Given the increasing importance of events surrounding Internet repression, especially after the Iran protest and the Google Vs China debacle, I was trying to collect this data over a period of time then display it on a timeline with useful links and videos (where available). Like the Threatened Voices Timeline and Map, the purpose of this small project is obviously to identify trends in digital repression over time and highlight other issues often overlooked by mainstream media. Read more on GV Advocacy http://is.gd/bhqPx
Created by ifikra on 03/04/2010
Last updated: 02/11/10 at 12:18
Tags: censorship major events DDos Free Speech Global Voices
Burmese state media has said that an external cyber attack has been launched at its main server, days after critics of the junta blamed it for deliberately sabotaging communications.
The country’s main internet service has been down for nearly two weeks, rendering access to foreign news website, email accounts and a host of domestic services almost impossible.
According to Xinhua, the Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications department claim it is the second such attack this year, with one in February paralysing the Yatanarpon Teleport Company service.
http://www.dvb.no/news/âexternal-attackâ-crippled-burmaâs-internet/12535
Europe has proposed a global Internet Treaty to protect the net from political interference and place into international law its founding principles of open standards, net neutrality, freedom of expression and pluralistic governance.
The draft law was compared to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty as the Council of Europe presented it to web luminaries from around the world at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Vilnius, Lithuania, this week.
Dignitaries warned that governments were threatening the internet with fragmentation by bringing it under political control.
The proposed Internet Treaty would require countries to sustain the technological foundations that made the network of networks possible.
"Openness and interoperability" and "network neutrality" would become two of 12 Principles of Internet Governance.
"The fundamental functions and the core principles of the internet must be preserved in all layers of the internet architecture with a view to guaranteeing the interoperability of networks in terms of infrastructures, services and contents," says the draft treaty.
The defining characteristic of the internet, that it left any information processing to the end points of the network and did not interfere with traffic that passed across it, was also proposed as a principle of net neutrality.
"The end-to-end principle should be protected globally," says the report.
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2010/09/17/242901/Europe-calls-for-global-internet-treaty.htm?printerfriendly=true
The UAE said it will block key features on BlackBerry smart phones, citing national security concerns because the devices operate beyond the government's ability to monitor their use. Saudi Arabia quickly indicated it planned to follow suit.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-10830485
China renewed Google's Internet license after it pledged to obey censorship laws and stop automatically switching mainland users to its unfiltered Hong Kong site.
Google promised to "obey Chinese law" and avoid linking to material deemed a threat to national security or social stability, said Zhang Feng, director of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Telecoms Development Department, at a news conference.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100720/ap_on_hi_te/as_china_google_1
Blogging platform Blogetery.com was cut off by its hosting company last week after the authorities said al-Qaida “terrorist material” was found on one of its servers, said a statement from web host BurstNET Technologies Monday.
Blogetery.com has been with host BurstNet for 7 months, but on Friday July 9th the site disappeared.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/blogetery-al-qaeda/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired27b+%28Blog+-+27B+Stroke+6+%28Threat+Level%29%29
France and the Netherlands called Thursday for international guidelines to prevent private firms from exporting high-tech equipment that could be used for Internet censorship.
Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said there must be "concrete measures taken to ensure that the Internet remains a universal forum" and singled out Iran for blocking access to anti-government websites.
"We must support cyber-dissidents in the same way that we supported political dissidents," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told a meeting in Paris attended by some 20 countries including the United States and Japan.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100708/tc_afp/francenetherlandsinternetpoliticsrights_20100708160333
Lately, Internet users in Tunisia started complaining about difficulties accessing their Gmail account, and rumors began to circulate about an imminent censorship of Google's email service. Since the new wave of censorship that banned popular websites, such as Flickr, Wat.tv, Blip.tv, Metacafe.com, Agoravox.fr and countless of Tunisian blogs, paranoia about internet censorship has increased and seems to be justified.
http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2010/07/05/mass-gmail-phishing-in-tunisia/
Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), along with Reps. George Miller (D-CA), Bart Gordon (D-TN), Richard Neal (D-MA), Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Mike Thompson (D-CA) and Michael McCaul (R-TX), introduced the One Global Internet Act of 2010. This legislation focuses on trade barriers and restrictive technology standards that threaten the free flow of information and undermine global trade. The Act establishes a government task force that would review, prioritize, and act on attempts by foreign governments to degrade or disrupt the flow of goods, services, and/or content on the Internet.
http://lofgren.house.gov/images/stories/internet_summary.pdf
"Operation Titstorm", as "Anonymous" labelled the attacks, were in protest of Senator Conroy's proposed internet filter and knocked out the Australian Parliament House website for days. It also affected the Prime Minister and the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy websites.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/titstorm-leads-to-ddos-prevention-trial-339303405.htm
Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi has said technological advances have amplified the need for defensive preparations against "cyber war."
