Category: Censorship

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The “splinternet” is already here

sudshr47 March 13, 2019

Keith Wright Contributor Share on Twitter Keith Wright is a Villanova School of Business instructor of Accounting and Information Systems, founder of Simplicity On-Demand LLC and former Senior Vice President for Global Sales Operations for SAP. There is no question that the arrival of a fragmented and divided internet is now upon us. The “splinternet,” […]

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Google employees can’t just walk away from ethical tradeoffs like Dragonfly

sudshr47 March 5, 2019

Let me blunt up front: I think Google should launch a censored search engine in China (albeit with careful organizational boundaries). And I think that Google employees who would undermine such a project need to step down and walk out the front door to opportunities more in line with their purported values. I am reacting […]

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No, Tencent isn’t about to burn Reddit down

sudshr47 February 12, 2019

Ahoy, it’s doom and gloom for Reddit after the company welcomed investment from Chinese censorship overlord Tencent. Well, not quite. The reality is, in fact, it’s quite the opposite. In recruiting the company behind one of the internet’s largest and vibrant social networks — chat app WeChat — and countless blockbuster games, Reddit has pulled off […]

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Russia plans to test a kill switch that disconnects the country from the internet

sudshr47 February 11, 2019

As a cyber-defensive measure, the Russian government will reportedly perform a trial run of a measure that would effectively cut the country off from the rest of the world’s web. Last year, Russia introduced its Digital Economy National Program, a plan that would require Russian internet providers to remain functional in the event the country […]

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Online platforms still not clear enough about hate speech takedowns: EC

sudshr47 February 4, 2019

In its latest monitoring report of a voluntary Code of Conduct on illegal hate speech, which platforms including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube signed up to in Europe back in 2016, the European Commission has said progress is being made on speeding up takedowns but tech firms are still lagging when it comes to providing feedback […]

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Microsoft’s Bing blocked in China

sudshr47 January 24, 2019

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Microsoft-owned search engine Bing has been blocked in China.

“We’ve confirmed that Bing is currently inaccessible in China and are engaged to determine next steps,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Mashable.

The news was first reported by the Financial Times. Chinese state-owned telecommunications operator China Unicom told one of the FT’s “two sources familiar with the matter” that Bing had been blocked after a government order.  

Chinese mainland users had reportedly posted on social media about their inability to access Bing’s cn.bing.com, while those outside the country could still access it (we could load the page in Australia and the U.S.).  Read more…

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Tor pulls in record donations as it lessens reliance on US government grants

sudshr47 January 11, 2019

Tor, the open source initiative which provides a more secure way to access the internet, is continuing to diversify its funding away from its long-standing reliance on U.S. government grants. The Tor Foundation — the organization behind the service which stands for ‘The Onion Router’ — announced this week that it brought in a record […]

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Vietnam threatens to penalize Facebook for breaking its draconian cybersecurity law

sudshr47 January 9, 2019

Well, that didn’t take long. We’re less than ten days into 2019 and already Vietnam is aiming threats at Facebook after it violating its draconian cybersecurity law which came into force on January 1. The U.S. social network stands accused of allowing users in Vietnam to post “slanderous content, anti-government sentiment and libel and defamation […]

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Netflix pulled an episode of ‘Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj’ in Saudi Arabia after the kingdom complained

sudshr47 January 2, 2019

Netflix pulled an episode of “Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj” from its streaming service in Saudi Arabia after receiving a complaint from the kingdom. The removal was first reported by the Financial Times. The episode, titled “Saudi Arabia,” centers around the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and criticizes Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman […]

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Employees publicly call on Google to end its censored Chinese search engine

sudshr47 November 27, 2018

“Don’t be evil” has transformed from a mantra into a plea.
A group of Google employees published an open letter to their employer on Tuesday, calling for an end to Google’s planned censored Chinese search engine. The 11 co-signees are mostly engineer…

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Facebook chooses values over profits in staying out of China

sudshr47 November 14, 2018

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That’s a thumbs down on China.

In a letter to Congress, Facebook said that it would only provide service in China if it was free from government censorship. In other words, as Xi Jinping’s power over the country intensifies, that’s not likely.

Specifically, Facebook would need to ensure that providing its service would enable “free expression,” and not have undue “privacy implications” — that is, government surveillance and censorship.

“Rigorous human rights due diligence and careful consideration of free expression and privacy implications would constitute important components of any decision on entering China,” the letter reads. “Facebook has been blocked in China since 2009, and no decisions have been made around the conditions under which any possible future service might be offered in China.” Read more…

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Google CEO finally confirms secret censored Chinese search engine, is very happy with it

sudshr47 October 16, 2018

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Google is finally going on the record with its once-secret Project Dragonfly, a censorship-friendly search engine for the people of China.

Speaking at the Wired 25 Summit, Google CEO Sundar Pichai not only confirmed the existence of the project but also boasted about how well testing of the search engine was going.

“It turns out we’ll be able to serve well over 99 percent of the queries,” Pichai said of search results in the testing, pushing back on the controversy surrounding a product that must adhere to the Chinese-government’s strict censorship laws. The Google CEO went on to give an example of how beneficial the service will be for the Chinese people, pointing out that current Chinese search products can return “fake” info for a query like “cancer treatments.” Read more…

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