This is a collection of important Freedom Information
Posted on April 14, 2005
By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer
NEW YORK - The Chinese government has become increasingly sophisticated at controlling the Internet, taking a multilayered approach that contributes to precision in blocking political dissent, a report released Thursday finds.
The precision means that China's filters can block just specific references to Tibetan independence without blocking all references to Tibet. Likewise, the government is effective at limiting discussions about Falun Gong, the Dalai Lama, Tiananmen Square and other topics deemed sensitive, the study from the OpenNet Initiative finds.
Numerous government agencies and thousands of public and private employees are involved at all levels, from the main pipelines, or backbones, hauling data over long distances to the cybercafes where many citizens access the Internet.
That breadth, the study finds, allows the filtering tools to adapt to emerging forms of communications, such as Web journals, or blogs.
"China has been more successful than any other country in the world to manage to filter the Internet despite the fast changes in technology," said John Palfrey, one of the study's principal investigators and executive director of Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
Saudi Arabia, for example, largely controls the Internet by having all traffic flow through a central agency, where it can be monitored. Visitors trying to access a banned site get a message saying it has been blocked, Palfrey said.
"China is much more subtle than that," Palfrey said. "You don't know what you don't know. It's more effective than if you see it but know you can't access it."
With filters at multiple points, including some search engines, content is simply removed rather than replaced with a notice, he said.
Google Inc. has acknowledged its Chinese-language news service — introduced on a test basis last fall — leaves out results from government-banned sites, though the company says that is done so users won't end up clicking on links that lead nowhere because of the Chinese filters.
Palfrey added that Chinese filtering methods are effective because they constantly change, keeping its users off-balance.
China, which has the world's second-largest population of Internet users behind the United States, promotes Internet use for business and education, while trying to curb access to political dissent, pornography and other topics the communist government deems sensitive. Many users do find ways around the controls — for instance, using "proxy" servers that mask a site's true origin.
It is through similar proxy servers and long-distance calls that researchers outside China managed to test what users inside China see. The researchers also employed volunteers inside the country to conduct more extensive testing.
The researchers deployed software and physical equipment called packet sniffers to monitor the flow of traffic and try to gauge where content gets dropped. Palfrey would not elaborate on techniques, other than to say many Internet systems have security flaws through which outsiders can sneak in software.
Funded by George Soros' Open Society Institute, the OpenNet Initiative is a collaboration of researchers at Harvard, the University of Cambridge and the University of Toronto working on issues of Internet censorship and surveillance.
Their testing determined that:
_Though some dissidents complain that e-mail newsletters sent in bulk are sometimes blocked, individual messages tend not to get filtered.
_Much of the filtering occurs at the backbone, but individual Internet service providers sometimes deploy additional blocking. Cybercafes and operators of discussion boards also control content proactively under threat of penalties.
|
|
|
_Filtering tends to be triggered by the appearance of certain keywords, rather than a visit to a specific domain name or numeric Internet address. The keyword-based filters also allow blogs to keep people from completing posts containing banned topics.
"You can filter much more precisely at a keyword level," Palfrey said. "China wants to be able to enable its citizens to use the Internet and grow its economy. Shutting down all blog servers doesn't seem like a great idea, but it doesn't want to let through all forms of political dissent."
___
On the Net:
http://www.opennetinitiative.net
The ONI mission is to investigate and challenge state filtration and surveillance practices. Our approach applies methodological rigor to the study of filtration and surveillance blending empirical case studies with sophisticated means for technical verification. Our aim is to generate a credible picture of these practices at a national, regional and corporate level, and to excavate their impact on state sovereignty, security, human rights, international law, and global governance.
Internet
Filtering in China in 2004-2005
The OpenNet Initiative tested China's Internet
filtering of web content, blog postings, and e-mail
correspondences. Our testing found efforts to prevent access to a wide range of
sensitive materials, from pornography to religious material to political
dissent. Unlike the filtering systems in many other countries, China’s
filtering regime appears to be carried out at various control points and also
to be changing over time. China operates the most extensive, technologically
sophisticated, and broad-reaching system of Internet filtering in the world.
