Currently browsing posts tagged: censorship.

Thoughts on Twitter’s Latest Move

Today, Twitter announced a new system that will allow the company to geolocationally block (or, to use their terms, “withhold”) specific tweets in specific countries. On the company blog, Twitter explained: We haven’t yet used this ability, but if and when we are required to withhold a Tweet in a specific country, we will attempt [...]

26.01.2012

15 Comments

7 things you might soon be able to say on television

Via the Center for Democracy and Technology: Today the Supreme Court will hear arguments in FCC v. FOX to determine whether regulation of “indecent” content on broadcast television violates the First Amendment. This case has been up to the Supreme Court before; in 2009, the Court held that the FCC’s decision to fine FOX for [...]

10.01.2012

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More on Internet Censorship in Libraries: ACLU vs. Salem Public Library

I haven’t set foot in a physical library for at least three years, so it’s somewhat amusing to me that I’m suddenly obsessed with the question of Internet censorship in libraries. And yet, it’s a vital discussion: As more of our resources go digital, ensuring that information in our libraries stays free and unfettered becomes [...]

10.01.2012

1 Comment

Fresh looks at social media as a 2011 gamechanger

Two fresh looks at the effects, in 2011, of social media on the world. The first, a talk from my friend Ethan Zuckerman at the University of British Columbia: I’ve tapped out–imperfectly–a few excerpts for those of you who don’t watch videos: In reference to how the ‘Arab Spring’ began: Thinking about social media by [...]

03.01.2012

1 Comment

LA Times asks: “Porn in the library – censorship vs. decency?”

The LA Times, spurred by a November report of a homeless man arrested for masturbating in a library while looking at Internet porn, asks whether it’s legitimate to censor pornography in libraries.  Though a number of commenters were–as is typical–quick to shout “of course!”, the Times actually makes an important case: “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” was [...]

02.01.2012

2 Comments

Creamy barf cocktail? OICU812.

Gross, right? Now that I have your attention, I’d like to point you in the direction of Pakistan’s new list of banned words. In fact, the list is so good that I’m going to risk my blog once again getting incorrectly categorized by content filters just so you can see the whole thing: Content Filtering [...]

21.11.2011

2 Comments

Does ‘Trending’ a Topic Matter?

This week, my friend Gilad Lotan of SocialFlow wrote an excellent blog post explaining how trending topics really work, in an attempt it seems, to put rumors of censorship to rest. Twitter has been dealing with these rumors for quite some time, and last December publicly explained that Trending Topics are about velocity, not volume, [...]

18.10.2011

6 Comments

West Censoring East: Or Why Websense Thinks My Blog is Pornography

Today, the OpenNet Initiative has released a paper, authored by Helmi Noman and myself, enumerating the widespread use of American- and Canadian-built filtering technologies in the Middle East and North Africa.  The paper, entitled “West Censoring East: The Use of Western Technologies by Middle East Censors 2010-2011“, looks closely at Websense, McAfee’s SmartFilter, and Netsweeper [...]

28.03.2011

15 Comments

The Media and the Algerian Internet Rumors

Well, here we go again…the mainstream media tonight jumped on rumors that Algeria had shut down the Internet, without bothering to check their facts with people on the ground. They didn’t check Twitter either; Algerians were tweeting throughout. So far, neither the Telegraph nor Mashable–the two outlets primarily responsible for the rumor–have bothered to issue [...]

12.02.2011

6 Comments

Tunisian Blogger Slim Amamou Arrested

I am incredibly saddened and deeply enraged to report that my good friend Slim Amamou, Tunisian blogger and activist, was arrested yesterday (see @Malekk’s announcement here).  After no one had heard from him for several hours, Slim posted his location to FourSquare to let his friends know where he was.  The location?  The Ministry of [...]

06.01.2011

11 Comments

Filtering Pornography Online: Why You Should Care

The UK is in talks for a national filter that would block pornography. Not child sex abuse (nobody sane is arguing over whether that should be accessible), but legal, adult pornography. The idea is to protect the UK’s children, and since adults have the choice of getting out of the filter, then there’s nothing wrong [...]

