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By: Jillian C. YorkDate: 07 Nov 2008Categories: Turkey, Europe, Arrests and legal action, Political filtering, Social filtering, Overblocking, IP blockingTurkey 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.0 comment(s)
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By: Jillian C. YorkDate: 05 Nov 2008New 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.
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By: Jillian C. YorkDate: 28 Oct 2008Australian 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.
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By: charlesDate: 28 Oct 2008According 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.
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By: charlesDate: 27 Oct 2008According to 0 comment(s)
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By: Jillian C. YorkDate: 26 Oct 2008Categories: Turkey, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Legislation, Conflict and security filteringOur friends at Global Voices Advocacy have reported that Blogger.com has been added to the list of sites filtered in Turkey. This latest news of filtering comes on the heels of news that Wordpress.com, Richard Dawkins' web site and Google Groups have all been blocked due to the legal actions of Turkish creationist Adnan Oktar.
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By: Jillian C. YorkDate: 25 Oct 2008Australia cracks down on criticism of its latest filtering scheme.
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By: Helmi NomanDate: 24 Oct 2008While many Internet users in the Arab world demand access to more online content, other users campaign to have content blocked.
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By: Jillian C. YorkDate: 21 Oct 2008Under Australia's new Internet filtering scheme, citizens will be unable to opt out of inclusion. Instead, they will be able to choose between two blacklists; one blocks content inappropriate for children, the other blocks illegal material.
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By: Jillian C. YorkDate: 15 Oct 2008Bloggers in Kazakhstan are unable to access popular blogging platform Livejournal. Although Livejournal.com is inaccessible, however, Livejournal.ru can be accessed easily. Bloggers are looking for explanations for the alleged block.
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By: Helmi NomanDate: 14 Oct 2008Categories: United Arab Emirates, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Human rights, Political filteringA popular UAE blog, often critical of UAE politics and social issues, has been been blocked a few days after it published an analysis of the impact of the global financial crisis on the UAE economy.
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By: Jillian C. YorkDate: 10 Oct 2008The Pirate Bay is once again accessible in Italy, following a court order deeming the prior block unlawful. OpenNet has been following this story since August, when the site block resulted in an inadvertent traffic increase for the torrent sharing site. The Pirate Bay's co-founder Peter Sunde has expressed gratitude toward his lawyers and is pleased with the results of the case.
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By: Jillian C. YorkDate: 02 Oct 2008Groundbreaking research by an ONI affiliate made major news today. Nart Villeneuve, a fellow at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, revealed in a joint Information Warfare Monitor/ONI Asia report Wednesday TOM-Skype, a special software for using Skype in Chinese, is being used to snoop on text chats containing certain keywords relating to topics such as Taiwanese independence and Falun Gong. Additional information not related to certain keywords has also been captured; Villeneuve's research indicates that perhaps certain usernames also trigger the system.
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By: Jillian C. YorkDate: 25 Sep 2008Categories: Turkey, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Legislation, Arrests and legal action, Defamation, Take-down, Social filteringIn a clear instance of vexatious litigation, a Turkish court has blocked the Web site of prominent evolutionist Richard Dawkins following complaints from Islamic creationist and author Adnan Oktar. Oktar, who writes under the nom de plume Harun Yahya, filed the complaint last week; when Turkish Internet users now attempt to access Dawkins' site, they are presented with a message that reads: 'access to this site has been suspended in accordance with a court decision'.
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By: Helmi NomanDate: 20 Sep 2008ONI is currently monitoring a cyber war waged by a group of Sunni Muslims who managed to hack significant Shiite and Iranian Web sites, the number of which has reached 300, according to the Iranian Fars News Agency. The agency reported that the hacking group is based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and that it includes 250 IT experts who have spent over $300 million to hack the main server of Shiite sites belonging to the International Institute of Al-ol-Beit.