"At present, information and communication technologies are of great importance for different countries and we must prepare and equip ourselves against any form of cyber warfare," IRNA quoted Brigadier General Vahidi as telling a gathering of army commanders in Tehran on Saturday.
The announcement came two months after Iran dismantled a US-backed cyber network, which was set up to gather information on the country's nuclear scientists and spread unrest after the June 12, 2009 presidential election.
Iran's Judiciary said the "cyber war" had received presidential funding from former US President George W. Bush with the help of the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), pro-monarchy groups and other anti-Iran cells.
Brig. Gen. Vahidi also praised the martyrs of the eight-year Iraqi-imposed war on Iran for their efforts that resulted in the liberation of Khoramshahr from foreign occupation.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=127386§ionid=351020101
Facebook executives are calling an "all hands" meeting in light of mounting privacy concerns from the European Union regarding Instant Personalization, which may be in violation of an agreement made in November 2009.
Recently, EU officials have rebuked Facebook for enacting privacy changes, including enacting an "instant personalization" feature, which makes personal information on users' profile page accessible to public searches.
http://www.crn.com/security/224800001;jsessionid=54BXFQLUAQPV3QE1GHPSKH4ATMY32JVN
An assembled group of telecommunications ministers from the European Union's member states, called the Article 29 Working Party, has warned Facebook that changes it recently made to its privacy policy to enable "Instant Personalization" -- also known as "Like" -- may be in violation of what they thought was an agreement made in November 2009.
http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/privacy/news/docs/pr_12_05_10_en.pdf
State Department officials recently called the group, the Global Internet Freedom Consortium, offering it $1.5 million, according to Shiyu Zhou, one of the group's founders. A State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the offer.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/11/AR2010051105154.html
The Sudanese authorities have reportedly blocked users’ access to the YouTube site over a video posted this week showing electoral staff in East Sudan filling out the ballots and putting inside the boxes.
The Saudi-owned Al-Hayat newspaper said that the Al-Rakoba website was also blocked for showing the same footage although there was no official confirmation from National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC).
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article34836&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Google has revealed a worrying global trend of internet censorship by admitting that many of its products, such as search, Docs, Blogger and YouTube, are blocked in 25 of the 100 countries where it operates.
http://googlepolicyeurope.blogspot.com/2010/04/controversial-content-and-free.html
The Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Jennifer Stoddart, and the heads of the data protection authorities in France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom sent the following letter to the chief executive officer of Google Inc. to express their concerns about privacy issues related to Google Buzz.
http://www.priv.gc.ca/media/nr-c/2010/let_100420_e.cfm
Twitter co-founders on Wednesday [April 14th, 2010] expressed hope that the globally popular microblogging service will help thwart efforts by China to censor information in that country.
"Censorship sucks," Twitter co-founder Evan Williams said during an on-stage chat on the opening day of a Chirp developers conference at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
"We would love to enable freedom of expression and freedom of information in China."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/twitter-wants-to-be-tool-to-thwart-censorship-1945993.html
The Censorship Research Center (“CRC”) announced that it has received critical United States Government authorizations required to export anti-filtering technology to Iran.
http://www.censorshipresearch.org/press/releases/anti-censorship-software-licensed-by-us-government-for-export-to-iran/
On sunday, Apr 10, 2010, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez launched the program named “Communicational Thunder”, and seventy-five young students between ages 13 and 17, were sworn in his "Communicational Guerrilla", wearing khaki jackets and red bandanas tied around their necks. They had been trained to "fight against imperialist messages", either on social networks online, on walls and pamphlets or "through direct intervention".
http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2010/04/16/president-chavez-and-his-communicational-guerrilla/
The Information and Communication Technology Ministry is warning that all websites linked with the red shirt demonstrations and those encouraging people to join tomorrow's mass rally will be blocked immediately. Mr Sue said almost 10,000 website links had been blocked since March when the red shirt demonstration began.
