ONI Releases 2009 Year in Review: Filtering, Surveillance, Information Warfare

By: Jillian C. York on 3 February 2010
Posted in United States/Canada, Asia, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Europe, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Australia/New Zealand, Legislation, Non-filtering content restrictions, Obscenity, Search result removal, Human rights, Cybercrime and security, Publications, ONI, Political filtering, Social filtering, Conflict and security filtering, Internet tools filtering, Voluntary filtering, Reverse filtering, Overblocking, DNS tampering, IP blocking, Proxy blocking, Filtering tech and software

The OpenNet Initiative is proud to release its 2009 Year in Review, a look into instances of filtering, surveillance, and information warfare around the world in 2009.

The events of 2009 demonstrated a global rise in third-generation Internet controls. Within the first two weeks of January 2009, both Pakistan and Thailand had ordered the filtering of several Web sites, and Germany announced plans to filter certain types of pornography, garnering outrage from free speech activists. By mid-year, the events surrounding the elections in Iran had taken center stage, prompting Iranian authorities to crack down on Internet use and sparking outrage throughout the world, which then rippled through social media.

The OpenNet Initiative estimates that at the end of 2009, 32% of all Internet users were accessing a filtered version of the Internet.