Opinion: China’s censorship regimen spreading around the world

Totalitarian regimes around the world are successfully using the Chinese model of censorship against their citizens, reports David Rohde in a commentary for Reuters. Rohde says the Stop Online Piracy Act would seriously erode the ability of the United States to fight the new tide of international Internet censorship. -db From a commentary for Reuters, [...]

Opinion: Online Piracy Act seen as censorship threat

The Stop Online Piracy Act would bring China-style Internet censorship to the United States, argues Rebecca MacKinnon in an op-ed in The New York Times. MacKinnon said the bill before Congress, designed to protect intellectual property, would “inflict collateral damage on democratic discourse and dissent both at home and around the world.” -db From an [...]

Chinese protesters use comic subterfuge to evade government censors

With the Chinese government employing more than 50,000 censors to monitor the Internet for politically deviant opinion, bloggers are using humor and satire to get their message across before the censors close in. There is always a strong element of fear and uncertainty for the bloggers as they never know where the line is between [...]

Internet blocking in China and Iran posing greater challenge

A study by a Canadian researcher has found that Internet blocking in China and Iran are becoming more effective in blocking news unpalatable to their authoritarian regimes. The authors of the study suggest that broadcasters combine forces to fight the censorship. From The New York Times, October 11, 2011, by John Markoff. Full story

Report: U.S. corporations joining with tyrants to curb Internet freedom

Current laws and codes of conduct aren’t enough to prevent United States companies from helping repressive regimes censor the Internet and control information that have abetted human right abuses, according to a report from a Canadian security firm. The Global Online Freedom Act, a law under consideration, would prohibit U.S. companies from helping governments restrict [...]

Free press: Punishments continue as Chinese government objects to magazine content

China removed the head of a biweekly magazine and suspended its editor over publication of an interview with a Taiwanese historian. The historian was quoted saying that Sun Yat-sen was ready to cede Chinese territory to Japan in return for military help in defeating a local warlord. The historian also said the Communist Party’s history [...]

EFF director argues for use of online pseudonyms

With advent of the Google+ policy requiring users to identify by “the name your friend, family or do-workers usually call you,” Jillian York, a director for the Electronic Freedom Foundation argues that the benefits of pseudonyms outweigh the negatives, particularly for gays and other people subject to violence or harassment such as victims of domestic [...]

China: Microbloggers defy censorship in relaying facts of high-speed train crash

Chinese censors are failing to contain the flood of online messages about the wreck of a high-speed train outside Wenzhou that killed 40 people and injured 191. Messages total 26 million. Citizens began the posts right after the accident and in many instances foiled the manipulations of government officials. In Wenzhou, officials ordered lawyers not to [...]

Electronic Frontier Foundation urges Cisco and Microsoft to stop enabling Chinese oppression

An Electronic Frontier Foundation opinion piece argues that Microsoft and Cisco are more interested in abetting China’s repressive regime than taking a stand for freedom. With Google abandoning the search market in China rather than submit to censorship, Microsoft has recently stepped into the void by agreeing with Baidu to provide Bing web search services [...]

Chinese ‘cloud zone’ lifts internet censorship–for foreigners

Chinese censorship of the internet has been decried by free speech advocates around the world. Now the city of Chongqing is  trying to model itself as an international hub for cloud computing data centers, the Chinese government is promising to lift internet filters –but only for foreign businesses–which is news that the Chinese government is [...]

China poised to use smart phones to spy on activists

The Chinese government will track the location of all cell phones in Beijing, they say to ease traffic problems, but human rights activists see the plans as an attempt to guard against protests. Writing for EFF, Rainey Reitman says techies are always striving to stay one step ahead of governments, “There are, however, some hacktivists [...]

American ambassador to China protests abuse of foreign journalists

Voice of American reports that one of their reporters and other foreign journalists met with violence in attempting to cover a pro-democracy rally in Beijing. Jon Hutsman, American ambassador to China, met with the journalists who were beaten and detained and later expressed his disapproval of their treatment, calling it “unacceptable and deeply disturbing.” -db [...]

U.S. government develops way to evade web censorship

Using new technology, the U.S. government recently conducted tests in Chinese cities transmitting feeds from outlets currently censored by the Chinese government including Voice of America and China Weekly. Instead of sending text-only e-mails, the new technology “decompresses and decodes messages and presents the data in the form of RSS feeds, downloaded files, and applications, [...]

