‘Without free speech writers can have very little impact on culture’
This is a transcript of author and English PEN deputy president Hari Kunzru’s address to the European Writer’s Parliament
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Obama's "Internet kill switch" powers under review
It sounds alarming: the “Internet kill switch”. It also sounds alarming that under a law passed over 60 years ago Barack Obama (or any US president) has an opaquely defined authority to shut down sections of the Internet in the event of a national emergency.
At its inception the law addressed state control over telephone and telegraph networks. Obviously the law made no mention of the Internet, but made vague references to means of communication. Specifically, it is cited that provisions in the Communications Act give the president the power to “suspend or amend the rules and regulations applicable to any or all facilities or stations for wire communication”.
In June, the Obama administration introduced a bill which strove to give a newly created National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications significant control over the Internet in times of national emergency. The bill, having been approved, is now due to go before the Senate.
Presidential power in the event of an attack on America seems not to be the predominant objection amongst the bill’s critics, but rather it is the lack of specification that raises concerns. A letter sent in June to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs by the ACLU and 23 other groups expressed such worries. They sought assurances that “cybersecurity measures” would not “unnecessarily infringe on free speech, privacy, and other civil liberties interests” and asked for the committee to “clarify the scope of the legislation”.
In terms of how these powers would be employed, it has been suggested the president could make use of them to combat a hostile assault on the computer systems of America’s utility companies or Wall Street financial services. This is neither an abstract threat nor a provision for the future: This year US government agencies have been hit by an average 1.8 billion cyber attacks each month — and that number is constantly rising.
The many suggestions of discomfort and unease about the prying capabilities of Google Street View demonstrate a similar strain of thinking about the private sector. The disquiet around the hyperbolically named “kill switch” is again not a case of libertarian horror towards any assumption of influence by the state. In fact, a recent survey suggested that 61 per cent of Americans supported the president’s right to shut down parts of the Internet if their nation came under cyber attack. Regardless of whether the moves to monitor and control come from the private sector or the state, people (ever concerned with the balance between security and privacy) want these powers clearly outlined and legally delimited.
China blogging conference cancelled
Organisers of an annual blogging conference, CNBloggercon, to be held last weekend in Shanghai were told to cancel the event because it was too “sensitive.”
Convener and citizen journalist, Zhou Shuguang, told Agence France-Presse that the venue informed them one day before the conference was due to start that the Shanghai government had warned them not to allow it to go ahead.
This is the first time in six years that the two-day meeting has been cancelled. Previous conferences, described as the “best annual internet event in China,” by China media blog, Danwei.com, have been held in different cities to avoid being shut down. Last year, for example, it was held in a cave near a mountain town in Guangdong province.
Organisers, though, tried to have the last laugh. The conference website has been wiped clear of content but if you press (alt+A) highlighted text appears: ‘The grass mud horse has been harmonised.'” The Grass Mud Horse, an imaginary alpaca-like creature, is a popular online slang used to poke fun at Internet censorship and in Chinese it has the same sounds as a fairly strong profanity.
When asked why he thought the conference failed this year: prominent Chinese blogger Isaac Mao replied by email: “It’s a very tough year for the China authority this year… [they] are becoming either less tolerant or less confident.”
Mao added that those people who arrived to take part still managed to meet in informal groups. “Because it comes from an internet philosophy, it will definitely continue. Probably no one can ever really stop it.” He noted that they employ “creative ways beyond the mentality of the old-fashioned government.”
“My body is in England, my mind still in Belarus”
How do you survive as a journalist in a country ranked worse than Iran on press freedom and worse than Zimbabwe on human rights? In the lead up to next month’s Belarusian presidential elections, exiled reporter Olga Birukova talks to Index on Censorship about her experience as a young journalist
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