Threats to the Open Net: May 12, 2012

By: Qichen Zhang on 12 May 2012
Posted in China, Germany, Gaza and the West Bank, Netherlands, Asia, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Europe, Legislation, Copyright, Take-down, Circumvention, Threats to the Open Net, IP blocking, Proxy blocking
  • Tor found two blocked sites in Palestine with their latest OONI-Probe tool. The organization's latest available software installed on local computer networks crawls millions of websites using a transparent HTTP proxy.
  • Sina Weibo released a new set of guidelines that specify what users can and cannot do on the Twitter-like website. Laying out the groundwork for appropriate material, the company said that they would not allow content to be published that they deem to be "untrue," "threatens the honor of the nation," "promotes evil teachings," or "destroys societal stability."
  • Tim Worstall wrote on Forbes that he could not access the video game Wolfenstein 3D, which has been released in a free browser version, in Germany. Due to Nazi-related content in the game, the country has blocked its availability in Germany.
  • The Court of the Hague in the Netherlands ordered that the Pirate Party could not help Dutch citizens pirate content from the Pirate Bay website. After the court ruled to block the site in the country, the Pirate Party released a reverse proxy that allowed people to circumvent the block. However, Dutch authorities have taken their ruling another step further by ordering that the party stop informing the public of how to circumvent and encouraging evasion of the block.

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