Category Archives: Censorship

The stated goal of the World Internet Conference, Chinas first such international forum, is to promote discussions about issues facing governments and business online, but Chinas history of Internet censorship has taken center stage, at least outside of China. The meeting takes place through Friday in Wuzhen and will see speeches and discussions by entrepreneurs and officials from China and abroad.

The conference will focus on current issues in the cyberspace, including cybersecurity, online anti-terrorism efforts, mobile network and cross-border e-commerce, according to CRI English. The theme of the conference is An Interconnected World Shared and Governed by All.

Criticshave pointed out the irony of China hosting an Internet conference given its massive Internet censorship campaign. China blocks Western websites like Facebook and YouTube. Lu Wei, chief of the national Internet authority, discussed Chinas censorship practices at a press conference last week, but avoided concrete answers to questions about censorship.

I never visited these websites before, therefore I dont know whether they have been shut down, but I want to make it clear that all the supervision currently in place is based on Chinas laws [and made to protect Chinese consumers], Lusaidof social media censorship. He went on to say Chinas Internet censorship shares the same spirit with that of the U.S. and many other Western countries.

Chinese authorities unblocked access to these platforms in Wuzhen for the conference, but not countrywide, meaning representatives from sites like Alibaba and Apple will be able to tweet, update Facebook and watch YouTube while they are there.

Lu kicked off the conference by advocating for a global Internet governance system.

We will strengthen communications and seek common ground while resolving differences to establish a multilateral, democratic and transparent international Internet governance system, Lu said. Join us in building up a peaceful, safe and open and co-operative cyberspace.

The conference will be permanently held in Wuzhen, according to Peoples Daily, a state-run newspaper.

Excerpt from:
What is the World Internet Conference? China Hosts International Leaders Amid Criticism Over Censorship

Nov 18, 2014 by Emiliano De Cristofaro, The Conversation In Syria everything coming in, and everything going out is watched. momente/Shutterstock

Norwegian writer Mette Newth once wrote that: "censorship has followed the free expressions of men and women like a shadow throughout history." As we develop new means to gather and create information, new means to control, erase and censor that information evolve alongside it. Today that means access to information through the internet, which motivates us to study internet censorship.

Organisations such as Reporters Without Borders, Freedom House, or the Open Net Initiative periodically report on the extent of censorship worldwide. But as countries that are fond of censorship are not particularly keen to share details, we must resort to probing filtered networks, that is, generating requests from within them to see what gets blocked and what gets through. We cannot hope to record all the possible censorship-triggering events, so our understanding of what is or isn't acceptable to the censor will only ever be partial. And of course it's risky, even outright illegal, to probe the censor's limits within countries with strict censorship and surveillance programs.

This is why the leak of 600GB of logs from hardware appliances used to filter internet traffic in and out of Syria is a unique opportunity to examine the workings of a real-world internet censorship apparatus.

Leaked by the hacktivist group Telecomix, the logs cover a period of nine days in 2011, drawn from seven SG-9000 internet proxies. The sale of equipment like this to countries like Syria is banned by the US and EU. California-based manufacturer Blue Coat Systems denied making the sales but confirmed the authenticity of the logs and Dubai-based firm Computerlinks FZCO later settled on a US$2.8m fine for unlawful export. In 2013, researchers at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab demonstrated how authoritarian regimes in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Yemen, Egypt and Kuwait all rely on US-made equipment like those from Blue Coat or McAfee's SmartFilter software to perform filtering.

This technology is extremely powerful as it can perform deep-packet inspection, that is, examining in detail the contents of network traffic. They provide censors with a simple interface to fine-tune filtering policies, practically in real time.

Inside a censor's mind

At the recent ACM Internet Measurement Conference we presented our paper detailing the relatively stealthy but targeted censorship system that we'd found from examining the logs.

