under the title
„Hully Gully Tralala“
at Skypecasts. It took us not three minutes to get access to this chatroom, plus around 20 other participants.
Next, I tried to register a Chatroom called
„Politics and News“
yet again, we were all refused access.
Of course, all of this could be just a regrettable coincidence. From my viewpoint it apparently begs some other questions which I do not address to Skype directly, since I think they are unprepared to handle them.
Instead, allow me to ask here:
* does Skype employ content filtering mechanisms by keyword?
* is there any restriction to the lawful freedom of speech in Skypecasts?
* if, so, what is Skype planning to guarantee a minimum level of freedom of speech?