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How do you get around the government potentially censoring the Internet?
Launch a bunch of satellites and start your own Internet.
Yes, seriously. That’s what a bunch of hackers are planning on doing, the BBC reports. They outlined their schemes at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin.
The project’s organizers, who intend to build a “Hackerspace Global Grid,” also plan on building ground stations to track and communicate with those satellites, according to the report. Here are the highlights:
Hobbyists have already put a few small satellites into orbit – usually only for brief periods of time – but tracking the devices has proved difficult for low-budget projects.
The hacker activist Nick Farr first put out calls for people to contribute to the project in August. He said that the increasing threat of internet censorship had motivated the project.
“The first goal is an uncensorable internet in space. Let’s take the internet out of the control of terrestrial entities,” Mr Farr said.
He cited the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the United States as an example of the kind of threat facing online freedom. If passed, the act would allow for some sites to be blocked on copyright grounds.