China’s intricate technical filtering regime is buttressed by an equally
complex series of laws and regulations that control the access to and
publication of material online. However, ONI found that most major American
media sites, such as CNN, MSNBC, and ABC, are generally available in China
(though the BBC remains blocked). Moreover, most sites we tested in our global
list’s human rights and anonymizer categories are
accessible as well. (Full
Report - PDF)
|
On April 14, 2005 the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) will
release its long-awaited report, “Internet Filtering in China in 2004-2005,” at
the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s public hearing on
China’s State Control Mechanisms and Methods. “Internet Filtering in China in
2004-2005” documents the degree to which the Chinese government controls and
manipulates the information environment in which its citizens live, including
websites, blogs, email, and online discussion forums.
To find out more about the event and the report, please read the ONI
Media Advisory.
|
|
Internet Filtering
in Bahrain in 2004-2005
The OpenNet Initiative’s testing of more than 6,000
sites in Bahrain revealed only eight sites blocked. Three were pornographic;
the others covered political and religious topics. In each case, sites with
similar content remained accessible, and altering the requested URL slightly
made several filtered sites available. Bahrain's legal system includes
extensive potential controls of media, telecommunications, and the Internet,
and its technical infrastructure has a single primary Internet Service Provider
(ISP) and state-mandated Internet exchange point (IXP); this makes filtering
relatively easy to implement. Our testing suggests that Bahrain’s filtering
efforts have eased recently, but the recent arrests of the editors of a Web
site, and the blocking of the site, indicate that Bahrain continues to combine
technical and legal controls for on-line content. (Full Report - HTML)
(PDF
version)
The Utah Senate passed a bill requiring ISPs to prevent access to sites listed in an "adult content" registry on a consumer's request. It appears ISPs could comply by providing consumers with filtering software. The bill will likely face a constitutional challenge.
While awareness-building and advocacy are important
components of a strategy to elucidate the legal and practical consequences of
censorship practices, these avenues are not always possible or effective in the
regions most affected by these practices. Consequently, developing and building
awareness of technologies that make it possible to circumvent censorship -- and
thus enhance the individual’s right to communicate and access information --
are also an important means for challenging these practices. Within the
framework of the ONI, the Circumvention Technologies Lab will serve to assess
the effectiveness of these technologies from technological, usability and legal
perspectives as well as develop circumventions tools based on experiences
gathered through the analysis of national censorship strategies and existing
circumvention technologies.
Circumvention Technologies Development
Psiphon is a personal proxy application designed to
allow users to circumvent Internet censorship from countries where content
filtering takes place. Specifically intended for personal use, Psiphon replaces the technological networks of peertopeer and public proxy systems with human or social
networks based on relations of trust. Psiphon is
installed on personal computers in locations where Internet access is not
restricted in order to allow a select group of family and friends in restricted
locations to browse the Internet freely. Click here for details.
Circumvention Technologies Clearinghouse
The ONI's Circumvention Technologies Clearinghouse is
an on-line clearinghouse project that archives, tests, and assesses
anti-censorship, privacy/anonymity, security and encryption software.
- The IBB's Anonymizer Service in Iran (.pdf)
A Starting Point: Legal Implications of Internet Filtering
In this paper, the Open Net Initiative (ONI) considers some of the legal implications of controlling access to Internet content through filtering. ONI -- a research partnership of the Berkman Center, University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, and the University of Cambridge -- documents Internet filtering by collecting empirical data about the parties who censor web traffic and the types of sites blocked in different countries. This paper considers the legal ramifications of this data.
Different governments offer a range of justifications for Internet filtering, including national security and the protection of community standards. While filtering regimes have a tremendous effect on issues such as civil liberties, international jurisdictional matters, and Internet governance, there are few established mechanisms for review and reform of Internet censorship. The paper highlights the importance of transparency, accountability, and inclusiveness in order to maintain a reliable, efficient, and global medium for communication.
A Starting Point: Legal Implications of Internet Filtering
http://opennetinitiative.net/docs/Legal_Implications.pdf
|
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
Test Censorware Category: Start / Civil Society/NGOs Sort links by:
Title (A/D)
Date (A/D)
Rating (A/D)
Popularity (A/D)
Back to MostEyeKnow Back to MostEyeKnow Freedom Page Google MSN Netscape Opera Yahoo ? |
