Expression Under Repression

Thanks to some negotations by HIVOS the "Expression Under Repression" event at WSIS was a success. It was unclear whether the event was to be held at all after the Tunisian authorities threatened to shutdown the session, claiming that the topic had nothing to do with ICT for Development. On the morning of the event a "cancelled" notice appeared on the door of the room where the event was scheduled to take place. And during the first panel there was some coomotion as a Tunisian camera crew and assorted plainclothes agents entered the conference room. I began my presentation as negotiations continued in the hallway outside. While giving an overview of Internet filtering trends worlwide, based on the OpenNet Initiative's ongoing research, I tried to emphasize three key issues: Transparency/Accountability, Unintended Consequences and Mission Creep. Here are the slides from my presentation.

Internet Filtering in Tunisia in 2005

The OpenNet Initiative is proud to announce the release of Internet Filtering in Tunisia in 2005, a country study that documents Tunisia's attempts to control Internet information, including the filtering of political opposition Web sites, human rights groups, and sites that provide access to privacy-enhancing technologies. ONI research reveals that Tunisia’s government Internet agency, ATI, uses SmartFilter -- filtering software produced by Secure Computing, a US-based company -- as the basis of its filtering regime. The state falsifies the information provided to users who try to reach filtered sites; the error page received claims the site is not accessible for technical reasons. Click Here for the full report.

WSIS

The WSIS summit in Tunisia is now well underway and the issue of freedom of expression online is emerging as an important issue. In his opening address, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan stated that freedom of expression was a key issue. During the opening ceremony, Kofi Annan was joined by Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, representing the Civil Society delegation, who stated that fundamental respect for freedom of expression is integral to an information society. She called on WSIS to have an official inquiry into Internet filtering.

The fact that WSIS is even in Tunisia has been the subject of much controversy. In the official WSIS space it is considered the UN, and the Internet is not filtered. But across the hall, in the ICT4D area, where countries, NGO, and companies have booths, it is Tunisian space, and the Internet is filtered. A website for the Citizen's Summit, an alternative parallel event, was available two days ago, but it is now blocked.

As shown in the just released ONI report on Filtering in Tunisia the block page appears to be a 404 File not Found error, but it is in fact a 403 Forbidden error generated by SmartFilter.

Filtering in Germany

Schneier's comments on this article are right on.

Fortinet for who?

ONI reports that Burma is now using Fortinet (they were previously using DansGuardian) to censor the Internet. Fortinet claims:

Fortinet employs a two-tier sales model, in which we sell 100 percent of our products to resellers, who then sell to end-users. We do not directly sell, deploy or configure our products for end-users. Additionally, we have no record in our databases of Myanmar Millennium Group being a Fortinet reseller.

But DerekB discovered that Burma actually had a ceremony to commemorate the installation of Fortinet and that Ben Teh, Forntinet Sales Director for South Asia and Country Manager for Australia and New Zealand, had attended the ceremony, given a audio/visual presentation on Fortinet and presented a gift to the Burmese Prime Minister.



When asked by Irrawaddy:

Teh today denied that Fortinet has any involvement in Burma and refused to confirm or deny whether he visited Rangoon last year. "We don’t have any direct resellers and we don’t have any direct partners in Myanmar [Burma]," he said, refusing to comment further.

Here is a picure from Burmese TV of Ben Teh presenting his gift to the Burmese Prime Minister. See, there is a the little problem of the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003 which the New York Times suggests Fortinet may be in violation of. I am not a lawyer, but this Act only seems to affect imports from Burma, not exports. In fact the U.S. Department of Treasury states that exports to Burma are (there are exceptions for financial services and about who you can export to, but not exports themselves) are not prohibited. So unless Fortinet sold their filtering product to a prohibited person -- which appears to be persons who hold senior positions in the State Peace and Development Council or the Union Solidarity Development Association.

It's all somewhat odd. Section three of the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act is titled "BAN AGAINST TRADE THAT SUPPORTS THE MILITARY REGIME OF BURMA" but it does not seem to prevent U.S. companies from selling censorship and surveillance equipment to Burma, it only affects imports.

The ironly of all this is that we are continually seeing U.S.-made filtering products being used by authoritarian regimes to implement Internet censorship worldwide.

Internet Filtering in Burma in 2005

ONI released Internet Filtering in Burma in 2005 today. ONI's legal, technical, and political research finds Burma uses filtering technology to conduct surveillance of communication methods such as e-mail, and to block users from viewing Web sites of political opposition groups, organizations working for democratic change in Burma, and pornographic material. Click here for the full report.

Internet Filtering in Burma/Myanmar

The OpenNet Initiative released Internet Filtering in Burma in 2005:

ONI's legal, technical, and political research finds Burma uses Internet filtering technology to conduct surveillance of communication methods such as e-mail, and to block users from viewing Web sites of political opposition groups, organizations working for democratic change in Burma, and pornographic material.

Although Burma has switched to a commercial filtering product, Fortinet, it is the first country in which ONI has seen an open source software, DansGuardian, deployed as a national filtering mechanism. The websites of human rights groups, newspapers critical of the government and those supporting the Karen people as well as Aung San Suu Kyi are blocked in Burma along with most popular webmail services.

Some media coverage:

- Study Says Software Makers Supply Tools to Censor Web - New York Times
- Burma’s internet censorship worsening: study - Mizzima News
- Internet Censorship in Burma Worsening - Irrawaddy

and

Boing Boing (yay!)