22 Aug 2011 | Digital Freedom, Index Index, minipost
Hackers launched a sustained attack against pro-democracy website Viet Tan on 13 August in a denial-of-service (DDoS) operation. Of the 77,000 IP addresses employed, 73 per cent originated from Vietnam. The Hanoi government’s firewall on www.viettan.org was lifted so that the network relying on computers from the country could take down the site. Viet Tan has been constantly blocked by Vietnamese censors, with web users in the country requiring proxies or other circumvention tools to access the site.
22 Aug 2011 | Digital Freedom, Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
Bahraini authorities have blocked access to the website of the Bahrain Justice and Development Movement, a London-based group consisting mainly of Bahraini exiles that denounces human rights violations in the country and advocates democratic reforms. Without elaborating, authorities accused the site of “breaking Bahrain’s laws.”
17 Aug 2011 | Egypt, Middle East and North Africa
The UAE has announced it intends to enforce legislation combating the “spreading of rumours” by social media, punishable by up to three years in prison.
Despite the authorities’ assurance that “there are clear definitions in the law to explain the exact meanings of spreading rumours, spreading lies, or spreading defamatory remarks”, in the words of the UAE’s Telecommunications Regulation Authority (TRA) General Manager Mohammad Al Ganem, the announcement has left a number of users puzzled about the extent and limitations of this law, especially its focus on instant messaging, including BlackBerry Messenger and SMS.
The implication can be far-reaching, as the “rumours'” include those “that could cause confusion among the public and lead to destabilisation of the country’s security” all the way to “spreading rumours about merchandise, cancer-causing agents, or mentioning outlets carrying the merchandise.”
The UAE has had a difficult relationship with the internet and social media. Its list of censored websites, though more limited than many other Gulf countries, included until a few months ago photo sharing website Flickr. Skype is also blocked.
More worryingly, however, in April of this year four bloggers were arrested for calling for reforms in the federal nation, and were charged with using a website called UAE Hewar to “conspire against the safety and security of the state in association with foreign powers”.
Seen in that context, the recent announcement regarding “rumours” can be seen as a thinly-veiled warning for activists whose criticism of the government can be viewed as “defamatory remarks” — a category of speech also punishable by the legislation, which is not a new law but an extension and a new application of the existing penal code.
The announcement has also led to a discussion in neighbouring Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, which generally enforce a level of internet censorship. In Qatar for instance, a newspaper observed the online debate and concluded that “most commentators, though strongly opposed to rumour-mongering, said they favoured free expression through the internet”.
12 Aug 2011 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
South Korea‘s government will go ahead with plans to scrap the current real-name system for internet users in the wake of the country’s worst online security breach. Last month, personal information including names, mobile phone numbers and email addresses of about 35 million users of the country’s popular internet and social media sites Nate and Cyworld was stolen in a hacking attack. The real-name system, introduced in 2007, requires people to use their real names and resident registration numbers when making online postings on websites with more than 100,000 visitors per day.
