Stories from July, 2010
Southeast Asia: Sex and web censorship
Regulating internet content today is viewed as an anti-democratic practice but Southeast Asian governments seem able to justify it by invoking the need to save the young from the scourge of indecent sexual behavior.
Web filtering In the Middle East using Bing Microsoft's search engine
Research conducted earlier this year examined the extent of Internet filtering in Arab countries made using Bing search engine of Microsoft for terms with a sexual orientation. Bing search engine is active in 41 languages and it offers a Web filtering system based on keywords entered into the system in...
China: Uighur blogger sentenced to 15 year imprisonment
According to uighurbiz.net, Uighur reporter and blogger Gheyret Niyaz（海來特．尼亞孜）has been sentenced to 15 year imprisonment on July 23 under the charge of “endangering national security” In Urumqi, Xinjiang. The main reason for the prosecution was his interview with overseas media outlet on the Xinjiang 7.5 riot last year. He was...
A Jordanian student sentenced to two years in prison over IM
According to the Next Web - Middle East, citing the Ammannet website, a Jordanian computer engineering student, by the name of Imad Al-Ash, has been arrested since February, 2010, and sentenced on July 13th, 2010, by state security court to two years in prison over charges of lèse majesté for sending an IM (Instant Message) to his friend
For the first time in Israel – blocking Internet gambling websites
On July 2010 an article was published which received no proper attention so far – for the first time the Israeli police ordered Internet Service providers to block access to websites. The news was posted on ‘Haaretz’ websites in Hebrew and English as well as on ‘Globes‘, but without significant...
Israel – Another step in government restrictions on the Web
Two weeks ago, when police directive was published for the first time in Israel, instructing the Internet providers to block access to some gambling websites, the economic Committee of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) approved, on July 13th, a bill requiring Internet service providers to inform their clients about the dangers...
Côte d'Ivoire: Three online journalists arrested for publishing a leaked report on alleged corruption
According to the blog of Le Nouveau Courrier, three journalists from this Ivorian daily have been arrested since Tuesday July 13th for publishing a leaked report on alleged corruption in the cocoa and coffee trade in Côte d'Ivoire. The three journalists – editor Saint Claver Oula, publisher Stéphane Guédé and managing editor Théophile Kouamouo were arrested by plain-clothes police on public prosecutor Raymond Tchimou Fehou’s orders and taken into custody after refusing to reveal their sources during a surprise visit at the Nouveau Courrier's offices.
China: Sohu.com removed online public opinion leaders’ blog accounts
Sohu.com, one of the most popular portal website in China, removed more than a hundred bloggers from its blog hosting service on July 14 2010. Many of them are influential public opinion leaders, political dissidents and citizen rights activists, including: He Weifang （賀衞芳）- a legal expert and citizen rights lawyer...
China: Cracking down on micro-blogging
According to today's Apple Daily News, the Propaganda Department and State Council Information Office have taken joint action in strengthening the control over micro-blogging services. Since Twitter and Facebook was blocked in China, the development of social media services have been booming. Most of the portal websites, such as Sina,...
Egypt: Blogger Released After More Than two Years in Detention
After about three years of detention, the Egyptian blogger Mus'ad Abu Fagr was finally released on Tuesday, June 13th, 2010. Though more than eight release orders were issued to him since his arrest on 26 December 2007, the Ministry of Interior used to renew each time his detention. The decision to set Abu Fagr free came as part of an effort to reduce growing tensions between Egyptian Security Services and Sinai Bedouins.
Venezuela: Two people arrested for tweeting about banking rumors
After menacing twitter users for their online activities a couple weeks ago, last thursday two persons were arrested, accused of spreading false rumors about the banking system. Those arrested were identified as Luis Acosta Oxford (41), and Carmen Cecilia Nares Castro (35).
Lebanon: Three Arrested for Facebook Postings
Lebanese Naim George Hanna, 27, Antoine Youssef Ramya, 29, and Shebel Rajeh Qassab, 27, have been arrested for posting Facebook statuses against the Lebanese President Michel Suleiman. The Lebanese online community is outraged because of the invasion of their cyberspace and here are some of their reactions.
China: Online grumble punished with one-year reform-through-labour
Tang Lin joined the “Kidney-stone-baby parent” network in 2008 as he suspected the cause of his baby's death was due to melamine contamination of infant milk formula. Since then, he kept paying visit petition to the Chinese authorities but was neglected. According to nddaily.com (via 163.com page removed), in May...
Mass Gmail Phishing in Tunisia
Lately, Internet users in Tunisia started complaining about difficulties accessing their Gmail account, and rumors began to circulate about an imminent censorship of Google's email service. Since the new wave of censorship that banned popular websites, such as Flickr, Wat.tv, Blip.tv, Metacafe.com, Agoravox.fr and countless of Tunisian blogs, paranoia about...
