07 Oct 11 | Digital Freedom, Index Index, minipost
A draft law has been published by the Slovakian Ministry of Finance which could result in the blocking of some web servers. The bill would mean that web servers that provide online gambling without a license would be put on a list, which would be updated twice a month, and blocked by internet providers. Critics have warned that under this law, Facebook would also be blocked completely, due to the availability of online roulette and and poker games. An online petition created by Society for Open Information Technologies (SOIT) has been signed by thousands of citizens.
09 Aug 11 | Digital Freedom, Uncategorized
The New Republic has published a piece online this week taking the US State Department to task for its seeming lack of urgency in doling out its internet freedom budget — and its choices over which tools that budget has so far been used to fund. Author Max Shulman argues that this reality is at odds with the image Hillary Clinton has portrayed to the world of the US as the benefactor of internet freedom fighters toiling away in repressive regimes. Writes Shulman:
“This is complicated, Clinton finds new ways to say with every speech, but we’re doing all the right things. Official U.S. policy unequivocally favors a “free and open Internet” and opposes repressive censorship regimes worldwide through the best available means.
“But, in reality, this isn’t exactly true. An examination of the State Department’s record of its 18-month-old Internet freedom agenda reveals significant failures, both in overall funding efforts and in the omission of vital tools from its approach to helping activists crack through the layers of censorship imposed by repressive regimes. Before democracy advocates abroad can truly take heart in Clinton’s words, the department needs to admit to past mistakes and adopt a truly comprehensive approach to addressing the issue.”
There has been bitter dispute among technologists and politicians in the US over the wisdom of relying too heavily on circumvention tools to open the internet, particularly in countries where dictators are prone to simply shutting the whole thing off. But Shulman argues that the State Department should be trying everything — “mesh networks and circumvention tools, training for activists and pressure on antidemocratic corporations” — even as it acknowledges no one strategy will solve the problem.
Read the full piece here.
21 Jun 11 | Digital Freedom, Uncategorized
Western policymakers must proceed with caution when considering online surveillance and web-blocking; their actions impact on human rights abroad, argues Cynthia Wong
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21 Apr 11 | Index Index, minipost
Vietnamese authorities have dropped charges against a female blogger who was detained for :infringing on the interests of the state”. She was arrested for defamation after describing a senior official’s son as a womanizer. Le Nguyen Huong Tra, who blogged under the pseudonym Co Gai Do Long, was arrested last October and released on bail this January. Authorities have declared her actions to be “less serious” than first thought.
