Threats to the Open Net: April 1, 2011

Every week, the OpenNet Initiative provides a weekly news roundup (dubbed "Threats to the Open Net") in addition to our usual in-depth blog posts. If you would like to subscribe to the RSS feed for the entire blog or the weekly threats update, you may do so; you are also free to use the feed on your own site, with attribution to the OpenNet Initiative.

* Deutsche Welle reports that Iran is holding its own blogging competition. The rules prohibit blocked blogs from entering the contest, and Iranian bloggers in the diaspora see the event as a way for the government to direct attention to pro-regime bloggers.

* Google has agreed to undergo biennial privacy reviews as part of an agreement with the FTC after last year's Google Buzz fiasco. When Buzz was released in February 2010, its default privacy settings — which automatically made a list of users' most-emailed contacts public — prompted public outcry, particularly from those who worried Buzz would expose political activists in authoritarian countries.

* The OpenNet Initiative released a new report on the use of western technologies by Middle East censors this week, titled "West Censoring East: The Use of Western Technologies by Middle East Censors, 2010-2011." The paper was covered in ReadWriteWeb, Al Jazeera Englisha, and the Wall Street Journal.