Internet traffic in Syria was filtered in several ways. IP addresses (the unique addresses of web servers on the internet) and domain names (the URL typed into the address bar) were filtered to block single websites such as badoo.com or amazon.com, entire network regions (including a few Israeli subnets), or keywords to target specific content. Instant messaging, tools such as Skype, and content-sharing sites such as Metacafe or Reddit were heavily censored. Social media censoring was limited to specific content and pages, such as the "Syrian Revolution" facebook page.

The appliances were sometimes misconfigured, meaning the filter caused some collateral damage for instance, all requests with the keyword "proxy" were blocked, probably in an effort to curb the use of censorship-evading proxies, but this also had the effect of blocking adverts and certain plug-ins that had no relation to banned content.

Continue reading here:
Lessons on censorship from Syria's internet filter machines

Internet Censorship ThoughtCrime - UK Australia To Stop Its Citizens Seeing Extremist Material
On Friday Prime Minister David Cameron, who is visiting Australia, told that country #39;s parliament: A new and pressing challenge is getting extremist material taken down from the internet....

By: Ya OughtaLearn

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Internet Censorship ThoughtCrime - UK Australia To Stop Its Citizens Seeing Extremist Material - Video

Daniel C Peterson: Unnecessary Censorship
Daniel C. Peterson: Unnecessary Censorship. Purely for entertainment purposes and intending no ill-will. Just a fun take on Jimmy Kimmel #39;s Unnecessary Censorship series -- Mormon style.

By: ExMormon Reddit

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Daniel C Peterson: Unnecessary Censorship - Video

Hydro War - Censorship [Blendits Audio]
CAT: BLAU005 Artists: Hydro War / Mindmapper Silvahfonk Title: Censorship / Polygraph (Eastcolors Remix) Label: Blendits Audio Format: 12 #39; #39; Vinyl / Digital Releasedate: 24-10-2014 Distributi...

By: NeurofunkGrid

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Hydro & War - Censorship [Blendits Audio] - Video

Chinese authorities stepped up their censorship of the Internet by blocking websites using Verizon Communication Inc. (VZ)s cloud service, a show of power just as the country is poised to host a global Internet conference.

Filtering of sites on the EdgeCast content delivery network escalated this week with no rhyme or reason as to why, the Santa Monica, California-based company said in a blog post. Methods typically targeting politically sensitive websites such as Freeweibo.com have this time also affected commercial sites, including that of Sony Mobile.

It only shows that the Chinese authorities see Internet content control on top of the list, Lento Yip, chairman of the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association, said in an e-mail. Given they block Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, it is not a surprise that they can bear this collateral damage to block CDNs.

The government of China, which has the worlds largest Internet population, regularly blocks and filters content from local and overseas websites to keep a tight rein on citizens access to information. The latest actions come as China holds a coming-out party in eastern Wuzhen for domestic Internet titans Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Baidu Inc.

EdgeCast provides services that distribute content to consumers via multiple servers across the Internet. All sub-domains of edgecastcdn.net were blocked in China, affecting clients including Sony Mobile and The Atlantic magazine, Greatfire.org -- a researcher monitoring online censorship -- said in a separate blog post.

Only users in China who were attempting to access a subset of our customers websites were impacted, Lauren Mitchell, a spokeswoman for EdgeCast, said in an e-mailed response to questions, declining to say how many sites are affected. Our global delivery outside of China was not impacted.

This weeks escalation uses DNS poisoning, a method of interrupting how traffic is directed to websites and the servers hosting them, Greatfire said today. The attack shows authorities are attempting to cut China off from the global Internet, Greatfire said.

Greatfire takes advantage of the growing popularity of cloud computing to create copies of banned sites hosted outside China, mostly on cloud servers of Amazon Web Services, an arm of the Seattle-based e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc.

Freeweibo.com, a website created by Greatfire in 2012, tracks posts censored on Chinas largest microblog site, Weibo.com. While Chinese Internet users can post whatever they want on Weibo, those posts are deleted when they contain information deemed sensitive or inappropriate.

