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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 01 Dec 2009
Many governments are unhappy about Google, Yahoo and Microsoft: those are too big to bully. It's much easier to bully local search engines and email providers: they are usually too timid to complain and they have much more too lose (that's why the fact that more and more Chinese netizens seem to be drifting towards local versions of Web2.0 services - a trend spotted by Michael Anti and others - is a little bit disturbing).
But let's face it: it's very hard to beat Google at search, email and a gazillion other services that they offer. The Turkish leaders seem to believe otherwise: Tayfun Acarer, chairman of Turkey's Information Technologies and Communication Board (BTK), said that Turkish engineers are working on a Turkish search engine that is to launch in 2010. They expect it to be popular not just in Turkey but elsewhere in the Muslim world - Acarer says he is confident that "these other countries will trust our search engine".
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 01 Dec 2009
The Post is right that we should champion people's ability to communicate and to access information on the Internet all over the world ["Twitter this," editorial, Nov. 21]. Online communication is the 21st century's version of the soapbox in the village square or the pamphlet passed from hand to hand. We believe that free expression is a basic human right and necessary for democratic development -- "a source of strength," as President Obama said in Shanghai.
Unfortunately, this right is under threat. Too many governments block content and harass or persecute those who use the Internet to communicate. In the past year, we have seen crackdowns on bloggers in Iran, increased censorship in China and raids on Internet cafes in Burma. And people in many countries simply lack the bandwidth or access to make use of the full power of the Internet.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 30 Nov 2009
Opera has sealed the hole its Mini browser tunneled through the Great Firewall of China.
With the international version of Opera Mini - the company's Java-based mobile browser - Chinese users had found a way of freeing themselves from local net filters, accessing sites otherwise banned by the government. The browser shuttles all net traffic through compression servers located outside the country, and naturally, those servers lack Chinese filters.
But on Friday, as reported by the BBC's Beijing bureau, Opera switched all Chinese users from Mini's international version to a Chinese version that uses local compression servers - and local filters.
Chinese Opera users, the BBC says, no longer have access to Facebook.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 30 Nov 2009
Some of the strongest advocates for internet censorship in Australia are now pushing a new idea to save kiddies from the dangers that apparently lurk behind every website: a “panic button.”
According to Fairfax Media, the panic button “would be a recognizable icon that children can relate to (such as a cartoon dolphin)” and if kids encounter “serious trouble online, pushing the button could connect them instantly to police or child protection groups.”
According to Hetty “there’s a pedophile behind every website” Johnson, “Triple-0 is the universal number for when the proverbial hits the fan, but what do you do online? When the proverbial hits the fan, you hit the panic button.”
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 30 Nov 2009
On Nov. 26, the Kirov district court of Kazan, which is the capital of the Republic of Tartastan, convicted Irek Murtazin, a 45-year-old journalist and blogger, of defamation and incitement to hatred, reports Gazeta.ru [RUS]. The court sentenced Murtazin to one year and nine months of imprisonment in a penal colony (a form of imprisonment where convicts live not in a jail but in a special colony for prisoners).
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 30 Nov 2009
On the anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks, the Indian government has announced its own version of the UK's Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP) - a massive expansion of communications surveillance for the internet age.
A pilot of the Centralised Monitoring System (CMS) will begin by June next year, communications minister Gurudas Kamat said on Thursday.
Like IMP, CMS will see a network of monitoring probes inserted throughout the country's fixed line and wireless communications networks.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 24 Nov 2009
Communications Commissioner Viviane Reding has warned Spain to look carefully at proposals to cut off alleged illegal filesharers.
She said such a policy ran counter to European values and laws and that a new approach to protecting intellectual property was required.
Reding said: "If Spain cuts off internet access without a procedure in front of a judge, it would certainly run into conflict with the European Commission."
She said repression alone would not solve the problem and that any action needed to be fair, impartial and presume the innocence of those accused, according to EU Observer.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 24 Nov 2009
LONDON — A bill is working its way through Parliament that would fight illegal filesharing, by in part, cutting Internet access to those engaging in the practice.
The Digital Economy Bill reportedly follows many of the recommendations established by the Digital Britain movement, which among other issues, seeks universal broadband access and revisions to age verification laws.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 24 Nov 2009
Washington — Renowned Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez had seven questions for President Obama related to the U.S.-Cuba relationship, the Cuban exile community in the United States, and Cuba’s emerging civil society groups.
As she wrote in her blog, Generacíon Y, she directed separate sets of questions to President Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro because “I want to know, from my diminutive position as a citizen, how this dispute is going to play out, when will it cease to be the central theme in every aspect of our lives.”
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 23 Nov 2009
It's not often Google teams up with the likes of Yahoo and Microsoft, but facing new legislation by a Republican lawmaker to restrict the search giants' ability to pander to repressive regimes that censor the Internet, that's just what's happened.
Republican representative, Chris Smith, has long been lobbying for the "Global Online Freedom Act of 2009," an ambitious bill which hopes to monitor and prevent US firms from helping oppressive regimes filter the Web, even if that means losing business in populous countries like China.
The bill would also stop US companies from being able to hand over user information to foreign governments for anything other than "legitimate law enforcement purposes."
