Questions raised - pornography & censorship

While it is generally agreed that most of the pornography available
are catered for the heterosexual male audience, and are denigrating and
humiliating to women, should we advocate for censorship of the Internet
as a solution? Some problems with this are:

• Internet provides a form of ‘safe’ space for expressions of
  diverse sexualities. This is particularly important for
  marginalised sections of society that can face great danger to
  personal safety should they articulate or express this in physical
  spaces. Also, the Internet because of its relative cheapness and
  ease of use for self-publication, has become an important space
  for women to produce erotica for women by women that enables a
  discourse of active female sexual agency. If censorship is
  advocated, would this not also affect the capacity for this?


• Sometimes, governments appropriate the language of VAW and women’s
  rights to narrow down spaces for freedom of expression. For
  example, recently in Malaysia, the government has announced that
  it will propose software that blocks pornographic sites despite
  the fact there is protective legislation against censorship of the
  Internet. This is also in response to the fact that many
  alternative forms of media have sprung up through the Internet to
  circumvent very restrictive laws on publishing, especially of
  newspaper and magazines. How do we as women’s rights advocates
  respond to this? What are the possible consequences of supporting
  censorship in this matter in the long run towards our own
  struggles for transformation?
  
  


• Although several research has been conducted, a direct and
  conclusive causal link between sexual violence and pornography is
  still to be made. In most studies, it is found that the impact of
  denigrating images of women towards sexual violence is greater
  than sexual explicitness in itself. So is it a case of controlling
  the content of pornography produced, rather than an outright
  censorship? What are the costs?
  
  


• Filtering softwares that have been used to block pornography sites
  have actually blocked out feminists sites and sites that talks
  about sexuality, sexual health and diverse sexualities. How can we
  as women’s rights activists respond to this as a mechanism for
  control? Who produces these software? In other words, whose
  perspectives and values are being promoted through their use? Who
  is benefitting from it?
  
  


• If not censorship, how can we deal with the very real and harmful
  messages of gendered sexuality that is being disseminated and
  expounded greatly by the Internet? Who are the producers of these
  pornographic services? Oftentimes, they are ‘legitimate’
  multi-national companies that also engages in other types of
  businesses like media institution, telecommuncations or maybe even
  car productions. How can we find out who they are, and hold them
  accountable? How do we make it an unacceptable practice to produce
  pornography that is humiliating, denigrating and violent towards
  women?