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Archive for the ‘Iran’ Category

Epoch Times – Surveillance and Censorship Threaten Internet Freedom

By Gary Feurerberg
Epoch Times Staff Jun 21, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Internet has expanded the opportunities of citizens to express their views that challenge the authoritarianism of repressive regimes, as seen, for example, in China, Iran and Burma. Other digital media, such as mobile phones, have also played a significant role in getting news and pictures out to the world as well as facilitating communications between critics of repressive governments.

Applications like the social-networking site Facebook and Twitter, the video-sharing site YouTube, and the blog-hosting site Blogspot, are providing new outlets for expression, which can be highly threatening to totalitarian regimes.

Repressive regimes have responded with increasingly sophisticated controls that censor online content, monitor Internet users and intimidate and punish their critics.

To discuss the growing threats to Internet freedom in repressive nations, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission held a hearing June 16 on Capitol Hill. Representatives from five human rights organizations voiced their concerns on the measures being taken by repressive regimes, and advocated for the Global Online Freedom Act of 2009, which if enacted would prevent U.S. internet companies from cooperating in the censorship and surveillance by repressive regimes.

The methods being used by the repressive regimes are becoming more menacing and insidious. This was especially evident on the day of the hearing when the lead news story was about the huge protests in Iran over the June 12 presidential election.

“…the government intensified its Internet filtering, disrupted social networking sites such as Facebook, and jammed transmissions of text message on mobile phones in an apparent attempt to prevent Iranian citizens from voicing their suspicions of electoral fraud,” said Daniel Calingaert, Deputy Director of Programs, Freedom House.

China is by far the most “advanced” country in applying layers of surveillance, filters, and general policing to the Internet and mobile phone communications. In early June, China announced that the installation of its censorship software, Green Dam, would be mandatory on every PC sold in China. This software, claiming to filter pornography, does much more. In addition to filtering out political content the regime opposes, it will stop e-mails it regards as incendiary, and keep a record of a user’s activity even after the computer is shut down, “with dire implications for the freedom of Chinese computer users,” says the Washington Post (June 13).

(more…)

Google and Facebook go Farsi to help spread Iran message: “Google and Facebook set up Farsi versions of their websites and services yesterday, saying that they were responding to the importance of the internet as a communications tool for Iranians during the turmoil in the country.

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)

Tech giants deny helping Iran eavesdrop: “

A joint venture of Siemens AG and Nokia Corp., two large European technology firms, is denying reports that Iran uses its Web-monitoring technology to censor and spy on its citizens’ online activities.

Nokia Siemens Networks said Monday that it has sold telecommunications systems to the Iranian government but that any …

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(Via The Iconoclast.)

Web Pries Lid of Censorship by Iranian Government: “Iran’s sometimes faltering attempts to come to grips with censorship in the 21st century are providing a laboratory for what can and cannot be done.

(Via NYT > Technology.)

Nokia clamps down on Iran snoop claims: “

Nothing to see here

Nokia Siemens Networks has denied it provided Iran with any special snooping equipment or capabilities when it helped install mobile networks in the country.…

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(Via The Register – Comms.)

Iran Threatens Bloggers, ‘Deviant News Sites’: “Iran’s bloggers and in-country journalists are told to tone down their rhetoric by the fearsome Revolutionary Guard, or face some unpleasant consequences.

(Via Wired News.)

Iran’s Twitter Revolution: Ahmadinejad’s Fear of the Internet: “With the Iranian authorities cracking down on the international press, the West is reliant on the Internet to find out what is happening on the ground. Hard as it might try, it will be difficult for the regime to easily stop the flow of information online. Web users around the world are rallying behind the protesters.”

(Via SPIEGEL ONLINE – International.)

Google, Facebook rush Iranian language support: “

Twitter has the starring role as opening up Net communications about Iran’s turbulent politics, but Google and Facebook are jumping in with their its own hasty efforts.

Google is adding Farsi, or Persian, language support to its translation service, the company announced Thursday night. Google rushed out the support …

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(Via The Iconoclast.)

