Group items tagged

An interesting interview with Austin Heap, a programmer from California who created 'Haystack', software that allows people to avoid the internet censorship imposed by governments. This software was created as a reaction to the increased censorship imposed by the Iranian Government during and after the elections. It allowed Iranians to skype, email and surf the net in relative safety. Other points of discussion include the apparent values of free speech embedded in the software, the relationship between Google and China, and Australia's proposal of censorship.

This article discusses Austin Heap, a US citizen being awarded for his innovative program Haystack, which sidesteps Iran's heavy internet filtering through servers located elsewhere in the world. This article is important in today's internet censorship debate, as it promotes the awarding of individual's who openly seek ways around censorship.

Austin Heap, Director of the San Francisco Based Censorship Research Center, explained the development of "HAYSTACK" a software that has been distributed to Iranians since last March to beat internet censorship. "we can through technology allow people to have their basic human right of free speech without fear of retaliation." Austin Heap.