Xavier de la Porte, producer of the show place of the Web on France Culture, produces a weekly reading an article in the news as part of his show. Reading week is titled "The booming business of Internet censorship" is "the growing market of Internet censorship". This is a summary of a report written by Jillani York and a colleague named Helmi Noman.
Jillian York working at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at the Law School of HarvardGlobal Voices and sign the summary for Al-Jazeera. In almost all the Middle East and North Africa, Internet censorship is the norm, begins Jillian York. The level of censorship varies: in Morocco, only a handful of sites concerning Western Sahara, as well as Google Earth and Livejournal are considered subversive enough to be censored, while other countries - Bahrain, Yemen, Syria - cheerfully censor both the content sites and social policies.
If the filter is governed by the countries themselves, it is made possible by technologies that are mainly imported from the United States and Canada. It is the heart of the report by Jillian York, which she details a few items. In Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Sudan and Kuwait, the censors are using the SmartFilter McAfee (McAfee is a California company).
It was also the case of Tunisia, before the revolt. In Yemen, until recently, was the Websense software was preferred, but the government has recently opted for a Canadian software, Netsweeper, which is also used in Qatar and the UAE. These tools - Websense, SmartFilter and Netsweeper - like Cisco, which has preferences of China - allowing censors to easily make their work.
Instead of blocking URLs one by one, they can identify categories (such as pornography, drugs, provocative clothes ...) and blocking thousands of websites in one go. Surprisingly, the categorization system is imperfect, sites totally harmless found caught in the mass. "My own website says Jullian York and one of OpenNet Initiative, have both been blocked by the Yemeni government, which at the time using Websense, supposedly because they hosted pornographic content.
This does was the case for either, and when summoned Websense to explain what was happening, they reported that sites with a significant number of spam containing links to pornographic sites could be found in the category pornography. " What is very problematic, continues Jillian York because it implies that by making some comments on a blog pointing to the prohibited content, we can easily ensure that the system locks with every conceivable effect on freedom of expression.
The Web filtering technology used in the Middle East and North Africa are the same as those found in schools, libraries or offices, in Europe or America, where the blocking of pornographic content is the norm. If this standard is justifiable, there is potential for a more massive block.
The fact that Websense software and are Smartfilter American problem: the program for the internet freedom of the U.S. State Department funds, among other initiatives, technologies used to circumvent software similar to those exported by the same companies. And U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made reference to American companies specialized in filtering during his first speech on freedom of the internet in January 2010.
She said at that time that these companies should "take a principled stand." But no prosecution has followed to curb the export of filtering software. Apart from Websense - which states that the use of its software is prohibited to the States, with the exception of filtering pornography illegal - none of these companies has taken steps to ban the use of their software to governments foreigners.
Jillian York concludes: "If the goal of the program for the freedom of the internet is, as expressed by Hillary Clinton, to export the freedom of the Net, maybe he should start by not censoring the export Internet. " 
Jillian York working at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at the Law School of HarvardGlobal Voices and sign the summary for Al-Jazeera. In almost all the Middle East and North Africa, Internet censorship is the norm, begins Jillian York. The level of censorship varies: in Morocco, only a handful of sites concerning Western Sahara, as well as Google Earth and Livejournal are considered subversive enough to be censored, while other countries - Bahrain, Yemen, Syria - cheerfully censor both the content sites and social policies.
If the filter is governed by the countries themselves, it is made possible by technologies that are mainly imported from the United States and Canada. It is the heart of the report by Jillian York, which she details a few items. In Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Sudan and Kuwait, the censors are using the SmartFilter McAfee (McAfee is a California company).
It was also the case of Tunisia, before the revolt. In Yemen, until recently, was the Websense software was preferred, but the government has recently opted for a Canadian software, Netsweeper, which is also used in Qatar and the UAE. These tools - Websense, SmartFilter and Netsweeper - like Cisco, which has preferences of China - allowing censors to easily make their work.
Instead of blocking URLs one by one, they can identify categories (such as pornography, drugs, provocative clothes ...) and blocking thousands of websites in one go. Surprisingly, the categorization system is imperfect, sites totally harmless found caught in the mass. "My own website says Jullian York and one of OpenNet Initiative, have both been blocked by the Yemeni government, which at the time using Websense, supposedly because they hosted pornographic content.
This does was the case for either, and when summoned Websense to explain what was happening, they reported that sites with a significant number of spam containing links to pornographic sites could be found in the category pornography. " What is very problematic, continues Jillian York because it implies that by making some comments on a blog pointing to the prohibited content, we can easily ensure that the system locks with every conceivable effect on freedom of expression.
The Web filtering technology used in the Middle East and North Africa are the same as those found in schools, libraries or offices, in Europe or America, where the blocking of pornographic content is the norm. If this standard is justifiable, there is potential for a more massive block.
The fact that Websense software and are Smartfilter American problem: the program for the internet freedom of the U.S. State Department funds, among other initiatives, technologies used to circumvent software similar to those exported by the same companies. And U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made reference to American companies specialized in filtering during his first speech on freedom of the internet in January 2010.
She said at that time that these companies should "take a principled stand." But no prosecution has followed to curb the export of filtering software. Apart from Websense - which states that the use of its software is prohibited to the States, with the exception of filtering pornography illegal - none of these companies has taken steps to ban the use of their software to governments foreigners.
Jillian York concludes: "If the goal of the program for the freedom of the internet is, as expressed by Hillary Clinton, to export the freedom of the Net, maybe he should start by not censoring the export Internet. "
No comments:
Post a Comment