Recent test shows federal government can circumvent foreign Internet censors

NextGov January 31, 2011 By Aliya Sternstein The Voice of America is among broadcasters with the capacity to thwart foreign censorship by feeding news over a special e-mail system. -db

CIA reports influence of Chinese bloggers on government policy

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency  said Chinese bloggers influenced government policy, citing a December incident in which bloggers expressed outrage at the enslavement of mentally retarded men to work at a building materials plant in Sichuan province. -db Secrecy News January 19, 2011 By Steven Aftergood Chinese bloggers “expressed rage and despondence after learning about [...]

Former Chinese leaders call for free speech

A Korean publication says China’s repressive political system is inconsistent with its free market economy and suggests that their leaders should heed the public letter from 23 elderly party members urging free speech and press and freedom of assembly. -db Korea JoongAng Daily Editorial October 18, 2010 Calls for China to release Liu Xiaobo, a [...]

Google launches tool showing governments’ attempts at censorship

Google is now showing the number of requests from governments for removing content from its search page, Gmail, YouTube and other services. -db CNET September 21, 2010 By Lance Whitney In the wake of Google’s censorship battles with China and other nations, the search giant has launched a new tool to reveal which governments are [...]

China starts asking new cellphone users for ID

The Chinese government started to implement a long-discussed measure that requires cellphone subscribers to register their identities when setting up an account, prompting concerns over privacy in the world’s largest mobile market. The Wall Street Journal September 1, 2010 By Loretta Chao BEIJING—The measure went into effect Wednesday, with customer service representatives at mobile operators [...]

Google looks for way to satisfy government and keep its service going in China

After the Chinese government objected to Google’s rerouting users to an uncensored site in Hong Kong, the company struggles to come up with another strategy to continue service in China. -db The Wall Street Journal June 29, 2010 By Amir Efrati and Andrew Batson Google Inc. said it would change how Internet users in China access [...]

Chinese stop Hong Kong printing of memoirs by ex-premier

The Chinese government blocked the Hong Kong publication of ex-premier Li Peng already banned in the mainland. Li Peng brought a violent end to the Tiananmen Square protest in 1989 and reportedly had claimed in his memoir that China’s current leaders supported the military’s attack on the student demonstrators. -db The New York Times June [...]

China filtering rather than blocking Google

Observers are saying China is balancing its censorship policy with pragmatic needs to allow access to Google. -db The Digital Daily Feed June 15, 2010 By John Paczkowski Rather than rejecting it outright, China is adapting to Google’s new approach to the country, working toward a balance that keeps access to Google.com.hk (a redirect from [...]

Iranian bloggers at great risk in using Internet

In the last year since the protests over the Iranian election, the government has arrested 170 bloggers and journalists with 22 receiving prison sentences totaling more than 135 years. Authoritarian governments are sharing technology aimed at stifling dissent and in the last two years have increased their effectiveness in silencing critics. -db Voice of America [...]

China reaffirms online censorship policy

While claiming to safeguard free speech, the Chinese government issued a long list of online speech it considers undesirable. -db CNET AllThingsD Commentary June 9, 2010 By John Paczkowski Though it has given no indication otherwise, China would like the world to know that it has no plans to allow free access to online content–Google’s [...]

Net neutrality legislation could ensnare free speech

Critics say a bill introduced in the House of Representatives to ensure net neutrality would require a news outfit such as the Wall Street Journal to carry news from all news outlets, violating their free speech rights. -db PC World Opinion May 12, 2010 By Grant Gross U.S. Representative Cliff Stearns wants so badly to [...]

Google strikes blow for traditional journalistic values

Google’s decision to leave China rather than to allow censorship of its service, whether it likes it or not,  puts the company in the forefront in defending the free flow of information in the global market. -db The New York Times Commentary March 28, 2010 By David Carr Should we be surprised that the biggest [...]

Internet censorship: China may suffer long-term economic damage from closing down Google

Experts are saying that while China may feel the need to maintain control through censorship, but it may be doing itself great harm by allowing Google to abandon China and weakening the country’s links to the global economy. -db The New York Times March 23, 2010 By Michael Wines BEIJING — This is a nation [...]

Google leaves China over differences on censorship

As expected, Google closed its Internet search service in China and began directing its users to the as yet uncensored service in Hong Kong. -db The New York Times March 22, 2010 By Miguel Helft and David Barboza SAN FRANCISCO — Just over two months after threatening to leave China because of censorship and intrusions [...]