That control is escalating, Yip said.

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China Steps Up Internet Censorship as EdgeCast Blocked

Implementing a filter

Media reports say ministers will ask all Internet service providers (ISPs) to block pornography sites, a daunting mission given the sheer number of them floating online. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) puts the figure at 40 million, the majority of which are located outside India. Experts are skeptical that officials lack the capability to strictly enforce the censorship.

Read MoreMore opponents ofInternet regulation emerge

"Despite India's IT sector making tremendous progress, authorities remain ill-equipped to enforce the ban, particularly in terms of digital forensics and also the numerous websites that the banned ones may spawn," said Gateway House's Patil.

Moreover, access to blocked portals will still be possible, Duggal noted, as people will turn to a variety of indirect methods, including proxy servers, to bypass filters. One example of this is the torrent website 'The Pirate Bay,' which is banned on over 20 countries but remains accessible via multiple proxy servers.

So, will India embrace a Chinese-style censorship police to enforce the ban? The Communist country employs one of the world's most rigorous content-filtering Internet systems, including the 'Great Firewall of China,' a large-scale surveillance network that can block websites containing taboo keywords such as Tiananmen, Tibet or Falun Gong.

Read MoreUS pollution data on Beijing blocked on mobile app

"As a whole, India is a very systemic country, it's not like anything cannot be blocked," Duggal told CNBC. "The chances of a Chinese experiment being replicated in India are extremely low given our robust constitution."

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India to ban porn - will it work?

This is the second part in our week-long series looking at Thailand six months or 28 weeks after the military coup. Click on the links to read earlier installments:Introduction Part 1: The Economy -

Thai coup leader and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha. Pic: AP.

Since his time as army chief, General Prayuth Chan-ochas relationship with the media has been strenuous at best. Now as the coup leader and prime minister he constantly in the limelight, and his gaffes are under more scrutiny than ever. On the other hand, the media itself is facing stringent censorship.

Reporter 1: [...] so it will be sorted very soon in order to have elections, right?

Prayuth: [inaudible]see my first answer, I already said it.

Reporter 1: General, may I ask another question: are you now the prime minister?

Prayuth: [pause] It is in progressI dont know yet, well see, keep calm! [points to the reporter] You wanna be it?

Reporter 1: [sarcastically] YES, YES, YES!

Prayuth: Ok, thats enough! Thank you very much

Reporter 2: General, just a quick questionhow long will the timeline, roadmap take until a new election?

Read more:
28 weeks later: Prayuth, censorship and the media

Julien Blanc and Dapper Laughs . . . is it better to silence or expose? Photograph: Mark Robert Milan/GC Images

Last week, Jessica Ennis-Hill took the brave step of saying she would have her name removed from a stand at Bramall Lane if Sheffield United re-signed convicted rapist Ched Evans. The inevitable consequence was a blurt of rape threats from members of Evans fanbase. One prize specimen, @RickieLambert07, replied to criticism by saying: Freedom of speech mate Ill say what I want when I want! I cannot say for sure that @RickieLambert07 isnt a lawyer but he certainly has a shaky grasp of Article 10 of the Human Rights Act.

If you believe in freedom of expression you often find yourself in terrible company. Right now, misogynists are enjoying a Voltaire moment, having been robbed of the comedic stylings of Dapper Laughs and, if the campaign to deny him a UK visa succeeds, the sinister dating advice of repulsive Californian pick-up artist Julien Blanc. Its fortunate that the penitent Daniel OReilly chose to become The Artist Formerly Known as Dapper Laughs, the Ziggy Stardust of bantz, rather than a lad martyr, but I worry that Blanc will turn a state ban to his advantage.