Bans on another 700 links were awaiting court approval, he said.
http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2010/04/12/thailand-pulls-plug-on-tv-station-decrees-martial-law-arrests-webmasters-blocks-10000-more-websites/
Government attempts to impose rules on Internet users appear to be failing. Just over a year after requiring verifiable, real-name registrations on most Korean Web sites, message boards and chat rooms, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) now admits that the decision may have been a mistake.
In meeting with the chief executives of Internet companies last week, KCC Chairman, Choi See-jooong said that the agency would ``reconsider'' the real-name requirements, which local companies report are detering their ability to compete with global services such as Google.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2010/04/123_63898.html
Facebook Inc. is considering plans to enter the Internet market in China before the end of this year, according to a report on the Shanghai-based news site Sina.com.
Facebook spokesman Larry Yu said the Palo Alto social media king is "interested in China, just as we are many other countries, and while we are studying and learning about them all, we have no specific plans for China at this time."
http://blog.seattlepi.com/techchron/archives/200959.asp?from=blog_last3
The investigative team from U of T and Ottawa-based SecDev Group released a report Tuesday that reveals how sophisticated hackers used Twitter, email and blogs to steal confidential national security data from India and spy on the Dalai Lama’s email.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/790931--hackers-used-twitter-email-to-crack-computers
China refuted a report that said China-based hackers had targeted the Indian government, saying the accusations were groundless and fall short of evidence.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-04/06/c_13239779.htm
Vietnam has rejected accusations made by Google and McAfee that malicious software had been used to spy on tens of thousands of Vietnamese web users.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8604698.stm
News channel France 24 accuses Iran of blocking its website to users there.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iFYXj_MOunVf1-1jZFBlZHj4VMGw
The United State Government has today announced that it will introduce sanctions against Australia over the latter’s introduction of internet censorship.
http://www.inquisitr.com/68479/united-states-imposes-sanctions-against-australia-over-internet-censorship/
Google says it has identified cyber-attacks aimed at silencing critics of a controversial, Chinese-backed bauxite mining project in Vietnam.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/world/asia/01vietnam.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
The Yahoo e-mail accounts of foreign journalists based in China and Taiwan have been hacked.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8596410.stm
BRUSSELS—While the Chinese regime attempts to play down the Google incident, prominent people of the European Union have praised the company's decision to lift censorship. From a broader perspective, the company's withdrawal is interpreted as the decline of the regime's power to control.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/32406/
The Chinese-language website of Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) has been hacked into and rendered inaccessible by a series of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/2431
US State Department spokesperson, Michael Train, explained the government's position: "Our main message of course is that we remain committed to advancing the free flow of information which we view as vital to economic prosperity and preserving open societies globally.
"We don't discuss the details of specific diplomatic exchanges, but I can say that in the context of that ongoing relationship, we have raised our concerns on this matter with Australian officials."
http://www.bigmouthmedia.com/live/articles/washington-joins-google-and-yahoo-in-opposing-aus.asp/6861/
Google mobile services have been partly blocked in China, according to the company, after it snubbed the Chinese government over censorship last week.
http://www.macworld.com/article/150158/2010/03/google_china.html?lsrc=rss_main
In a radio interview on 29 March, Australia’s communications minister Stephen Conroy had some strong things to say about Google:
“Notwithstanding their alleged ’do no evil’ policy, they recently created something called Buzz and there was a reaction. People said ’well, look aren’t you publishing private information?’,” Senator Conroy said.
The founder of Google said the following: ’If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place’. He also said recently to Wall Street analysts: ’We love cash’.
So when people say ’shouldn’t we just leave it up to the Googles of this world to determine what the filtering policy should be?’ - make no mistake, anybody who wants to go onto Google’s sites now and look up their filtering policy will actually find they filter more material and a broader range of topics than we are proposing to put forward.
I’ll back our Parliament to stand fast on these issues from Google.”
