- Washington lawmakers are considering legislation that
would allocate $100 million to thwart Internet censorship by authoritarian
regimes.
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- Rep. Chris Cox (R-Calif.) introduced a bill Wednesday
that would establish an Office of Global Internet Freedom to foster development
of censorship-busting technology for users in countries including China
and Saudi Arabia. The bill would allocate $50 million each for 2003 and
2004.
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- The office would be part of the International Broadcasting
Bureau, which provides engineering and administration for the Voice of
America, Radio and TV MartÌ (Office of Cuba Broadcasting), and other
electronic media aimed at viewers in authoritarian countries.
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- "With nearly 10 percent of the world's population
now online and more gaining access each day, the Internet stands to become
the most powerful engine for democratization and the free exchange of ideas
ever invented," the bill says.
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- However, authoritarian governments are trying to limit
their citizens' access to the Internet. The bill cites a catalog of censorship
techniques: surveillance of e-mail and message boards, blocking content
based on keywords, blocking individuals from visiting proscribed websites
(often without those individuals even knowing the sites have been blocked),
blacklisting users seeking to visit proscribed websites, and wholesale
denial of Internet access.
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- So far, the fight against censorship has largely been
taken up by the private sector and the hacker community. Hackers are working
on two anti-censorship packages under development.
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- One, called Peekabooty, aims to provide a peer-to-peer
platform for uncensored Web access. Another, Six/Four, being developed
by the Hacktivismo group, is more ambitious, planned as a full-scale peer-to-peer
platform for all Internet activities, including Web browsing and instant
messaging. But neither package is near completion.
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- A third package, Triangle Boy, was developed by the SafeWeb
company. Triangle Boy ran in a pilot project funded by Voice of America
this year, and is currently down, awaiting further funding.
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- "We can create a space where Chinese can discuss
issues among themselves, which hasn't been possible until now," said
Stephen Hsu, co-founder and chairman of SafeWeb. "Someone in China
can get access to a chat server in the U.S. and post a message that will
be heard by other Chinese people."
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- Cory Doctorow, outreach coordinator for the Electronic
Frontier Foundation, said that thwarting Internet censorship is important
because the Internet permits users to be exposed to a broad range of messages.
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- "This isn't about imposing one country's ideology
on another, but rather about letting people freely choose which ideologies,
ideas and people to be exposed to and making up their own mind about what's
right," he said. "Rather than broadcasting any nation's message,
this is allowing people to receive any message they choose to receive."
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- China, with 40 million Internet users, censors the Internet
using an array of blocking technologies collectively nicknamed in the West
as the "Great Firewall of China." The Chinese government blocks
not only websites but also proxy servers that can be used to circumvent
censorship, according to "You've Got Dissent," a recent RAND
report on Internet use in China.
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- Government monitors known as "big mamas" keep
an eye on chat rooms. Thousands of Internet cafes have been closed over
the past year for failure to install surveillance software, and at least
25 Chinese have been arrested in the last two years for online activities.
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- The House bill, HR5524, is co-sponsored by Rep. Tom Lantos
(D-Calif.). The Senate is expected to introduce its own version of the
bill soon, sponsored by John Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
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- http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,55530,00.html
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