Threats to the Open Net: September 24, 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 our newsreel, our entire blog, or our weekly roundup, you may do so; you are also free to republish the feed on your own site, with attribution to the OpenNet Initiative.

• Yahoo has been accused of censoring emails that discuss the Occupy Wall Street demonstration in Lower Manhattan against financial institutions. After users attempted to send emails that included "occupywallst.org," they received an error message stating that "suspicious activity has been detected" on their accounts.
• OpenNet Initiative partner the SecDev Group released their report on US-based tech firms operating in China and have found that many American companies are too willing to compromise with China's censorship and surveillance rules. The researchers criticized companies including Microsoft and Yahoo for participating in a collusion with the government in order to reach China's 450-million-user market.
• National Religious Broadcasters and the American Center for Law and Justice conducted a study revealing that social media sites are "actively censoring" religious content, particularly those that express Christian perspectives. In the report, they state that because social media sites have forbidden any content related to "hate speech," tech companies including Apple, Google, Facebook, and others are blocking content expressing anti-homosexual viewpoints.
• China has increased control over the Weibo microblogging platform, according to Reuters. In an attempt to stamp out rumors, the government is also maintaining tighter grips on the site due to its immense growth.