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2010-03-30-n81.html
Plurk is the most popular micro-blogging platform in Taiwan. Recently, in March 29 2010, one of its founder Alvin Woon posted a plurk, saying that he had been receiving letter from police asking for the IP information of some of the plurkers' accounts. However, the police did not present any court order for the IPs.
http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2010/04/08/taiwan-police-ask-for-plurkers-ips/
While Google will no longer help support the Great Chinese Firewall, it is even more likely to face charges of holding to double standards, not least of all in Thailand. Since 2006 Google's subsidiary company, YouTube, has helped the Thai government censor certain videos. The original case which brought about the censorship joint venture involved a scurrilous attack on the high institution by a YouTube user. When the firm refused to take down the offensive video, the government blocked all access to YouTube by all users in Thailand. YouTube blinked, took down the video and several other copycats, and joined hands to censor material for all those whose internet computer's address is in Thailand.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/35053/google-siding-with-censors
RBK Daily, a respected Russian news agency, reports (in Russian) that the Russian government might soon be launching a "national search engine". According to RBK's anonymous sources inside Kremlin, it would aim at satisfying "state-oriented" needs such as "facilitating access to safe information" and "filtering web-sites that feature banned content." It's going to be an ambitious project: the government is prepared to invest $100 million in this new venture, does not want to allow any foreign funding, and intends to build it in cooperation with the private sector.
http://neteffect.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/03/26/is_russia_googles_next_weak_spot
China’s second largest wireless carrier – China Unicom – has said it will remove Google’s search service from the Android phones it developed in tandem with the web giant.
http://is.gd/b0zRw
It's been nearly a year since China first shutdown access to Twitter in preparation for the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, but today Google has opened up the doors again, in a way.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_brings_twitter_search_results_to_china.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+readwriteweb+%28ReadWriteWeb%29
GoDaddy, the largest domain registrar around, to stop offering .cn domains, after China put in place new rules, requiring registering with the government and providing all sorts of personal info, including a photograph and identity cards.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20100324/1247318698.shtml
a Brazilian court fined Google for failing to block Orkut pages containing dirty jokes that "offended" two teenagers. The court imposed a $2700 fine for each day that the offending pages remained up and ordered Google to stop similar material from being posted in the future. Ironically, the court apparently cited Google's censorship of material in China as proof that it was feasible to do so in Brazil, leaving out Google's showdown with China and its ultimate decision to pull out of China altogether.
http://is.gd/b25Wb
Chinese Government accused Google of colluding with the US Army to wage a cyberwar against China. Blasting the search engine for being hypocritical, the article claims that Google’s, “collusion with the U.S. intelligence and security agencies is well-known…All this makes one wonder. Thinking about the United States’ big efforts in recent years to engage in Internet war, perhaps this could be an exploratory pre-dawn battle.”
http://thenextweb.com/us/2010/03/24/china-google-army-waging-cyberwar/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheNextWeb+%28The+Next+Web%29
Testimony of Alan Davidson, Director of Public Policy, Google Inc. Before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China Hearing on “Google and Internet Control in China: A Nexus Between Human Rights and Trade?”
http://www.scribd.com/doc/28866040
A networking error has caused computers in Chile and the US to come under the control of the Great Firewall of China, redirecting Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube users to Chinese servers.
http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/article/340997/china_great_firewall_spreads_overseas/
ome Chinese netizens who feel caught between Google and their government have written an open letter to "relevant Chinese government ministries and Google Inc."
http://rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/2010/03/chinese-netizens-open-letter-to-the-chinese-government-and-google.html
All Chinese users trying to reach Google.cn are being redirected to Google.com.hk.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-approach-to-china-update.html
This page offers a summary of Google service accessibility from within mainland China.
http://www.google.com/prc/report.html#hl=en
The European Union is to discuss taking action against Iran over censorship of foreign media, amid wider concerns about media freedom in the country.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/122b2ef4-33a9-11df-8b99-00144feabdc0.html
Cyberattack Prevents Transmission of Election Results in Colombia.
http://ow.ly/1nJGY
Iranian lawmakers lauded the IRGC for arresting 30 individuals on charge of waging a US-backed cyber war against Iran and disbanding their cyber networks.
http://media.farsnews.net/Media/8805/Images/jpg/A0727/A0727310.jpg
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