Threats to the Open Net: April 20, 2012

By: Qichen Zhang on 20 April 2012
Posted in China, United States of America, Pakistan, United States/Canada, Asia, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Europe, Threats to the Open Net
  • Google co-founder Sergey Brin criticized China, Iran, entertainment companies, and Facebook for obstructing the openness of the Internet. He specifically targeted oppressive policy measures to censor content and the fact that Facebook's platform remains closed to Google's search crawls.
  • Contemporary artist and Chinese dissenter Ai Weiwei published an op-ed that claims Chinese censorship will eventually become obsolete. He argued that as more people gain Internet access, the Communist Party will falter in its abilities to control information exchange. Ai also said that the iPhone never could have been invented in China due to the restraint on innovation due to information restriction.
  • The European Parliament voted to pass a resolution that would allow the EU to force greater pressure on autocratic regimes to loosen their censorship policies. The resolution calls for the European Commission to enforce stricter rules on European telecommunications companies that export to countries that monitor and censor Internet and mobile communications.
  • Seven individuals in Pakistan have filed a petition against the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority for illegally blocking foreign websites that criticize the Pakistani government. The petition was filed to the High Court of Sindh province, and it demanded that no website be blocked without prior notice to the public.

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