Asia
ONI Blog: #iranelection Censored? Evaluating Twitter's Trending Topics
Written in collaboration with Devin Gaffney.
Following the anniversary of the Iran election protests on June 12th, Iranian reform protesters began accusing Twitter of censoring #iranelection when the hashtag did not trend on the site that day. Some protestors went so far...
ONI Blog: China's White Paper on the Internet and Internet Sovereignty
In the wake of China’s first white paper on the Internet, a new idea has emerged that has been receiving little press, but deserves substantial discussion and debate. This idea is national Internet sovereignty.
The new concept creates a...
ONI Blog: Vietnam's New Green Dam?
Vietnam is continuing its steep fall down a slippery slope of Internet censorship and filtration and is raising more concerns over its new cyber-technology implementation.
Internet censorship is nothing new to Vietnam, yet its policies have remained very much out...
- Posted on 08/Jun/2010; tagged in Vietnam, Asia, Surveillance, ONI, Political filtering, Social filtering, Filtering tech and software
ONI Blog: Bangladesh unblocks Facebook
Last week we reported that Bangladesh had blocked Facebook for offensive content, including depictions of Mohammed and "obnoxious images" of the country's political officials as well as links to pornographic sites. According to the BBC, Facebook has taken down the...
- Posted on 07/Jun/2010; tagged in Bangladesh, Asia, Take-down, Political filtering, Social filtering
ONI Blog: China Blocks Foursquare, Unblocks Porn
A year ago this week, I wrote about how China was cracking down on social media sites in preparation for the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square. This year, government censors are taking a different tack, making a flood of...
ONI Blog: Pakistan Lifts Facebook Ban; Bangladesh Cracks Down
As Pakistan lifted a two-week long ban on Facebook Monday, Bangladesh began blocking the site.
Both bans followed the creation of a Facebook group promoting "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day," an event that encourages participants to submit artistic representations of the prophet...
- Posted on 01/Jun/2010; tagged in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Asia, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Arrests and legal action, Obscenity, Hate speech, Social filtering, Overblocking
ONI Blog: Facebook Blocked in Pakistan Following "Draw Mohammad Day" Competition
Last month, following controversy over Comedy Central's decision not to show a depiction of the prophet Mohammad on the popular TV show South Park, Seattle-based cartoonist Molly Norris came up with the idea for "Draw Mohammad Day," to assert the right...
- Posted on 19/May/2010; tagged in United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Asia, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Hate speech, Political filtering, Social filtering, Overblocking
ONI Blog: Is Blocking RapeLay the Solution?
Controversy is brewing over a Japanese video game called RapeLay which, according to Australia's Sydney Morning Herald, allows users to "earn points for acts of sexual violence, including following girls on commuter trains, raping virgins and their mothers, and then forcing...
- Posted on 02/Apr/2010; tagged in United States of America, Japan, Australia, United States/Canada, Asia, Australia/New Zealand, Search result removal, Social filtering
ONI Blog: Google.cn Redirects to Hong Kong...For Now
In January of 2010, following attacks on Google's corporate infrastructure originating from China, Google made the fateful decision to stop censoring results on its Chinese-language Google.cn site. Just a few days ago, Google finally made good on its promise, shutting down...
ONI Blog: Green Dam Goes Mobile?
Last year when China’s Ministry of Public Security announced a directive calling for the obligatory pre-installation of Internet filtering software on all computers sold in China, the public response was one of widespread concern and opposition. After pervasive criticism and resistance,...
