Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents

Reporters Without Borders has released the Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents (local mirror) which includes a chapter by myself on censorship circumvention technology.

In response to state-directed Internet filtering and monitoring regimes many forms of circumvention technologies have emerged in order to allow users to bypass filtering restrictions. In general, circumvention technologies work by routing a user's request from a country that implemented filtering through an intermediary machine that is not blocked by the filtering regime. This computer then retrieves the requested content for the censored user and then transmits the content back to the user.

There are numerous projects to develop technologies that would enable citizens and civil society networks to secure themselves against, or work around, Internet censorship and surveillance. Circumvention technologies are often targeted towards different types of users with varying resources and levels of expertise. This chapter guides users through the process of selecting a circumvention technology that meets the users specific needs.

The chapter "Technical ways to get around censorship" is also available in HTML format: Part 1 & Part 2. It is also available in Chinese, Arabic and Farsi/Persian.

Internet Filtering in Singapore in 2004-2005

ONI has released a study on Internet Filtering in Singapore. The Republic of Singapore is an economic leader in Southeast Asia, with a vibrant information and communications technologies sector; however, the state maintains strong formal and informal controls over the information to which its citizens have access. Singapore's Internet content regulation depends primarily on access controls and legal pressures to prevent people from posting objectionable content rather than technological methods to block it. Compared to other countries that implement mandatory filtering regimes that ONI has studied closely, Singapore's technical filtering system is one of the most limited. Click here for the full report.

NBC Censors Kanye West

NBC deleted Kanye Wests political comments from the West Coast broadcast of its Hurricane Katrina benefit show. NBC says they censored West's comments because they didn't want to "politicize" the event. Here is a video of what he actually said.

The LA Times slammed NBC's censorship stating:

By censoring Grammy-winning rapper Kanye West's remarks critical of President Bush during its West Coast feed of the program Friday night, the network violated the most moving and essential moment in an otherwise sterile, self-serving corporate broadcast...

NBC may have been nervous about West's comments, including the notion that America and its president are unresponsive to the needs of the poor. But you can be sure those remarks would have been cheered more than anything else in the program by the black parents and children still trapped in the New Orleans Convention Center and the Superdome if they had been able to hear them.