We must not allow Internet Censorship The Internet is the largest and most diverse source of information our planet has ever known. The Internet is integrating the transactions of our daily lives. This is possible because newspapers, television programs, movies, telephone calls, computer data, commercial services such as banking and trading, and a host of other sources of information and communication are all reduced to the same digital format and sent down a fiber optic cable ( Harvard Law Review, 1994). The world's libraries, once online, will come together to form a broader information base than anyone ever imagined. This vast library of information will be accessible instantly, with the click of a mouse, wherever Internet technology is available. We can compare the Internet to another technological advancement, which has changed the world. The knowledge potential created by the diverse information accessible on the web is similar to the energy potential realized when we discovered nuclear energy. Like nuclear energy, knowledge is very powerful and can be used for both good and bad deeds. Knowledge can in fact have the same negative side opposite to that of nuclear energy. Nuclear energy can be used to power entire cities, or it can be used to obliterate them. There is an important distinction to make here. Knowledge is what we use to seek the truth in life, and this fact makes knowledge indispensable. Once we know the truth we can be free from manipulation. Because the Internet is unique in the way it allows access to information, we must protect it as a very valuable resource. Internet censorship, one cause, leads to a chain of related effects. The first of which is the disruption of the natural balance of information on the Internet. This happens when information is removed, thus narrowing the spectrum of available information. From this spectrum of information we derive fragments of knowledge. So the second effect of Internet censorship is the reduction of knowledge. If we allow censorship to weaken the stuff of which our research tool, knowledge, is made, we may even lose the truth. The loss of truth is the third effect of Internet censorship. The net effect of Internet censorship is that manipulation becomes easy. Before following this causal chain through its effects, I think it is important to explain what I mean by truth.