Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

After the Secretary of State in the US Hillary Clinton's speech on Internet freedom, open source source code repository SourceForge.net blocked access to IP addresses originating in Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. Open source software provides important infrastructure to these oppressed and developing nations. I hope the American government can see what a blow this is to the infrastructure and fledgling industries in these countries.

Are the Social Networks a new weapon for democracy? This article gives an explanation about Obama's Government intentions of spread the free internet in these countries like a weapon for reach democracy

Since May 20, some Muslim Nations ban Facebook and You Tube after the publication of groups and videos like "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!" a Facebook group that encourages users to post images of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

An interesting article that surrounds the current political unrest in Iran as the anniversary of the 2009 'election' comes around. It's interesting to see how a computer game can be used in political games...

Back in March, Iranian's took part in the traditional fire festival, held at night time. A trend I've noticed with reporting in mainstream news is the use of a live blog with bloggers taking shifts to report on big events - The Guardian recently did this with the UK election and may do it for the World Cup coming up. To see this level of detail in live reporting in a mainstream news source is great, especially when it's not related to something as boring as sport ;) The reporter has contacts on the ground and also encourages other Iranians who may be reading to send him secure emails with updates from the event. Videos posted on YouTube are also linked to as soon as they're made available.

This article argues that the best alternative to fight against the Iranian Government, is providing the country with free satellite internet access. The flow of information and the use of Internet like a democratic tool will allow the own citizens to defeat the regime

Following on from ICANN's approval 6 months ago to start using non-Latin scripts for domain names, Egypst has introduced .misr (the Arabic name for Egypt). Depending on the browser and language packs installed, if a user mouses over a .misr link on a web page, they may see this in Arabic script. Will be interesting to see how this and forthcoming addtional non-Latin domain names impact on the language barrier aspect of the digital divide. Saudi Arabia and UAE have also set up their own new domain names - ".Al-Saudiah" and ".Emarat".

Six Months after the ICANN, approved the use of non-Latin domain names, Egypt launched "Misr" domain (the Arabic name for Egypt). A new perspective of Internet in the Arabic world.

A document that explores the difficulties of Iranian Cyber Activist to fight against the regime. Explain how Web Pages, Blogs and other internet initiatives like Radio Zamaneh, Jaras and Kalameh have been victims of persecution, filtering, and jail.

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.

The Iranian government has allegedly blocked a popular French broadcaster website because of its reliance on social networking sites and other amateur techniques of online journalism.

"Don't believe the hype", should be the sub title for this article...let's get real people! Questions whether the internet is a tool for freedom or whether it is just an instrument enabling further oppression in certain countries. Features quotes and examples from academic and former "cyber-utopian" Evgeny Morozov. The comments section of the article also provides more insight.

Hilary Clinton, Secretary of State for the US has 'raised concerns' with Australian officials as part of the ongoing relationship between the countries on the plan to implement mandatory filtering. If the government succeeds, Australia will join the likes of Saudi Arabia, Burma, China, North Korea, Egypt, Iran and other countries often less than co-operative in foreign affairs.

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.

This is the Iranian government's answer to US anti-internet censorship groups who aim to undermine the regime's strict filtering rules through funding from the CIA. It brings up questions of international involvement in extreme national governance of the internet.

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.

Nobel prizewinner Shirin Ebadi accused German engineering giant Siemens and Finnish telecoms firm Nokia of supplying Iran with technology to help it suppress democratic dissent. The European Parliament also supports that arguement and strongly criticised international companies, in particular Nokia Siemens for giving Iranian authorities the tools needed for censorship and surveillance. Both companies argue that they could not be blamed for the misuse but that their technologies "play a significant role in the development of societies and the advancement of democracy"

In an effort to disrupt communications and head off huge opposition demonstrations planned for Thursday, the Iranian authorities on Wednesday drastically slowed Internet service in Iran and shut down text messaging services, and an official said that Gmail, the Google e-mail service, would be blocked.

Iran has arrested 30 people suspected of belonging to a U.S.-linked cyber network gathering information on Iranian nuclear scientists and sending people abroad for training, a news agency reported on Saturday.