Internet censorship and the proxy

Internet has changed a lot since the first (rather primitive) sites appeared decades ago. It has slowly grown and the timid attempts to make purchases, sales transformed into a well-developed industry that generates billions of dollars. Nowadays it has reached its peak and is greatly changing the lives of people.

But as it usually happens with any large system, Internet today faces several problems that occur when you try to trust "the people's voice" decide its’ fate. Network thus is similar to the idealistic marketplace - the «Laissez-faire» principle of government’s non-intervention turned out to be unsustainable in the long-term period. Internet has become abridgehead of illegal activities in various spheres of life, and there is an apparent need for state intervention today. So appeared the notion of "Internet censorship", which refers to the process of control and prohibition of publicating of text, graphics and other content on the web-sites.

But despite the positive effect in one field (copyright protection, prevention of crime etc.), Internet censorship insensibly becomes an instrument of total control and it restricts the users’ rights. For this reason the appearance and wide spread of so-called "Proxy" is logical and natural.

Proxy includes different resources that allow to circumvent access bans to certain websites - proxy servers, web proxies, anonymous networks. Online translators and web cache which provide at least the text content are used less frequently for such purposes.

A proxy server is a server that allows users to perform indirect requests to other network services. The specific proxy-server sends false own requests to the resource, or uses a cached copy (if the proxy has its own cache).

Web Proxy is a special software that is installed on a web server and is used to gain access to the address the user entered through a web interface. The requests thus are send on behalf of software that is installed on the Proxy webserver.

Anonymous networks operate over the Internet, and are used to ensure total anonymity. Such networks are formed virtually with the use of software that is installed on disparate computer and play the role of a "proxy" - web-resources are requested on behalf of different members.

Proxy tools allow users to remain anonymous in the Internet, therefore current attempts to restrict access and conduct an efficient Internet censorship can’t be called entirely successful.