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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 17 Mar 2010
Australia Sunday defended its plan to block some Internet content, such as that featuring child sex abuse or advocating terrorism, after a media rights watchdog warned it may hurt free speech.
The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Friday listed Australia, along with South Korea, Turkey and Russia, as countries "under surveillance" in its "Internet Enemies" report.
While Australia does not rank alongside Iran or North Korea in terms of censorship, its proposal to place a mandatory filter on the web to remove illegal and extreme material has raised concerns, RSF said.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 17 Mar 2010
Merida, March 17th, 2010 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – After Venezuela president Hugo Chavez publically criticised website Noticiero Digital for falsely reporting the assassination of a government official, national and international mass media alleged that the Venezuelan government wanted to censor the Internet. Various government officials have responded that internet media is not exempt from already existing laws.
Chavez said on Saturday that Noticiero Digital had falsely reported the assassination of minister Diosdado Cabello, and said, “We have to act... this is a crime.”
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 17 Mar 2010
Chinese firms that sell advertising on Google's search pages have demanded that the internet company disclose its plans for the country, as speculation grows that it will soon close its mainland search service.
The companies have warned that they will demand compensation if Google pulls out of China.
The world's leading search engine said two months ago that it was no longer willing to censor search results and realised that might mean leaving China.
It cited a cyber attack which it believed targeted human rights activists as well as growing internet censorship.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 17 Mar 2010
Bing could soon be the big word in Beijing as Microsoft moves to fill the void sure to be left after Internet giant Google blew the doors off its search engine -- and at least briefly, opened the Web to the world's largest censored society.
On Tuesday, Web searches on Google.cn that had formerly been censored appeared to return results to controversial topics, indicating that one day after announcing it was 99.9 percent certain to shut its Chinese search engine, search giant Google may have pulled the plug on censorship in the country. Searches for "Xinjiang independence" and "Tiananmen Square massacre" -- items that the Chinese government would ordinarily censor, return results that are critical of the government, making it appear that filters are no longer working.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 17 Mar 2010
Did they or didn’t they? News reports and online forums are buzzing with the news that Google.cn may have dropped its censorship wall. NBC news reported doing some sensitive searches on the mega search engine from China to test it. Among the items they googled was the "Tiananmen Square massacre," which returned a fairly thorough list of results on the military crackdown—something the government doesn't normally allow.
MarketWatch has also picked up on the reports, but according to their piece, it looks like Google's China spokeswoman, Marsha Wang, said they are running their business as usual. Scott Rubin, a spokesperson for Google U.S., confirmed that much to me in an e-mail saying, "Google.cn is still operating within the law in China."
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 16 Mar 2010
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called for regulation of the Internet on Saturday while demanding authorities crack down on a critical news Web site that he accused of spreading false information.
In a televised speech, Chavez said: "The Internet can't be something free where anything can be done and said. No, every country has to impose its rules and regulations," Chavez said.
He singled out the Venezuelan news site Noticiero Digital, saying it had posted false information that some of his close allies had been killed.
Chavez called for Venezuela's attorney general to take action immediately against the Web site. "This is a crime," he said of the site's reports.
There was no immediate reaction from the Web site, which is a popular outlet for critical news and commentary in Venezuela.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 16 Mar 2010
A controversial internet filter which blocks access to hundreds of websites on a secret Internal Affairs blacklist has gone live.
The "child exploitation" system was introduced last month in a bid to stop online paedophile activity.
But it has come under fire from internet service providers for being ineffectual and giving hackers an easy target.
A similar filter system caused a storm of protest when it was introduced in Britain last year. Authorities promised it would be used only to block child abuse websites, but politicians later tried to use the technology to stop users accessing file-sharing sites.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 16 Mar 2010
WASHINGTON—With Google’s announcement in January that it is no longer willing to censor search results in China, a new boost was given to the proposed Global Online Freedom Act, which can restrict U.S. companies from complying with demands of repressive countries that constrain freedom on the Internet. Democratic Congressman David Wu (Ore) is joining Republican Congressman Smith with the hope that this year Congress will pass the Global Online Freedom Act (GOFA) of 2009, H.R. 2271.
The two Congressmen held a news conference March 9 on Capitol Hill to announce that the Global Internet Freedom Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives was now a registered Congressional member organization, with Wu and Smith serving as co-chairs. Rep. Wu said the Caucus would serve as a forum to discuss online freedom issues and “address minimum standards of conduct for U.S. businesses that operate in Internet-suppressing countries.”
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 16 Mar 2010
Chinese authorities have been explicit and unwavering in their disapproval of Google’s threat to disobey their censorship regulations on its Chinese search site, Google.cn. The company will have to “bear the consequences” for making such an “irresponsible” move, the Minister of Industry and Information Technology said last week.
Behind the scenes, however, there are signs that officials realize that their view on Google (GOOG) may not be superpopular. The Communist Party’s Propaganda Department issued requests to media outlets on Friday to halt their coverage of the possible closure of Google’s Chinese Web site, says a Chinese journalist familiar with the situation. Chinese news Web sites have also been told they will be required to use only official accounts of the situation if Google.cn is closed, another individual with knowledge of that order said.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 16 Mar 2010
PARIS — When asked how governments ought to deal with freeloaders who illegally copy music and movies on the Internet, James Murdoch, head of News Corp.’s European and Asian operations, does not mince his words: “Punish them.”
“There is no difference with going into a store and stealing Pringles or a handbag and taking this stuff,” he said last week at a media conference in Abu Dhabi. “We need enforcement mechanisms and we need governments to play ball.”
In Britain, where Mr. Murdoch is based, lawmakers have taken up the challenge — to the consternation of Internet companies and civil liberties groups, which are ratcheting up their own arguments against a tough anti-piracy bill that is nearing the make-or-break stage in Parliament.
