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Pakistanis 'embrace' YouTube mascot to protest internet censorship. The government uses different excuses to control our channels of communication.

Pakistanis 'embrace' YouTube mascot to protest internet censorship

We have been monitoring cyberspace in Pakistan since 2007. Back then, they used the reason of ‘blasphemy’ to block content in Pakistan. Then they blocked content for reasons of national security. Then they added ‘war on terror’ as a reason. These are all excuses that they have been using to curb freedom of expression online. Message that greeted internet users trying to access 'Tumblr' when the site was temporarily blocked. Recently we have also seen an increasing trend of blocking mobile phones. The Internet Censored by Police Without Court Order. The internet has been globally censored by British police, without court order, in order to locate suspected web-pirates worldwide.

The Internet Censored by Police Without Court Order

The Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), acts upon tip-offs that come from copyright owners who want to see an end to websites that are involved with piracy. Planet Blue Coat: Mapping Global Censorship and Surveillance Tools. Download PDF version Read The New York Times article associated with this report.

Planet Blue Coat: Mapping Global Censorship and Surveillance Tools

The following individuals contributed to this report:Morgan Marquis-Boire (lead technical research) and Jakub Dalek (lead technical research), Sarah McKune (lead legal research), Matthew Carrieri, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Ron Deibert, Saad Omar Khan, Helmi Noman, John Scott-Railton, and Greg Wiseman. Summary of Key Findings. Anti-firewall tool Lantern infiltrated by Chinese censors.

Lantern, a software programme which allows internet users to circumvent government-imposed censorship, has been infiltrated by Chinese censors and partly blocked after the number of users in the country skyrocketed.

Anti-firewall tool Lantern infiltrated by Chinese censors

“We’ve seen exponential user growth, so the censors have attempted to nip it in the bud,” said Chris Holmes, a product manager behind the US-government sponsored computer application. The software, financed through US Department of State seed funding, allows users to bypass China’s Great Firewall to access websites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Users in countries with free internet access can share a part of their bandwidth with users in countries where the internet is partly blocked, in a network based on trust. Internet Censorship Worsens in Kazakstan - Institute for War and Peace Reporting - P220. Comment: Draconian laws made for the press now being turned on web users.

Internet Censorship Worsens in Kazakstan - Institute for War and Peace Reporting - P220

The internet, the only remaining platform for free speech in Kazakstan, is increasingly under threat. The authorities are going beyond just blocking access to critical media online and now taking on individual internet users. This stifling of free speech online is the direct result of a 2009 law making internet content subject to the same controls as conventional print and broadcast media. This means that the criminal offence of defamation – one of the biggest obstacles to media freedom in Kazakstan – extends to all internet resources including blogs, forums, chatrooms, personal pages and social networking sites as well as formal news websites. Law Journal Library - HeinOnline.org.

Www.csd.uoc.gr/~hy558/papers/conceptdoppler.pdf. THE BATTLE FOR THE INTERNET.: EBSCOhost. Russian Law Enforcers Advocate Internet Anti-terrorism Censorship. AFP: EU Vice President Says PRC Censorship of Internet Constitutes Trade Barrier. Big Brother? US linked to new wave of censorship, surveillance on web. Even the most open, democratic governments have sought laws and new forms of surveillance that many see as a new wave of censorship -- and that includes the United States.

Big Brother? US linked to new wave of censorship, surveillance on web

The U.S. government asked Google for data on its users more than 31,000 times in 2012 alone, for example. And the government rarely obtained a search warrant first, Google recently revealed; in nearly all cases, the company ended up turning over at least some data. Some argue that heightened surveillance, restrictions on Internet freedom and even censorship are necessary to protect intellectual property rights, prevent cyberespionage, fight child pornography, and protect national interests such as nuclear power plants from hackers. And here the U.S. is far from alone. "A number of democratic states have considered or implemented various restrictions in response to the potential legal, economic, and security challenges raised by new media," notes the Freedom House report "Freedom on the Net 2012. " U.S. tightening Internet censorship - Russian Foreign Ministry report - World News Connection. Internet Censorship: A Threat to Economic Progress in China? The final installment of the "Blog Blog Project" for 2013, where I have posted student voices from the University of Delaware, is below.

Internet Censorship: A Threat to Economic Progress in China?

In the class, "Digital Technology & Politics," students have been evaluating how governments manage the Internet, and in this blog, Emma Haberern, a Senior Political Science and Gender Studies major, examines the economic consequences of China's extensive Internet censorship. Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have helped to ignite an information revolution by allowing individuals around the world to use the Internet for communicating, learning, teaching, and protesting. However, these endless possibilities pose a threat to oppressive governments, and as a result, technology use has been severely limited in some nations. The Chinese government's strict regulation of Internet exemplifies these limitations within the context of an increasingly powerful nation. Tech Giants Issue Call for Limits on Government Surveillance of Users. Spies Infiltrate a Fantasy Realm of Online Games.