-
By: Jillian C. York
Date: 21 Jul 2010
Labor's internet filtering policy isn't being discussed in the run-up to the election but its impact on Australia is significant.
Championed by Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, the $30million+ filter is being sold by Labor as an internet block for child pornography, bestiality and extreme pornography with 'wide ranging support from the Australian public' and 'only minimal opposition against'.
But after a new, lengthy investigation it transpires that virtually none of this is true. What Australia will get from this internet filter is a framework for censorship that doesn't stop "the worst of the worst" but will absolutely curtail discussion on politically incorrect topics like euthanasia, safe drug taking and graffiti while banning relatively-tame adult content.
Below we examine the filter from the point of view of the people who know most about it, Australia's tech community, which in the past week has united in one last ditch attempt to bring Labor's censorship policy into the open and bring its discussion into the mainstream media in the run up to the election.
-
By: Jillian C. York
Date: 20 Jul 2010
China said Tuesday that Google's license to operate in the country had been renewed after the company pledged to obey censorship laws.
The remarks were Beijing's first comments about Google since the search giant shocked the Internet world in January with the announcement that it would end four years of self-censorship and pull out of the country entirely after alleged intrusions into its network by hackers.
In March, Google raised the stakes in its censorship row with China by shutting down its search service in the mainland and redirecting searches to Hong Kong, which is semi-autonomous and enjoys greater freedom of speech.
Zhang Feng, an official with China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at a news conference on Tuesday that Google had promised to "obey Chinese law" and avoid linking to material deemed a threat to national security or social stability.
-
By: Jillian C. York
Date: 20 Jul 2010
http://www.middleeast-internet-monitor.com/?p=1370&lang=iw
14 July 2010 an article was published who received no proper attention so far – for the first time the Israeli police ordered Internet Service providers to block access to Web sites. The news was posted on ‘Haaretz' web sites in Hebrew and English as well as on ‘Globes‘, but without significant reference, if any, at other news sites.
Police ordered all ISPs to block access in a number of gambling sites, most of them abroad, which are suspected to be owned by Israelis: http://hebrew.vcpoker.com, http://www.victorchandler.com, http://keshcard.com, http://www.stanjames.com and http://thespinroom.com.
-
By: Jillian C. York
Date: 20 Jul 2010
According to the Next Web - Middle East, citing the Ammannet website, a Jordanian computer engineering student, by the name of Imad Al-Ash, has been arrested since February, 2010, and sentenced on July 13th, 2010, by state security court to two years in prison over charges of lèse majesté for sending an IM (Instant Message) to his friend:
The IM by Al-Ash allegedly contained words that “insulted the supreme entities” (translated from Arabic) known to others as His Majesty King Abdullah of Jordan. Amongst the charges were also allegations of participation in public online forums expressing ‘controversial religious opinions’, none of which the court had substantial proof of, as expressed by his attorney.
According to a statement provided by his father to Ammannet, the college student was submitted to torture during the five months investigation carried out by the Security Services and was forced to confess crimes which he never committed.
-
By: Jillian C. York
Date: 19 Jul 2010
Ammannet, the Arab world’s first Internet radio, reported this week that Jordanian authorities have lowered the bar a notch with the 2 year imprisonment of a college student Imad Al-Ash over an IM (Instant Message) sent in the privacy of his home to a friend using an Instant Messenger application.
The instant message by Al-Ash allegedly contained words that “insulted the supreme entities” (translated from Arabic) known to others as His Majesty King Abdullah of Jordan. Amongst the charges were also allegations of participation in public online forums expressing ‘controversial religious opinions’, none of which the court had substantial proof of, as expressed by his attorney.
-
By: Jillian C. York
Date: 19 Jul 2010
ZHENGZHOU, July 16 (Xinhua) -- A technical supplier to an Internet pornography-filtering software Green Dam-Youth Escort said Friday that the company remains in normal operation.
Zhao Huiqin, President of Jinhui Computer System Engineering Corporation, told Xinhua that the company's services, including Green Dam software online support, technical trouble shooting and 24-hour custom services had never ceased and would not cease in the future.
Zhao made the statement after Beijing Times reported on Tuesday that Beijing-based Dazheng Human Language Technology Academy Corporation, the other Green Dam's supporting company, has halted services to the software due to financial difficulties.
-
By: Jillian C. York
Date: 19 Jul 2010
Approximately 2000 persons marched against government censorship of the Internet on Saturday, the 17th of July, 2010. The protest march started in the popular Taksim Square and ended in the Galatasaray square with a press declaration that called for the abolishment of Law No. 5651 which forms the basis of the Turkish Internet Censorship Infrastructure.
-
By: Rebekah Heacock
Date: 19 Jul 2010
The Brazilian blogosphere was rocked on June 17th by a blatant attempt of censorship over the blog Os Amigos do Presidente Lula [The Friends of President Lula, pt] from the Public Electoral Ministry, who asked that the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) removed the blog from the Internet after it published a public report, which was considered offensive to the opposition presidential candidate, José Serra.
-
By: Rebekah Heacock
Date: 19 Jul 2010
Approximately 2000 persons marched against government censorship of the Internet on Saturday, the 17th of July, 2010. The protest march started in the popular Taksim Square and ended in the Galatasaray square with a press declaration that called for the abolishment of Law No. 5651 which forms the basis of the Turkish Internet Censorship Infrastructure.
-
By: Jillian C. York
Date: 16 Jul 2010
In China, the Chinese government is obsessed with maintaining economic growth at a high level. This is because a large part of the Chinese government’s implicit mandate with the Chinese people is guaranteeing continuing growth, which leads to a better standard of living. If growth slows down, then the whole basis of government legitimacy is challenged. This is why leading economists such as Michael Pettis, a very astute observer of the Chinese economy, believe that the Chinese government will continue their outbound investments in the US, for example.
Now for many other political observers of China, there is the widespread belief that Internet censorship is a human rights and free speech issue only, and something which is unrelated to economics. For them, this is an argument about humanitarian values which should be shared across the world. In the past few days, there has been a new crackdown on Twitter clones and some outspoken blogs in China have been deleted, according to this story in the Washington Post.
But what if economic performance and Internet crackdowns are in fact related, because the government fears outspoken criticism if economic indicators are much lower than the goals they have committed to and seek?
