Stories from June, 2009
China: Blocking and framing Google
Last night, Google including search, gmail, document and other applications was blocked for 2 hours, although some ISPs have restored the access in couple of hours, a number of twitterers...
China: 2009 Declaration of the Anonymous Netizens
In reaction to a series of internet censorship policy, in particular the introduction of Green Dam, a declaration has been circulated on the net in the past two days calling...
China: Google.cn buys Green Dam service?
Blogger dancing with G, quoted from a Google.cn source, reported that the company had spent a big sum of money to buy the Green Dam service for bettering the detection...
Egypt: A Week of ‘Bad News’ for bloggers
Last week ended up with a number of bad news for some Egyptian bloggers. Diaa Eddin Gad from Sawt Ghadeb (Angry Voice), is harassed by State Security police. Diaa, who was released last March after being arrested and ill-treated, told Global Voices in a phone call, that a force of State Security raided his house two weeks ago, and searched his apartment, and the whole building where he is living. He said:
Mauritania: Webmaster of Taqadoumy.com arrested
Hanevy Ould Dahah, 34, founder and manager of Mauritania’s leading news website www.taqadoumy.com was arrested on June 18 in Nouakchott when members of Mauritania’s security forces without presenting him with any charges, he was handcuffed and led to a police station in Mauritania’s capital.
Iran: Reformist and activist bloggers arrested
As protesters continue their demonstrations all over Iran against 12th June presidential election results, Iranian authorities have arrested hundreds of activists, including bloggers. Mohammad Ali Abtahi, former reformist vice president...
CCTV's propaganda campaign against Google.cn
On June 18th, China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Centre (CIIRC) published a report in its frontage condemning Google.cn for spreading obscene contents. The report, titled as "Strongly condem google for spreading indecent and obscene information", said
The Irony of Iran's ‘Twitter Revolution’
When the dust settles down on the Iran election crisis, we will see that Twitter was more useful as a media tool and not as an organizing tool.
Iran: Tohidloo, a reformist blogger was arrested
Somayeh Tohidloo, a female reformist blogger was arrested. As protest against Iranian presidential election grows, Iranian authorities arrested several political activists. recently she and a couple of bloggers organized an...
OpenNet Initiative Releases Results on Filtering in Asia
From the Great Firewall to the Myanmar Wide Web, Asia is well-known for its practices in Internet filtering. China has long taken the lead in blocking Web sites, filtering sites...
The Dawning of Internet Censorship in Germany
Germany is on the verge of censoring its Internet: The government – a grand coalition between the German social democrats and conservative party – seems united in its decision: On Thursday the parliament is to vote on the erection of an internet censorship architecture. The Minister for Family Affairs Ursula von der Leyen kicked off and lead the discussions within the German Federal Government to block Internet sites in order to fight child pornography.
Iran: Abtahi, a leading blogger was arrested
Mohammad Ali Abtahi, cleric,former vice president and blogger, was arrested today. He participated in a protest movement against presidential election's results yesterday.
China: No more criticism against Green Dam!
Update: June 16 – Green Dam filter software ‘not compulsory’ – via China Daily. On June 10th, the central propaganda department issued a notice reminding all the media to report...
Indonesia: People Power 2.0
Two days after her release from jail [id] on Wednesday 3 June 2009, the first court session for Prita Mulyasari, an Indonesian housewife who was arrested and jailed since mid...
Peru: Attacks to human rights and freedom of expression
The bloody events in the Peruvian town of Bagua began when the police removed a road blockade of indigenous people protesting against a law (DL 1090) they believe undermines their...
Brazil: Amplified conversations to fight the Digital Crimes Bill
In another demonstration of cyberactivism and acvistim, Brazilian Internet users are gathering around a cause: to fight Senator Azeredo's Digital Crimes Bill. This legal project, which intends to intervene severely in the way people use the Internet in Brazil is being heavily criticized by Brazil's academic field, left-wing parties and the Internet community.
Egypt: Police Asks For Information about visitors of ‘Political Websites’
After detaining more than 100 blogger in 2008 alone, Egypt is now using a new technique in controlling the internet freedom, as police officers asked an internet café owner to spy on his customers.
Global Voices Advocacy Wins Zemanta Blog Contest
Global Voices Advocacy won first prize in Zemanta's Blogging for a Cause competition today. More than 60 different websites were nominated, and the top 5 to receive the most votes from bloggers have each won $1200. Thanks for all the support!!
Caste Based Communities on Orkut Mirror India's Splintered Society
I have written before about Shiv Sena's militant approach towards Orkut communities critical of the party, its leader Bal Thakeray, or its Hindutva ideology. Caste-based communities on Orkut are another disturbing example of online communities mirroring the splintered nature of Indian society.
China: Green dam PC filtering
According to Wall Street Journal (June 8, 2009), the Chinese government has required international PC makers to equip their PC shipped to China with filter software from July 1 onward....