21.12.2010

2 Comments

A Brief Comment on Massachusetts’ “Child Safety” Proposal

I’ve about had it with Massachusetts.  Seriously.  I can’t buy wine on Thanksgiving or in the supermarket, happy hour drink specials are outlawed, and boy, that law about not being able to use tomatoes in clam chowder really gets me. In all seriousness, a law proposed earlier this year really makes me angry.  From the [...]

20.10.2010

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If Facebook is a Mall, Web Hosts are Mall Developers

This morning, when I learned that web host Rackspace had shut down the site of the Dove World Outreach Center, I did something rather unbecoming of an anti-censorship advocate:  I cheered a little. The thing is, I’ve been pretty sick over this issue.  I’ve always abided by the adage, “I may not agree with what [...]

09.09.2010

6 Comments

Are UK and German ISPs blocking Hamas-sponsored website? Probably not.

Recent reports on Twitter (and Herdict) indicate that ISPs in the UK and Germany might be blocking the English-language site of Hamas-affiliated Palestinian Information Center.  Some users, when visiting the site, have reported timeouts: A report from blogger Prosebeforehos indicates that US ISPs Comcast and Verizon have blocked the DNS entry for the site, however, [...]

08.09.2010

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Government Filtering: Not the Answer

Awhile back, in response to a particularly naive column defending Australia’s proposed Internet filter on the basis that it will protect kids from child pornography, I wrote a piece on the HuffPost explaining why filtering isn’t the solution.  Yet, similar articles keep cropping up.  Most recently, CJ Lambert, writing for New Zealand’s 3 News, argues [...]

22.08.2010

3 Comments

A Deeper Look into Tunisian Internet Censorship

This report was written jointly by Sami Ben Gharbia and Astrubal; I translated it from its original French into English and am sharing it here.  Originally posted at Global Voices Advocacy. We learned that the censorship imposed illegally on hundreds of Tunisian blogs and websites, both Tunisians and foreigners, was “shut off” temporarily for few [...]

18.08.2010

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How the U.S. Censors Arabs

In my spare time, I’ve been doing a lot of talking to activists and reporters about two issues that are getting very little coverage in the U.S., despite both being facets of U.S. policy. The first is H.R. 2278, which eatbees has done a better job than I ever could of explaining here. For those [...]

29.01.2010

2 Comments

Net freedom for all? Not so much…

I’m a bit late to the party with comments on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Net freedom speech last Thursday; I was deep in work that day and spent the weekend doing fun things (like visiting with friends and finally seeing Avatar). Still, though there have been plenty of excellent analyses of the speech (check [...]

25.01.2010

2 Comments

For Rushdie

Let me tell you a secret: I think Christopher Hitchens is an idiot. Though I admit I’m a latecomer to his columns, from the moment I heard about the SSNP incident, I was utterly convinced. In fact, I’m perhaps glad that I didn’t know much about him at the time, because I fear that I [...]

05.01.2010

10 Comments

UN Security Bans ONI Poster from IGF

Rarely do I cross-post from elsewhere onto my own blog, however, this warrants widespread discussion.  From the ONI blog: Whilst attending the Internet Governance Forum in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the OpenNet Initiative (along with partners of ONI Asia) gathered to present their upcoming book, Access Controlled: The Shaping of Power, Rights, and Rule in [...]

16.11.2009

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On Un-Sanctioning Syria

A notable news item this morning is that of the United States’ lifting two bits of its sanctions on Syria, one of which happens to be its ban on the import/export of IT, including hardware and software (the other is on the exportation of goods to the Syrian aviation industry). Syrian envoy to the U.S. [...]

27.07.2009

3 Comments

I Love Bruegger’s Bagels, or Why Panera Can Seriously Bite Me

My love-hate relationship with Panera Bread has officially turned to all-hate, all the time.  I spent the majority of last Sunday at Panera’s Brookline location, in an effort to plow through my workload uninterrupted.  Mind you, the food at Panera is delicious for fast food…ever since my high school days of sneaking away to Panera [...]

08.02.2009

18 Comments

Ridding the Internet of Child Porn: Filtering isn’t the Answer

Today’s op-ed in Australian IT by Bernadette McMenamin, CEO of an organization called Child Wise is naive at best, dangerous at worst.  McMenamin, whose organization seeks to prevent child sexual abuse, claims that Australia’s internet filtering scheme is the solution to preventing child pornography on the Internet.  She argues that ISP-level filtering is one part [...]

05.02.2009

2 Comments