Internet proxies let Iranians and others connect to blocked Web sites | Science & Technology | Deutsche Welle | 18.06.2009

New media tools like Twitter have helped organize protests from Georgia to Guatemala and, now, Iran. Experts say regimes can block access to such sites, but proxy technology helps keep lines of communication open.

With independent media blocked from reporting on recent demonstrations in Iran after Friday’s election, many people around the world turned to the micro-blog service Twitter for a detailed account of events in Tehran and other Iranian cities.

But if the Iranian government so chose, it could attempt to cut off Iranians’ direct access to Twitter and other social media services to prevent the spread of information, according to Yaman Akdeniz, director of the UK-based Cyber-Rights.org.

“Undemocratic countries like Iran rely on crude blocking and filtering mechanisms to limit their citizen’s usage of the Internet temporarily, or indefinitely,” he said. “The true extent of the Internet censorship attempts in Iran remains to be seen.”

Tehran blocked the popular networking site Facebook for two days before the elections and only restored access after a massive public outcry. Since the elections, authorities have attempted to deny access to several pro-opposition Web sites and news portals likely to challenge current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s announced victory, according to the media rights group Reporters Without Borders.

Anonymous Web surfing

There are, however, technical ways for Iranians – and others living under repressive regimes that filter the Internet – to access all the material on the World Wide Web, according to Akdeniz.

“However hard the governments try, total censorship and control will not be achieved on the Internet,” he added. “Going back to the topic, the Iranians will find ways and means of accessing the Internet, regardless of their government’s crude attempt to control the free flow of information.”

Computers outside the country filtering the Web can be set up as so-called proxy servers, which pass along information from one Internet connection to another like an anonymous virtual messenger whose presence doesn’t tip off security authorities.

Reporters Without Borders has for years encouraged cyber-dissidents to make use of such proxy services, including the popular program Tor, which passes data through a random series of three computers before it arrives at its destination.

Mirroring Internet traffic

The program, which builds a network of currently about 2,000 volunteers who act as online go-betweens, allows, for example, an Iranian to see otherwise blocked sites by encrypting and routing his request through a series of three random computers with access to the entire Web, then sending the data they acquire back through the same anonymous network, explains Andrew Lewman, the executive director of the Tor Project.

“Someone watching the Internet would not be able to track who you are and where you are going,” he said, adding that the number of Tor connections from Iran has doubled since last week’s election, moving the nation up the Tor user list from near the bottom 50 to within the top 15 of the some 500,000 people using Tor each day,

More people using the network, regardless of their location or what they’re doing on the Web, makes Tor more effective at making the Internet anonymous, Lewman said, adding that the service is simple to install and wouldn’t work if only activists and dissidents used the program.

“The more normal people who turn on a connection on their home computer the better, because then it looks more and more like the general Internet,” he said. “If Tor becomes an activists’ network and anyone watching would say, ‘That’s an activist network connection; we should watch that.’”

Proxy critics remain

Despite the protection proxy services offer those living under oppressive governments, the system does have some detractors. Critics say the network can be taken advantage of by terrorists and other criminals. That’s an argument Lewman said isn’t as persuasive as it may seem.

“Criminals have far better anonymity and privacy than most likely anyone in the world,” he said. “If you’re already willing to break the law, then you can do far more private things. If you steal a person’s identity on the Internet you’ll have more anonymity than any tool can provide.”

While Tor and other tools can help Web users get around the blocks and filters governments put on the Internet, they should not be seen as the final answer in the fight to stop online censorship, according to Akdeniz.

“Circumvention technologies provide only a partial solution to the problem of Internet censorship,” he said. “Unless there is a process towards democratization and openness, censorship will be the norm.”

Author: Sean Sinico

Editor: Susan Houlton

Iranians find ways to bypass Net censors: “

A new generation of Iranians has found ways to bypass the country’s notoriously censorial Internet restrictions and disseminate details about Iran’s internal turmoil in the wake of the recent election.

In technical circles, at least, Iran is well-known for erecting one of the world’s most restrictive Internet …

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(Via The Iconoclast.)