Our report on Tunisia’s Internet filtering regime is picking up some news coverage. The Associated Press has a piece in wide circulation, and here is a great BBC story featuring ONI researchers Derek Bambauer and Nart Villeneuve. It appears that the spotlight on Tunisia’s filtering regime is taking center stage at WSIS. Hopefully the debates will result in some significant attention being given to the detrimental consequences of unlawful censorship and surveillance practices.
OpenNet Initiative Report on Internet Filtering in Tunisia
The OpenNet Initiative has released our report on Internet Filtering in Tunisia. The press release can be found here.
Here is the blurb:
Drawing on open sources and a detailed year-long technical investigation, ONI research describes Tunisia’s aggressive targeting and blocking of on-line content, including political opposition Web sites, human rights groups, and sites that provide access to privacy-enhancing technologies. ONI research reveals that Tunisia’s government Internet agency, ATI, uses SmartFilter — filtering software produced by Secure Computing, a US-based company — as the basis of its filtering regime. Since all of Tunisia’s ISPs operate through ATI, the system is difficult to circumvent. Moreover, Tunisia’s public policy on filtering is opaque at best. The state falsifies the information provided to users who try to reach filtered sites; the error page received claims the site is not accessible for technical reasons. In sum, Tunisia’s control over its citizens’ access to Internet content places it at odds with the goals of the World Summit on the Information Society.
6th Annual Privacy and Security Conference
I gave a presentation last night to the 6th Annual Privacy and Security Conference on the work of the OpenNet Initiative.
Red Herring Article on Iranian Internet Filtering
Red Herring has an article on Iranian content filtering that refers to our ONI report. There are some extensive quotations from Nart Villeneuve, Director of Technical Research at the Citizen Lab.
Article de VOIR sur l'initiative d'OpenNet
Le Far West moral qui prévaut sur Internet a permis à bon nombre d’entreprises vendant des systèmes de filtrage de sites pornographiques de faire des affaires d’or. Mais plusieurs d’entre elles préfèrent ne pas mentionner..
Vous pouvez trouver plus ici
Future Tense Radio Interview on ONI Report on Burma
I did an interview with Jon Gordon of American Public Radio’s Future Tense, which you can listen to here in real audio, on the ONI’s Burma Report.
More coverage and fallout of our Burma Report
There has been considerable news coverage and controversy around the release of the ONI’s Internet Filtering in Burma Report. Here is an Information Week article that is not just a reproduction of the Associated Press story. And Nart did up a nice little piece on his blog about Fortinet’s tangled web.
NY Times on Burma, and Toronto Star on ICANN
Some news reports today.
The first is from the NY Times and it covers the ONI’s report on Burma. Now reprinted in the International Herald Tribune. The second is a Toronto Star article on some of the controversies surrounding reform of ICANN.
OpenNet Initiative Report on Burma released today…
We have just released our report on Internet Filtering in Burma. Among the findings is that the software Burma uses to censor the Internet is provided by a US corporation, Fortinet. Our press release can be downloaded here.
GulfNews.com report on OpenNet Initiative's report on the UAE.
Another GulfNews.com report on the OpenNet Initiative’s report on Internet censorship in the United Arab Emeriates, which can be accessed here.