Threats to the Open Net: July 15, 2011

By: Rebekah Heacock on 15 July 2011
Posted in China, North Korea, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Kazakhstan, Asia, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Threats to the Open Net

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* North Korea announced this week that it will allow visitors to the Mount Kumgang tourism to access the Internet and use their mobile phones. Currently, tourists are temporarily relieved of their phones during visits to North Korea, and Internet access is limited to a handful of government officials. The announcement echoes China's plan to create an unfiltered "cloud computing district" in Chongqing. Previous efforts to create filtering-free Internet zones in the United Arab Emirates were only temporarily successful, raising questions about the future of the new North Korean and Chinese districts.

* Kazakhstan has been blocking the popular WordPress.com blogging platform since June. In an official statement, the country's main ISP says this is due to two "illegal" blogs. This week, bloggers claimed that the block is part of a strategy to silence criticism of a customs union with Russia and Belarus.

* Last Friday, Israel denied hundreds of foreign Palestine activists entry to the country after tracking down their activities on social networks, most prominently Facebook.