Social filtering
ONI Blog: Chinese Twitter Plans English Launch: Implications for Censorship
Chinese online media company Sina Corp. recently announced its plans to launch an English version of its already popular microblogging site Weibo this year. Weibo, which has been dubbed by many as the “Chinese Twitter” and serves as the...
ONI Blog: Proposed EU Internet Filtering Condemned by Civil Liberties Groups
A meeting held in February by a working party of the European Union has gained widespread criticism after minutes from the meeting, published this week, revealed plans for a "single secure European cyberspace."
The plans were proposed by the Law Enforcement...
ONI Blog: Turkish Telecommunications Directorate Bans 138 Words from Turkish Internet
The Turkish Telecommunications Directorate (T?B) has issued a statement to Turkish web hosts, asking them to ban web sites with domain names containing any of 138 offensive words.
Turkish activists are challenging the ban, claiming it has "no legal grounds." ...
- Posted on 02/May/2011; tagged in Turkey, Social filtering
ONI Blog: Potential Facebook Venture Into China?
Facebook has been in talks with Chinese search engine Baidu to set up a social networking site in China, where the social networking giant has been banned since 2009.
Reports have not yet been confirmed, but an agreement would allow Facebook to launch...
ONI Blog: Ugandan Government Asks ISPs to Block Facebook, Twitter
With the exception of Ethiopia, which blocks a number of political and security-related websites, and a few cases of isolated Internet censorship related to political events, most of sub-Saharan Africa has historically been free of technical filtering. This week,...
ONI Blog: German government gives up Internet filter law
On 5 April 2011 the German conservative-liberal government decided to give up their plans to establish Internet filters after a respective law to impede the access to child porn websites (Zugangserschwerungsgesetz) was set on hold for more than a year.
The law...
- Posted on 07/Apr/2011; tagged in Germany, Europe, Legislation, Social filtering, Voluntary filtering
Report: West Censoring East: The Use of Western Technologies by Middle East Censors, 2010-2011
March 2011
Authored by Helmi Noman and Jillian C. York.
To view this bulletin as a PDF, click here.
Executive Summary
The OpenNet Initiative has documented network filtering of the Internet by national governments in over forty countries worldwide. Countries use this network filtering...
- Posted on 28/Mar/2011; tagged in Bahrain, Canada, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, United States/Canada, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Political filtering, Social filtering, Internet tools filtering, Voluntary filtering, Filtering tech and software
ONI Blog: ONI Releases 2010 Year in Review
The OpenNet Initiative is proud to announce the release of its 2010 Year in Review, a collection of the year's top instances of filtering, surveillance, and information warfare around the globe.
Among the year's most well-known events are the banning of Blackberry...
- Posted on 18/Mar/2011; tagged in Bahrain, China, Cuba, India, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Vietnam, Yemen, Afghanistan, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, Syria, Venezuela, Turkey, Nigeria, Japan, Mexico, Australia, Italy, Bangladesh, Indonesia, United Kingdom, Lebanon, Rwanda, South Africa, United States/Canada, Asia, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Europe, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Australia/New Zealand, Legislation, Arrests and legal action, Copyright, Take-down, Human rights, Circumvention, Elections, ONI, Political filtering, Social filtering, Conflict and security filtering, IP blocking, Filtering tech and software
ONI Blog: Republican Rep Opposes FCC's Net Neutrality Proposal in Congress
Today, Republican congresswoman Marsha Blackburn slammed Federal Communication Commission's new proposal on net neutrality and argued against the government's attempts to regulate the Internet. During the State of the Net conference, the Tennessee representative who also serves on the House's...
- Posted on 18/Jan/2011; tagged in United States of America, United States/Canada, Legislation, Data retention, Social filtering, IP blocking
ONI Blog: McDonald's Blocks Gay Websites in New Zealand
News sources in New Zealand have reported that McDonald's may be actively censoring gay and lesbian online content in the country. The fast food chain's Wi-Fi network has come under attack from New Zealand's gay community for its apparent blocking...
- Posted on 17/Jan/2011; tagged in New Zealand, Australia/New Zealand, Obscenity, Take-down, Data retention, Social filtering