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Internet Censoring And Controlling

#1 {lang:macro__useroffline}   Traver {lang:icon}

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Posted 24 June 2004 - 03:13 PM

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,...tw=wn_4techhead

QUOTE (http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0 @ 1283,63940,00.html?tw=wn_4techhead)
For voicing his opinion online, 40-year-old activist Du Daobin was charged with subversion earlier this month and sentenced to four years of house arrest, becoming one of more than 60 cyberdissidents currently detained by the Chinese government.

"We have the legal right to overthrow this government," he wrote in a column that was published in The Epoch Times, an independent publication featuring news from China. "Democratic countries also encourage us to become a modern, civilized government and eliminate the barbaric dictatorial government."

Du's case is highlighted in an annual report on Internet censorship by Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based watchdog group that defends press freedom.

The report, "Internet Under Surveillance," examines the status of online speech around the world, including governmental measures to squelch information and countermeasures used by citizens to bypass censorship.

"As democracies steadily slide toward monitoring the Internet, dictatorships are tightening their grip on it," said Julien Pain, who monitors Internet speech for the group. "Internet laws are being drafted all over the world, mostly unnoticed by the media and the public."

After China, the countries with the most jailed cyberdissidents are Vietnam (seven), the Maldives (three) and Syria (two).

Here's a sampling of censorship tactics listed in the report:

• Blocking sites. Saudi Arabia officially acknowledges blocking nearly 400,000 sites, including those that feature pornography or information about women's rights. China uses DNS hijacking, which redirects users to another site when they try to access banned material.
• Targeted filtering. At one time, China blocked Google entirely. These days, Chinese users can access the search engine, but it will mysteriously freeze up if they type in a controversial term.
• Modified mirrors. Instead of blatantly blocking sites, authorities in Uzbekistan change or strip out the content deemed unfavorable. When Uzbek surfers type in the site address, they get an edited version of the original site, or a "modified mirror."
• Prohibiting Web-based e-mail and owning ISPs. Syria blocks access to sites offering free e-mail, such as Hotmail, forcing citizens to rely on e-mail services provided by state-controlled and -monitored Internet service providers.
• Forcing cybercafe users to show IDs. Vietnam requires cybercafe managers to register customers' identities and to use spyware that records the websites they visit.
• Banning access and equipment. Cuba bans the sale of computer equipment to private citizens and limits Internet access to government workers. The public only has access to an intranet that consists of sites that have been hand-picked by communist authorities.


While attempts to control Internet access have increased worldwide, so have methods to circumvent them, including the use of proxy websites to reach forbidden pages and software that masks users' IP addresses, the report says.

Dictatorial regimes aren't the only ones restricting the free flow of information on the Web. The report criticized the Patriot Act for allowing the FBI to step up Internet snooping in the United States and a new French law that makes ISPs responsible for content that their customers post online.

"The report should not be seen as a kind of ranking of regimes by their repression of the Internet, but more as an appeal for vigilance in countries where, as in democracies, it's still possible to expose abuses and flaws," said Robert Menard, the secretary general of Reporters Without Borders.


Free speech any one?
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#2 {lang:macro__useroffline}   Ferret Overlord {lang:icon}

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Posted 26 June 2004 - 04:59 AM

QUOTE (Traver @ Jun 24 2004, 11:13 AM)
• Banning access and equipment. Cuba bans the sale of computer equipment to private citizens and limits Internet access to government workers. The public only has access to an intranet that consists of sites that have been hand-picked by communist authorities.

Cuba bans the sale of everything. They're driving Packards for God's sake!
HI! I'M BACK SPORADICALLY! Nobody probably remembers me :(
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#3 {lang:macro__useroffline}   Stargate3216 {lang:icon}

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Posted 28 February 2005 - 12:52 AM

Down with China!
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#4 {lang:macro__useroffline}   Pendragon205 {lang:icon}

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Posted 28 February 2005 - 03:15 AM

QUOTE
The public only has access to an intranet that consists of sites that have been hand-picked by communist authorities.


wats an intranet? biglaugh.gif
This was totally out-dated.
Now it's updated.
I think?
Yeah.

....
Nice.
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#5 {lang:macro__useroffline}   Goto {lang:icon}

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Posted 04 March 2005 - 07:01 AM

'Intranet' is an 'internal net'. Usually it's just a local set of resources, such as businesses or schools having all their computers hooked up so that they can access stuff that isn't on the internet, stuff they host themselves just for the place. Pretty bad explanation, I know. This is obviously a much larger country-wide intranet, meaning the only difference would be it can only be accessed from Cuba, and only has stuff that they allow to be put on it.

Governments have a lot oto answer for when it comes to 'freedom of speech', I think the Internet is going to be regulated more and more as time goes on. There are just too many good excuses for them to do so, despite all the disadvantages to monitoring everything.
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