German parliament passes bill in fight against child pornography

Found on DW-World on Friday, 19 June 2009
Browse Censorship

The German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, has adopted a new set of laws making it possible to block child pornography Web sites.

Internet users will still be able to access child pornography sites even after the stop sign appears, but they will have to click through the warning, which informs them that viewing child pornography is a crime.

Would somebody please think of the children? The politicians who voted for this, paving the way for Internet censorship, cleary don't. Fact is that this law will not protect a single child. If, it protects pedophiles because it helps keeping the content online. But if you don't see it, it's not there, right?

China's computers at hacking risk

Found on BBC News on Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Browse Censorship

Every PC in China could be at risk of being taken over by malicious hackers because of flaws in compulsory government software.

The Chinese government has mandated that all computers in the country must have the screening software installed.

Others have reported that the system only runs on Microsoft Windows, allowing Mac and Linux users to bypass the software.

Mr Mao told BBC News that they believed there was a new guideline from the country's central propaganda department "to comb all media and online forums to block critics and discussion over the issue."

Of course it's buggy and doesn't work. It has the "Made in China" label, so what did you expect? At least it will be interesting when someone takes over all chinese computers and brings them down, effectively expelling China from the Internet.

Censorship on Tiananmen Anniversary Cripples Chinese Ne

Found on Wired on Wednesday, 03 June 2009
Browse Censorship

June 4 isn't just the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in China, it's also known as Chinese Internet Maintenance day.

Despite that censorship, the country is still very interested in the events of 20 years ago, when the government crushed an unprecedented pro-democracy protest in Beijing by unleashing the army on unarmed students.

"It's hard to talk about censorship because the word for censorship gets censored," MacKinnon said.

The chinese regime needs to go down, putting an end to tyranny and oppression.

Twitter blocked in China

Found on Danwei on Monday, 01 June 2009
Browse Censorship

In terms of new media, do you still feel that in China censors could control everything that's happening in this area - you once said that if they shut off twitter, for example, it would be very easy, and information will just not get out.

The block seems to be a URL keyword filter. Googling for "twitter.com" resets the connection, as does including the string "twitter.com" in any other URL. Access to the service is fine through proxy or VPN.

Add flickr.com, bing.com, live.com, hotmail.com, blogspot.com and youtube.com to the list. The dictatorship in China must be really looking forward to the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

20 years after Tiananmen, China containing dissent online

Found on Network World on Saturday, 30 May 2009
Browse Censorship

The Internet has brought new hope to reformists in China since the country crushed pro-democracy protests in the capital 20 years ago.

China has stepped up monitoring of dissidents and Internet censorship ahead of June 4, when hundreds were killed in 1989 after Beijing sent soldiers to its central Tiananmen Square to disperse protestors.

This month, a blogger who had been detained for writing about corrupt village elections had charges against him dropped after he continued posting about the poll online, pushing himself into the public eye.

20 years, 50 years or 100 years. It doesn't matter how much time passes. As long as this dictatorship is in charge, the Tiananmen Square Massacre (Yes, massacre. Now block me China) won't be forgotten. Tyranny might be a way to enforce control, but it also makes people remember those who died standing up against it.

YouTube Korea squelches uploads, comments

Found on CNet News on Sunday, 12 April 2009
Browse Censorship

Citing free-speech concerns about an anonymity-blocking law in South Korea, Google has disabled the ability to upload YouTube videos or comment on them in the country.

A Korean law requires "real-name verification" for Internet services with more than 100,000 different daily users, Google said. Under the law, people must identify themselves with a name and identification number before they can upload video or post comments.

Funny, the company who wants to keep each and everything you do on their sites is fighting for anonymity.

Facebook Divorces Pirate Bay

Found on Wired on Wednesday, 08 April 2009
Browse Censorship

Facebook is blocking Pirate Bay torrents from being shared on the popular social-networking site, a week after Pirate Bay unveiled a feature to allow Facebook users the ability to link torrents on their profiles.

In case you forgot. the four co-founders of the Pirate Bay are awaiting an April 17 verdict to criminal copyright infringement charges from their home country of Sweden.

Other sources already point out that the censorship is so easy to circumvent that the implementation itself looks just like a ridiculous attempt.

'Unafraid' of Internet, China Appears to Block YouTube

Found on Wired on Monday, 23 March 2009
Browse Censorship

China is not afraid of the Internet, its Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, even as access to the popular video sharing site YouTube appeared to be blocked.

"Many people have a false impression that the Chinese government fears the Internet. In fact it is just the opposite," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.

It has been described by analysts as another step in the Party's battle to stifle dissent in a year of sensitive anniversaries, including the 20th anniversary of the government's bloody crackdown on the pro-democracy Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

Afraid of China? I'm sorry Qin Gang, but you think your regime is more important than it is. The Internet does not fear China; it does not even need China. Despite the blocking, information cannot be censored. Too bad that the Internet cannot be coordinated that well; otherwise it would be fun to cut off China from the net on every anniversary of Tiananmen Square. Or of similar massacres. Oh wait, then we could leave China offline permanentely.

Administrative Court: Data retention is "invalid"

Found on Vorratsdatenspeicherung on Friday, 20 March 2009
Browse Censorship

As the first German court, the Administrative Court of Wiesbaden has found the blanket recording of the entire population's telephone, mobile phone, e-mail and Internet usage (known as data retention) disproportionate.

"The court is of the opinion that data retention violates the fundamental right to privacy. It is not necessary in a democratic society. The individual does not provoke the interference but can be intimidated by the risks of abuse and the feeling of being under surveillance [...] The directive [on data retention] does not respect the principle of proportionality guaranteed in Article 8 ECHR, which is why it is invalid."

At least some people are still sane. Good-bye Orwell, good-bye Stasi 2.0 and good-bye Big Brother.

Australia's Vast, Scattershot Censorship Blacklist Revealed

Found on Slashdot on Thursday, 19 March 2009
Browse Censorship

Australia's secretive Internet filter blacklist held by its communications watchdog has been leaked, revealing the government has understated the amount of banned Web pages by more than 1000. Multiple legitimate businesses and Web sites have been banned including two bus companies, online poker sites, multiple Wikipedia entries, Google and Yahoo group pages, a dental surgery and a tour operator.

The blacklists were reportedly leaked by a Web filter operator to wikileaks which has published the full list of banned URLs. Outraged privacy advocates say the government has effectively lied about the amount of URLs included in the blacklists, totalling more than 2300, and the type of content which it would ban.

Before, you had to spend lots of time online, searching the web for your weird porn fetish. Now, you just download the official list and are ready to go.