media coverage

Psiphon Pstops Pcensorship

Published in NOW Magazine
July 12 – 18, 2007

Toronto-developed software opens the Net to restricted surfers
By DAVID SILVERBERG

In Saudi Arabia, net users can’t get access to websites of opposition groups. Jordan and Bahrain both briefly banned Google Earth, citing security concerns. The Chinese government doesn’t let netizens get to the BBC site in any language.

So what’s a curious Web surfer to do in these Net-filtering countries?
They should get to know a kind-hearted soul using Psiphon (http://psiphon.civisec.org/), a software tool created by researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab. By downloading this piece of software, someone in a free-thinking country like Canada can let a person in a restrictive society gain safe access to a portal to the uncensored Web.

Permanent Link

Radio Free Europe

June 5, 2007 (RFE/RL) – State censorship of the Internet is growing and the techniques used are becoming increasingly sophisticated, according to the OpenNet Initiative (ONI), a partnership of British, US, and Canadian universities.

The group has released an initial list of countries engaged in Internet censorship, which includes China, Iran, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. The group believes that states will target other means of electronic communication next, such as mobile phone text messaging.

Although as many as 25 countries make the current list of countries that engage in Internet censorship, the list is by no means exhaustive, according to Ron Deibert, one of OpenNet Initiative’s principal investigators and director of the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab.

Found HERE

Amnesty International Event/Open Democracy

Amnesty international is having an event on Wednesday June 6th in the UK that I’m speaking at by webcast. The event is called “irrepressible.info” and is about threats to freedom of speech and access to information online.

You can read more about it here

Leading up to the event, I wrote an editorial comment that has been published on the Open Democracy website

ONI Oxford Conference — Media Coverage

The first ONI woodstock is over. I had a very productive time, and particularly enjoyed the debate at the Oxford Union.

Here are a few selected media stories about the ONI’s reports:

International Herald Tribue

Sci-Tech Today

National Post

archived here locally

CityTV

…and here is a separate news item in the Guardian UK on Murdoch’s moves into China with a special version of MySpace.

Additionaly, I did a recent interview with SAP Online on the psiphon project.

Newsforge Article about Psiphon

An excellent article about psiphon in Newsforge.

As the author says, “Psiphon is not designed to solve all secure Web browsing dilemmas. Rather, it is a means by which those in uncensored countries can assist specific individuals in censored countries access blocked Web content — without placing any technical (or personal security) burden on those individuals.”