Internet Censorship Sri Reddy Internet and Web Systems 2 Presentation

Introduction Net censorship: e.g.’s: web filters; censorware; firewalls, to some extent Reasons: protection of children, national security

Home Censorship Protection of children from adult content and other materials

School Censorship federal law enacted by Congress: –Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA)

Business Censorship To keep employees focused and not distracted

International Censorship Different countries have different views of the internet. Open Net Initiative studies these issues.

Global Internet Filtering Map

Asian Censorship China, Burma, and Vietnam: –Content censored includes human rights, opposition parties

China China’s filtering system also known as the Great Firewall of China

China: “9 Ways Beijing Censors the Internet” Self-censorship: e.g. replace ‘Hu Jintao’ with ‘Gu Yue Wu Jin Ma Tao ’ Filtering: ISPs delete sensitive words on postings, Internet police censors

“9 Ways Beijing Censors the Internet” (continued) Web master warnings Red tape: what can & can’t be reported Mother jury: what one’s mom would allow on the internet

“9 Ways Beijing Censors the Internet” (continued) Tea party invitation: posting against government and you will drink tea w/ officials The Great Firewall 50 cent commentators: government pays 50 cents for each commentator to mold public opinion

China: Net Access UltraSurf and FreeGate led the way for Chinese net users to freely and openly access the internet

Green Dam Goes Mobile? filtering software originally meant for Chinese computers discussion has shifted to the cell phone market.

Google thinks about leaving mobile search market Google and Baidu  over 50% of market share in mobile search If Google leaves, Baidu and Microsoft gain an opportunity.

Google China’s outage is blamed on Chinese firewall At first, claims due to technical reasons Later, claims due to China’s filtering

China/Taiwan Yahoo accounts hacked due to concern over Chinese separatists

China and Sweden Swedish prime minister expressed importance of uncensored internet in meeting w/ Chinese VP

Thailand dozens of websites blocked under state of emergency

Vietnam Government denies it lead cyberattacks against opponents of mining project

Middle Eastern/North African Censorship Region has a growing market for internet users Countries in the region censor to help anti- terrorism efforts.

Bahrain Blackberry chat groups banned

Censorship in Commonwealth of Independent States (Countries of the former Soviet Union) Censorship exists, but not as much as during the Cold War era.

Kyrgyzstan Bakiev administration shut down opposition media weeks before April 7 Revolution, this year

European Censorship Goal: to filtering out child pornography, racism, hatred, and terrorism

EU Some fear Eurofilter will become similar to China’s A Thai princess’s condolence –Also a hearing aid ad were found on a Finnish list of 1000 supposed child porn websites

UK Digital economy bill passes –ISPs required to send P2P warning notices to copyright infringers

Sub-Saharan Africa Censorship African Internet users  less than 5 percent of world’s online population Kenya introduced law to suppress terrorism, –citizens displeased, worried about privacy issues –Kenyan parliament rejected new law

Ethiopia Human rights issues, opposition parties

Australian censorship Goal: to filter hate speech and handle copyright, defamation, and security issues school networks, YouTube banned after video posted with girl being beaten up

Australia (continued) Communications Minister- supporting a internet filter to fight cybercrime –U.S. is concerned about net censorship Another ‘Great Firewall’, Australia’s

U.S. censorship Issues: child protection, national security, intellectual property, and web security reportedly after 9/11, Bush administration wiretaps on internet interconnect points.

U.S. Censorship (continued) Adults’ right to access adult content compared to youth’s right to be protected from said content Communications Decency Act of 1996 –U.S. law that was created to protect children, but found to be unconstitutional

U.S. Censorship (continued) “Internet’s Last Hope”: –FCC vs. Comcast: Comcast kept right to slow down BitTorrent

References The OpenNet Initiative: censorship.htm Parker, Emily, “Leaping the Great Firewall of China” html