As a teenager, I first encountered censorship as a tool of the religious right. This was the era of Martin Scorseses The Last Temptation of Christ, Andres Serranos Piss Christ and Body Counts Cop Killer, not to mention The Satanic Verses. In each case, I saw the would-be censors as intolerant, ignorant and absurd. For one thing, many of them had only a sketchy apprehension of what it was they were trying to ban, learning about the offence second-hand. Second, they made the mistake of thinking that the artwork was a cause rather than a symptom, as if, absent Body Counts rap-metal provocations, African-Americans would have felt warmly towards the LAPD. Third, the outrage tended to have the effect of publicising and ennobling the offending work. All of this was sharply satirised by the Father Ted episode in which Ted and Dougals muddled protest against a blasphemous movie (Down with this sort of thing) ended up making it a smash hit.

I was naive to think that censorship, in its many forms, was restricted to the right wing but the effect of reading about these debates at an impressionable age was to give me an enduring suspicion of bans, wherever they come from. I felt the same reservations when, in September, the Barbican bowed to pressure to cancel Exhibit B, South African artist Brett Baileys installation about racism. Responsibility ultimately lay with the Barbican but the protesters aim, spelled out in a Change.org petition, was always cancellation of a racist exhibition that they hadnt actually seen. Consequently, nobody was allowed to find out if it was as crass and misguided as they claimed. In a prepared statement, Baileys black performers said: We welcome protest, but surely its best to have as much information beforehand, so your opinion is truly informed ... And surely your right to protest should not impact another persons freedom of thought and speech.

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The fact that some people I usually agree with welcomed the Barbicans cave-in shocked me. Its illogical to condemn the Metropolitan Operas cancellation of a live transmission of John Adams opera The Death of Klinghoffer (the Met somehow deemed it not antisemitic yet inappropriate at this time of rising antisemitism) while applauding the closure of Exhibit B. If you oppose censorship then whether or not you like the thing being censored is irrelevant. In fact, the principle is only tested when you loathe the thing being censored (providing, of course, you have seen it).

Thats basic stuff, almost too obvious to spell out, but draconian censorship is becoming an increasingly common tactic among people who consider themselves liberals, from Exhibit B to the mission creep of refusing controversial speakers a platform at universities. Freedom of expression always has exceptions, for example legally proscribed hate speech, but allow too many and it suffers death by a thousand cuts. While many ideas are offensive, only a few should be deemed so unacceptable that they cant be heard.

I suspect the blurring of that line is related to the fever pitch of online discourse. The internet is so perpetually cross that its increasingly hard to make an impact with mere disapproval. In the outrage arms race, its tempting to go straight for the nuclear option. When Asian-American activist Suey Park was offended by a satirical skit on The Colbert Report in March, she started the hashtag #CancelColbert, despite neither wanting nor expecting the show to be cancelled. #CancelColbert was never literal, but it was a way to say, Hey, improve Colbert, knowing that trying to improve Colbert would never trend, knowing that it would never get heard, she told Salon.

Go here to read the rest:
Hashtag hate campaigns are leading us into the trap of censorship

This is the second part in our week-long series looking at Thailand six months or 28 weeks after the military coup. Click on the links to read earlier installments:Introduction Part 1: The Economy -

Thai coup leader and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha. Pic: AP.

Since his time as army chief, General Prayuth Chan-ochas relationship with the media has been strenuous at best. Now as the coup leader and prime minister he constantly in the limelight, and his gaffes are under more scrutiny than ever. On the other hand, the media itself is facing stringent censorship.

Reporter 1: [...] so it will be sorted very soon in order to have elections, right?

Prayuth: [inaudible]see my first answer, I already said it.

Reporter 1: General, may I ask another question: are you now the prime minister?

Prayuth: [pause] It is in progressI dont know yet, well see, keep calm! [points to the reporter] You wanna be it?

Reporter 1: [sarcastically] YES, YES, YES!

Prayuth: Ok, thats enough! Thank you very much

Reporter 2: General, just a quick questionhow long will the timeline, roadmap take until a new election?

More:
28 weeks later: Prayuth, censorship and the media in post-coup Thailand