Posts Tagged ‘Internet censorship’
August 10th, 2011
A
Vietnamese court today
sentenced French-Vietnamese activist Pham Minh Hoang to three years in prison on subversion charges for “carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration.” Authorities say he posted several anti-government articles online, and had ties to Viet Tan, a pro-democracy group that is banned in Vietnam. He also faces three years of house arrest following the end of his prison term.
July 6th, 2011
Australian service providers, including Telstra and Optus, will
voluntarily block websites deemed by the government as showing and disseminating child pornography. Those who attempt to access the blacklisted sites will be redirected to the site of the International Criminal Police Organisation. Wikileaks revealed that on the blacklist are some gay and straight porn sites, fringe religious groups, and Wikipedia sites.
July 5th, 2011
The US’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) is
shutting down websites based abroad that break US copyrights and and prosecuting their owners. Even if the server is not based in the US, so long as the website’s address ends in .com or .net, it can be closed down or targeted for prosecution because their connections run through Verisign, a company based in Virginia. British student,
Richard O’Dwyer, ran the website TVShack, which gave links to other sites that offered pirated downloads. He now faces extradition to and prosecution in the US.
June 2nd, 2011
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
reports Gwinnett County schools in Georgia employ a filter, Blue Coat, that blocks access to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender site and classifies them as sexually explicit or pornographic. The ACLU drafted a
demand letter on 23 May, asking the county to remove the filters from the schools and respond to its inquiry by 30 May, but has not yet received a response. Nowmee Shehab, a recent graduate and former president of the LGBT club at one of the schools told ACLU she was unable to access LGBT sites to plan activities. She stated, “Students need to be able to find information about their rights and about suicide and bullying prevention, and now they’re not able to get to information that’s really important for them.”s
June 1st, 2011
Surveillance and spamming — how the Syria’s embattled regime and its supporters battle protesters on social media. Jillian C York reports
(more…)
April 21st, 2011
Peter Bradwell: the fight for online rights in the UK is far from over
(more…)
April 19th, 2011
As Bahraini soldiers — aided by foreign troops — crush protests, youth activist Mohammed Al-Maskati, whose family have been detained, asks the international community to speak out
(more…)
March 4th, 2011
With the enactment of Law No. 5651 in May 2007, Turkey has become the land of internet censorship, argues Dr Yaman Akdeniz
(more…)
