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By: charlesDate: 01 Jun 2009China’s New Tang Dynasty Television has obtained a list of the words censored by Baidu.com, China’s largest search engine, according to reports in The Epoch Times.0 comment(s)
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By: charlesDate: 01 Jun 2009Iranians regained access to Facebook and Twitter following a one-day government-imposed ban last week, CNN News reports. Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stated that he had not called for the ban, adding that he believes “in maximum freedom of expression.”
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By: charlesDate: 31 May 2009Dubai police are pursuing a plan to censor upwards of 500 search terms deemed offensive in an effort to block access to certain websites, AME Info reports. Though no progress has yet been made, according to Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, this follows the Dubai Police’s statement in April of their intention to protect the youth of UAE from “pornographic” and “anti-religious” video content on YouTube.
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By: charlesDate: 30 May 2009According to The Inquirer, German police have raided the offices of WikiLeaks.de, a website that publishes leaks of government documents, transferring control of the domain to German authorities and shutting down the website.
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By: firuzehDate: 24 May 2009On March 25, 2009 the Government of Venezuela issued a decree (Decree 6649) that implements measures to reduce the superfluous or luxurious expenses of the government. The decree establishes that “superfluous or luxury spending is forbidden in the national public sector”, and states that only necessary expenses will be permitted.
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By: renataDate: 14 May 2009The headlines in Guatemala's top newspaper, as well as on internationally popular site Boing Boing reported that a Twitter user was arrested by Guatemalan authorities, facing charges of “intent to incite financial panic." The last couple of weeks have been complicated for Guatemalans. Many human rights activists have received death threats via SMS; a YouTube video blamed high rank authorities for the murder of a prestigious lawyer, protests requesting the President to quit were live-streamed; and now a blogger and user of Twitter has been arrested on nonexistent charges.
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By: Jillian C. YorkDate: 12 May 2009An Egyptian court has recently banned pornography Web sites, labeling them "venomous and vile," according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Egypt, which strictly bans offline pornography, already has a regulation which requires Internet cafe users to sign a form saying that they will not attempt to access or download pornography.
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By: charlesDate: 07 May 2009Categories: United Kingdom, Europe, Surveillance, Conflict and security filtering, Internet tools filtering
In an effort to “modernize” police tactics and surveillance, UK’s home secretary has called for the implementation of a system that records internet contact between users, according to BBC News. -
By: charlesDate: 06 May 2009Categories: Iran, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Circumvention, Internet tools filtering, Proxy blocking, Filtering tech and software
Iran’s Internet censorship regime is generally accepted to be one of the most aggressive in the world, yet according to the New York Times, by autumn 2008, more than 400,000 Iranians were able to access an uncensored web thanks to a software created by Chinese computer experts working for Falun Gong. -
By: Jillian C. YorkDate: 30 Apr 2009Categories: Burma, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Syria, Asia, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Europe, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Human rights
The Committee to Protect Journalists has released its list of the top ten worst countries in which to blog. While CPJ has captured the very worst, the unfortunate truth is that the mistreatment of bloggers is on the rise. -
By: charlesDate: 27 Apr 2009According to BBC News reports, top executives from major Internet companies including Google, YouTube, Twitter, Howcast, and Meetup visited Iraq last week in order to assess how their technologies might assist in the ongoing fight against corruption.
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By: charlesDate: 20 Apr 2009Categories: United Arab Emirates, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), ONI, Social filtering, Internet tools filtering, Filtering tech and software
According to reports in Business Intelligence—Middle East, Google has no intention of engaging in an Internet censorship program with the United Arab Emirates. -
By: charlesDate: 19 Apr 2009Based partially on a top-secret blacklist of websites, Australia’s program of Internet filtration is still in full force. Government censorship recently resurfaced in the media when Australia’s Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, admitted that certain images were added to the blacklist in error and blamed the Russian mob for the addition of a dentist’s site, according to reports in The Age.
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By: Helmi NomanDate: 16 Apr 2009Categories: Saudi Arabia, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Surveillance, Cybercrime and security
In addition to technical filtering and surveillance practices, more countries in the Middle East impose restrictions on Internet use in cyber cafés. The latest example comes from Saudi Arabia where Internet cafés have been ordered by the Ministry of Interior to install hidden cameras and provide a record of names and identities of their customers, as reported by Saudi Gazette. -
By: charlesDate: 10 Apr 2009According to Japanese daily Yomiuri, police have asked six cell phone social networking sites to delete messages from underage users looking for dates.
