Abstract The internet was founded on the philosophy of openness and its inventors hoped to provide a means through which information could be shared freely among participants. However, it has grown to become a heavily restricted medium with some form of censorship being implemented everywhere and severe censorship in a few places. This paper highlights the reasons why censorship is on the increase. A list of the technologies employed to achieve censorship is given followed by the techniques used. The paper concludes by observing that internet censorship will continue to increase in coming years as governments, organizations, and parents seek more control in the internet. Introduction The Internet has emerged as the most important invention of the 21st century. This creation has acquired the status of “most important technology” due to the positive impact that it has had worldwide. However, the internet also has some negative impacts and this has led many people to regard the technology as a double-edged sword with both negative and positive attributes. On the positive, it has made communication easier and turned the world into a global village through its interconnectivity ability. It has increased the ease with which people all over the world can access valuable news and information. On the negative, the internet has increased the security threats to all people by making it easy for terrorists and anarchists to access dangerous information such as how to make bombs. Objectionable and inciting material is also easily available and this might threaten the stability of the society. Governments and organizations have therefore been forced to take steps to mitigate the potential harmful effects of the internet. The motivation behind these actions has been to enable people to benefit from the wealth of information contained in the internet while at the same time safeguarding the lives of innocent people. Software solutions have been used to prevent access to any material considered dangerous or objectionable. While some people see censoring as a positive act that protects the society, others view it as a violation of the individual’s right to access information freely. Censorship Mechanism Internet filtering or censoring refers to the act of restricting access by internet users to material that is considered dangerous or in some way offensive. Censoring is achieved though filters and firewalls which are configured to prevent access to certain material or prevent the publishing of certain content. Censorship in the internet can also occur in the traditional sense of the word where material is removed from the internet to prevent public access. In addition to universal censorship, material can also be restricted to particular audiences based on attributes such as user age or occupation. Many governments have censorship policies in place to help control access. However, effective censorship is yet to be achieved since the internet is rapidly growing and changing. Different devices and networks are occurring and technologies such as social networking are changing the manner in which people access the internet. Internet filtering is conducted on a number of unique levels. The most pervasive filtering occurs at the Government level. The Information and communications ministry of the respective country does this filtering. The state dictates the kind of websites that its citi