The Citizen Lab

Gaza conflict mirrored online
Posted Jan 06, 2009 in InfoWar by jaymz. 
As Israel continues its air attacks on the Gaza Strip after repeated rocket attacks, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has taken the fight for hearts and minds online. On 29 December the IDF became the first national armed force to set up a dedicated YouTube channel and the site already has nearly 10,000 subscribers. From vnunet

Internet censorship and the revolt of the masses
Posted Jan 06, 2009 in Censorship by jaymz. 
Democratic governments have toyed with the idea of Internet censorship for years. ISP-level filtering technology is slowly progressing, but the changing politics of Internet usage is undermining public support for censorship. From ovum

Thais block 'anti-royal' websites
Posted Jan 06, 2009 in Censorship by jaymz. 
The new Thai government has ordered ministries to act more decisively against those who violate laws protecting the image of the monarchy. The information ministry says it has set up a round-the-clock "war room" to combat websites containing content critical of the monarchy. From BBC

UK's database plan condemned by Europe
Posted Jan 05, 2009 in by jaymz. 
Britain must rethink plans for a database holding details of every email, mobile phone and internet visit, Europe's human rights commissioner has said in an outspoken attack on the growth of surveillance societies. Thomas Hammarberg said that UK proposals for sweeping powers to collect and store data will increase the risk of the "violation of an individual's privacy". From The Independent UK

India Sleepwalks To Total Surveillance
Posted Jan 05, 2009 in Surveillance by jaymz. 
Around 45 amendments have been made to the original Act, which now treats both publishers of online pornography and its consumers on equal footing. A law so sweeping in its powers that it allows a police officer in the rank of a sub-inspector to walk in or break in to the privacy of your home and see if you were surfing porn or not. It’s the personal morality of the official that will decide whether the picture/content you were looking at was lascivious or appeals to prurient interest. From countercurrents

US dumps unpopular internet filter plan
Posted Jan 05, 2009 in LawandPolicy by jaymz. 
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) doesn't enjoy a reputation for being particularly cluey, or particularly interested in issues relating to free speech. During the infamous Janet Jackson 'Nipplegate' incident at the 2005 Super Bowl, commissioners fell over each other to see who could appear more outraged by the brief glimpse of a partially-bared Jackson breast. From apc

China cracks down on 'vulgar' websites
Posted Jan 05, 2009 in Censorship by jaymz. 
Chinese officials today launched a crackdown on "vulgar" websites including Google and the country's leading search engine, Baidu. Officials named 19 sites they said had failed to censor inappropriate content despite warnings or that had not done so swiftly enough, "harming" young people's physical and mental health. From Guardian.co.uk

Should Facebook Ban Breast Feeding Photos?
Posted Jan 05, 2009 in Censorship by jaymz. 
Why do we care if a mother wants to show photos of herself breastfeeding on Facebook? Isn’t Facebook private enough that a user should be able to show pretty much any photo they want? Facebook doesn’t think so. After Heather Farley was told to remove a photo of her breast-feeding, she sent an email to Facebook requesting an explanation. From AllFacebook

Police set to step up hacking of home PCs
Posted Jan 05, 2009 in Surveillance by jaymz. 
THE Home Office has quietly adopted a new plan to allow police across Britain routinely to hack into people’s personal computers without a warrant. From Times Online

How come content against Salman Taseer can be termed as "blasphemous"?
Posted Jan 05, 2009 in Censorship by jaymz. 
Was just trying to look at some of the recently blocked urls by PTA, which returned the webpage with following message. Screen shot can be found Here
-----------------
ERROR
The requested URL could not be retrieved
While trying to retrieve the URL: http://www.dictatorshipwatch.com/taseer/taseer.swf
The following error was encountered:

* Access Denied.
Dear Valued Customer: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (www.pta.gov.pk) has directed all service providers of the country to block access to some blasphemous web content/movies. This content would remain blocked till the further orders from PTA. From Pakistan ICT Policy Monitors Network