I recently gave a Policy@Google Talk on December 8th 2009 at Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA. The talk was an overview of Internet censorship patterns worldwide, with a focus on the work of the OpenNet Initiative and some references to challenges around circumvention technologies. Google’s Free Expression point person, Bob Boorstin introduces….
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Ron Deibert’s blog.
Some Facts about the Incident at the IGF Egypt
1. We were told that the banner had to be removed because of the reference to China. This was repeated on several occasions, in front of about two dozen witnesses and officials, including the UN Special Rapporteur For Human Rights, who asked that I send in a formal letter of complaint.
2. Earlier, the same officials asked us to stop circulating a small invite to the event because it contained a mention of Tibet. They even underlined it in showing it to me. Because the event was just about to start, we said that we would not be distributing any more of these invitations so it was a moot point.
3. We asked repeatedly to see any rules or regulations governing this act. They did not give us any, only referring to the “objections of a member state.”
4. There were in fact many posters and banners in many of the rooms that I attended, including others in our own. The video itself shows us, at one point, taking one of the other posters we have and offering to cover up the original one. They objected to that and told us this banner must be removed.
On another matter of clarification:
The UN officials did not throw the banner on the ground. They asked us to remove it and one of our staff placed it on the ground for us to consider what to do. That’s where we had the discussion. When we refused to remove it, their security guards bundled it up and took it away.
UN slated for stifling net debate
BBC News
By Jonathan Fildes, Technology reporter
The UN has been criticised for stifling debate about net censorship after it disrupted a meeting of free-speech advocates in Egypt.
UN security demanded the removal of a poster promoting a book by the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) during a session at the Internet Governance Forum in Egypt.
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Globe and Mail comment piece
I wrote a comment piece for the Globe and Mail today, which can be accessed here
In a time when every person’s digital life is now turned inside out and electronically dispersed and disaggregated, does it really make sense to think solutions lie in adding to that flood? Law enforcement and intelligence don’t need to sidestep court protections and civil liberties to meet the challenges of cyber crime – they need a new investigatory paradigm.
Toronto’s Citizen Lab uses forensics to fight online censors
A basement in the gray, Gothic heart of the University of Toronto is home to the CSI of cyberspace. “We are doing free expression forensics,” says Ronald Deibert, director of the Citizen Lab, based at the Munk Centre for International Studies. Deibert and his team of academics and students investigate in real time governments and companies that restrict what we see and hear on the Internet. They are also trying to help online journalists and bloggers slip the shackles of censorship and surveillance.
From the Committee to Protect Journalists, found here
Cubans say access to online market site is blocked (Reuters)
“We have just finished our testing in 71 countries and have found evidence of content filtering in close to 40 countries,” said Ronald Deibert, director of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto and co-founder of The OpenNet Initiative.
Cubans say access to online market site is blocked
Targeted Malware Attack on Foreign Correspondents based in China
The Information Warfare Monitor has released a report entitled Targeted Malware Attack on Foreign Correspondents based in China, authored by Nart Villeneuve and Greg Walton. The report adds some interesting details to recent reports of targeted attacks against foreign correspondents in China, including details on the command and control servers.
The report has been covered in a Globe and Mail story, found here.
The New, New Internet Interview
I recently did an interview with a Cyber Security news publication, curiously called “The New, New Internet.” You can read the full interview here.
Online Censorship on rise in Middle East, North Africa
CBC News
CBC News has posted a news item about the OpenNet Initiative’s Middle East and North Africa reports, just released. You can read the CBC news item here.
The item also mentions the Citizen Lab’s GNI Monitor project:
“The Citizen Lab, which runs out of the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies, announced last month it would examine how closely companies like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo follow their own principles regarding freedom of expression and privacy.”
OpenNet Releases Middle East and North Africa reports
We (the OpenNet Initiative released our Middle East and North Africa research reports today. Some early press from the report here. We have put up a very useful extended Q and A here.
Among the findings of the report is evidence of the use of commercial filtering products in the region. One of the manufacturers, Websense, restricted its service to two ISPs after our report documented its use in Yemen. You can read more about that here.