Chinese human rights activists mourn Google’s withdrawal from China

With Google poised to withdraw from China, there is recognition that China has dealt a blow to hopes for its gradual change to a more open and democratic society. db The Washington Post March 20, 2010 By John Pomfret BEIJING — When Google announced that it would pull out of China if it had to [...]

China set to continue censorship if Google abandons country

With a Google shutdown imminent in China, the government is warning Google’s partners that they must comply with censorship laws as the price of doing business in the country. -db The New York Times March 14, 2010 By Sharon LaFraniere BEIJING — The Chinese authorities have warned major partners of Google’s China-based search engine that [...]

Congress leads way in promoting world-wide internet freedom

Congressmen have introduced legislation to strengthen the ability of groups and individuals to evade government control of the internet. The legislation would provide grants to universities, private companies and research groups to develop technologies to defeat suppression and censorship. -db Tech Daily March 9, 2010 By Juliana Gruenwald Reps. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and David Wu, [...]

Tech companies must share burden with media companies in fighting for global Internet freedom

The Electronic Frontier Foundation cites seven corporations that should share the task with Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft in fighting for Internet freedom. The EFF points out that the companies are selling technology to the Chinese government used for spying, censorship, invading privacy, and intimidating citizens. -db Electronic Frontier Foundation Opinion February 1, 2010 By Danny [...]

Blogger charges that U.S. government enabled Chinese hackers in Google case

National security technology blogger Bruce Schneier wrote recently that as part of their domestic spying campaign, the United States required internet providers to set up avenues for government surveillance used recently by some parties in China to breach the privacy of Google customers. -DB Citizen Media Law Project Opinion January 26, 2010 By Arthur Bright [...]

Chinese official criticizes Clinton for attacking China’s Internet policies

It didn’t take long for China to vehemently condemn Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech on China’s restrictions on the Internet. The official said in a post on the Internet that the speech would damage China-U.S. relations. -DB Congress Daily January 22, 2010 By Juliana Gruenwald A Chinese official Friday blasted Secretary of State Hillary [...]

Big Brother is alive: Chinese government to monitor text messages for ‘unhealthy content’

The Chinese government continues its campaign to bring the the cyber world under its control by announcing that it will check cell phone messages and punish users for “unhealthy content”. -DB The New York Times January 20, 2010 By Sharon LaFraniere BEIJING — As the Chinese government expands what it calls a campaign against pornography, [...]

Growing numbers scale China’s digital wall

Chinese citizens are finding ways to get around China’s firewalls after the government shut down pornography sites, blogs, online video sites, Facebook, and Twitter during the Beijing Olympics. -DB The New York Times January 16, 2010 By Brad Stone and David Barboza The Great Firewall of China is hardly impregnable. Just as Mongol invaders could [...]

U.S. looking at issues of internet freedom after alleged Chinese cyberattack on Google accounts

After Google announced this week that hackers had tried to penetrate Gmail accounts in China including those of U.S. financial institutions and defense contractors, the Obama administration is considering their options in maintaining internet freedom. -DB NextGov January 13, 2010 By Aliya Sternstein An alleged cyberattack by the Chinese government into systems operated by Google [...]

Cyberattacks on e-mail accounts of Chinese human right activists may force Google to quit China

Google may yet be forced to abandon the lucrative Chinese market after it gained access by agreeing to remove banned topics from its site. Hackers are attempting to invade the Gmail accounts of human rights activists along with the accounts of at least 20 large companies in the finance, technology, media and chemical sectors. -DB The [...]

China trip: Obama’s call for greater Internet freedom gets mixed reception

Chinese citizens were glad to hear U.S. President Barack Obama’s support for greater Internet freedom in China but were skeptical about the impact of his comments. The Chinese government censored the comments on the official news agency and deleted them from Web sites. -DB Radio Free Asia November 17, 2009 SHANGHAI — Chinese Internet users [...]

Human Rights Watch accuses China of silencing criticism with secret jails

A report from the Human Rights Watch accuses the Chinese government of allowing provincial and municipal governments to jail citizens who object to corruption. The report says the guards beat, sexually abuse, intimidate and rob these citizens. -DB The New York Times November 13, 2009 By Keith Bradsher HONG KONG — China’s national government tolerates [...]

Reporters Without Borders director urges President to pressure China on web censorship

During his Asian trip, the Washington director of Reporters Without Borders urges Obama to privately raise the issues of web censorship and oppression of journalists and bloggers to the Chinese government. -DB MediaShift Commentary November 10, 2009 By Clothilde Le Coz In China, Google is forced to censor its search engine, Facebook and Twitter are [...]

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