15 Apr 2010 | Digital Freedom, Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
Opera has become Kazakhstan‘s most popular web browser in the country, because it allows users to bypass internet censorship. According to Web Analytics firm StatCounter, the browser increased its market share to 32 per cent in March. Last year, Kazakhstan introduced a law allowing local courts to block access to web sites whose content has been deemed “illegal”. The new edition of Opera introduced last year, Opera 10, allows users to view otherwise inaccessible web pages using its Opera Turbo feature designed to speed up browsing over slow connections.
6 Apr 2010 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
Google has failed to renew its internet content provider licence in China, which expired at the end of March. This will not affect its Google.cn search engine, which has already redirected its traffic to servers in Hong Kong. Other services, such as Google Maps – which are still held on mainland servers – are expected to be transferred over to its Hong Kong operations shortly.
30 Mar 2010 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
Plans for a mandatory ISP-level filtering system for internet users in Australia has come under attack from leading business giants such as Google, Yahoo as well as the US government. US State Department spokesperson Michael Tran stated that they have raised their “concerns” over the matter with Australian officials. Critics have commented that if such a programme were to be implemented, it would “put Australia in the same censorship league as China.”
17 Mar 2010 | Index Index, minipost
On 13 March, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez called for new internet regulations and demanded that authorities crack down on a news website he accused of spreading false information. Chávez claimed the Noticiero Digital website had falsely reporting that two of his political allies had been assassinated. Noticiero Digital acknowledged that the forum posts Chávez singled out contained rumors posted by site users but said it had removed them within hours. “The internet cannot be something open where anything is said and done. No, every country has to apply its own rules and norms,” Chavez said during his televised speech. He also cited German Chancellor Angela Merkel as having voiced similar sentiments recently.
