Saudi Arabia has one of the most restrictive Internet filters in the world, yet according to BusinessWeek news reports, the Saudi censorship regime is vastly unlike that of most countries. Employing a mere twenty-five people, the country’s Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC) uses software to “block broad swaths” of the Internet, while relying on citizens who send 1,200 requests daily for offensive sites to be blocked to cover the rest of the Internet.
On Thursday this past week, Beijing-based lawyer-blogger Liu Xiaoyuan won Deutsche Welle's annual prize for the Best Chinese Blog. Then on Friday he discovered that the parallel blog he keeps at Sohu.com had been taken down. Fortunately, being a famous blogger, he was able to call an editor at Sohu and get it restored, although the editor wouldn't explain what had happened. Rebecca MacKinnon shares the story.
Last week a disgruntled former employee of the far-right British National Party (BNP) leaked his party's membership list to the public, unleashing a torrent of Internet activity as Brits scrambled to find who in their neighborhood might be members. Yet while the list remains freely available on Wikileaks.com, no major UK newspaper or blog will link to it, and few will even mention the site where it can be found.
Wikipedia Germany experienced a brief period of filtering over the past weekend, following a complaint from Lutz Heilmann, a member of the German parliement. Although Heilmann has since withdrawn his complaint, the temporary filtering measure has lasting repercussions. Guest blogger Daniel Oppermann has the story.
With all of the news lately regarding Australia's Internet filtering scheme, one might think Australia were the first or only country to ever filter the Internet. Since the scheme was announced in 2007, it has garnered significant criticism and little to no applause. I spoke with Australian journalist Antoun Issa about the filtering scheme and its flaws.
Since 2006, Internet users in Argentina have been blocked from searching for information about some of country's most notable individuals. Over 100 people have successfully secured temporary restraining orders that direct Google and Yahoo! Argentina to scrub the results of search queries. The list of censorship-seeking celebrities includes judges, public officials, models and actors, as well as the world-cup soccer star and national team head coach Diego Maradona.
Turkey has made headlines lately for its capricious filtering; although previous incidents involved filtering sites which insulted Kemal Ataturk or "Turkishness" in general, lately, the filtering seems nearly impulsive.
New Firefox add-on China Channel allows Internet users to take a glimpse into life behind the Great Firewall of China. The OpenNet Initiative speaks with the creators of China Channel to learn how the tool works, what its constraints are, and the impetus behind the project.
Australian Communications Minister Stephen Conroy's recent announcement that Australia's upcoming filtering scheme would not allow Internet users to opt-out was met with great opposition from the Australian public, as well as some from ISPs. The OpenNet Initiative looks at reactions from Australian and global Internet censorship activists to determine the reasons for opposing such stringent filtering measures.
According to Beijing news reports, Chinese government has enacted further measures to enforce cyber-surveillance of Internet cafés. In this “Big Brother-style system,” these users will be required to have their mugshots taken and their ID card swiped in all of Beijing’s 1,500 Internet cafés. As a result, these cafés could become “places for all kinds of spying and informing,” as RSF speculates.
