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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 18 Sep 2009
Chinese Web users are complaining about China's latest Internet filtering software, Green Dam, which has been known to leak and crash computers. Many places required to install the software aren't using it. Scott Tong reports.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 18 Sep 2009
Reporters Without Borders is very worried about reports that Internet Service Providers in the southern province of Guangdong have installed a new filtering software called Landun (Blue Shield or Blue Dam in English) that is more powerful that its problematic predecessor Green Dam.
The press freedom organisation calls on the provincial and national authorities to explain their intentions with Blue Shield (http://download.bluedon.com/), which ISPs were reportedly told install by 13 September and which is said to be more dangerous for Internet users and companies.
At the same time, Chinese Internet users have told Reporters Without Borders that in the run-up to the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, on 1 October, it has become harder to visit certain foreign-based websites and more proxies have become inaccessible.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 15 Sep 2009
BEIJING (Reuters) - Schools in Beijing are quietly removing the Green Dam filter, which was required for all school computers in July, due to complaints over problems with the software.
China last month formally backed down on a plan to preinstall the Internet filter software on all new computers sold in the country after July 1 after an international and domestic outcry.
But schools were still ordered by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to install the web filter, which Chinese officials said would block pornography and other unhealthy content. Critics said it could be used to spy on Internet users and block politically sensitive sites.
Nonetheless, some schools have chosen to uninstall it.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 15 Sep 2009
It looks like New Zealand is set to be the next country to get country-wide internet filtering, according to a blog post on Geekzone. The New Zealand department of internal affairs has released a draft proposal that outlines the filtering system.
According to the document, the filtering system is for cases where "A person who views a website containing chid sexual abuse images is in possession of those images, if only for the period they appear on the screen. The Digital Child Exploitation Filtering System therefore will help prevent inadvertent exposure to these images and will also help prevent New Zealanders from committing crimes."
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 14 Sep 2009
Beijing government has recently required all Internet service providers (ISPs) and data centers to install a software called Blue Dam in all their servers. According to today's Taiwan Apple Daily News, the Blue Dam has to be activated by today (September 13) or the companies have to subject to punishment.
The Blue Dam software can be downloaded from here. The Blue Dam is developed by Shanghai Andatong Information Safety Technology Company and ccording to a report back in July 2009, the Blue Dam is 20 times more effective than the Green Dam as it is a combination of software and hardwar
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 14 Sep 2009
BANGKOK -- Attempts to censor the Internet are spreading to Southeast Asia as governments turn to coercion and intimidation to rein in online criticism.
Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam lack the kind of technology and financial resources that China and some other large countries use to police the Internet. The Southeast Asian nations are using other methods -- also seen in China -- to tamp down criticism, including arresting some bloggers and individuals posting contentious views online.
That is distressing free-speech advocates who had hoped that Southeast Asia -- until recently a region where Internet use was relatively unfettered -- would become a model of open debate in the developing world as its economies modernize.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 10 Sep 2009
Fresh from their battle with the Church of Scientology, the hacking group known as Anonymous has turned its sights on the Federal Government in a bid to kill off the internet filtering initiative. Let battle commence.
Posted in a detailed plan online, Operation Digeridie lays out a wide-ranging scheme to disrupt the online activities of the Federal Government.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 10 Sep 2009
Chinese officials appear to have retreated from their controversial plan to install an internet filtering system on computers in the country.
The industry and information technology minister, Li Yizhong, said today that the notion that the Green Dam programme would be required on every new computer was "a misunderstanding" spawned by poorly written regulations.
He said all public computers in schools and internet cafes must install the software – but the government "respected the choice of individuals who do not install it". He said: "Those who overstated and politicised the issue, or even attacked China's internet regulation, are irresponsible," and added that pornography was the main target of the software.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 10 Sep 2009
Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) --Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Web site has been tampered with in an apparent protest of proposed reforms of Internet censorship, the Australian Associated Press said.
The Web site, www.pm.gov.au, was “brought down” last night for about an hour, the AAP said in a report carried on the Sydney Morning Herald Web site. The Web site of the Australian Communications and Media Authority was also hit, the report said.
The prime minister’s Web site has been restored and is functioning normally.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 10 Sep 2009
Keeping personal information private is the thing that young internet users most worry about, according to research conducted by media and telecoms regulator Ofcom. Young people said they needed more guidance on privacy, the research said.
Ofcom has conducted a study of the access that people aged seven to 16 have to the internet and what their attitudes to its use are.
The research found that the issue which users between 11 and 16 years old most needed advice about was privacy.
"Respondents aged 11-16 were asked what kind of help and advice they felt young people need to stay safe online," said the report based on the research. "Children and young people most frequently say advice about how to retain privacy and not share personal information (54%) is needed. The next most frequently mentioned areas are how to retain security of information (28%)."
