News Archive

Wordpress.com blocked in Guatemala

Guatemalan users have reported blocked access to Wordpress since Friday afternoon. It seems that Internet Service Providers CLARO, TIGO and Turbonett (Telgua), Guatemala’s most prominent Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have all blocked the blog domain. One blogger, reports calling customer service, but says he received no clear answer.

Morocco: Human Rights Activist Jailed for Whistleblowing

A human rights activist critical of Moroccan drug policies was sentenced on Wednesday to three years in prison.  Chakib Al Khayari's sentence was called "a stark reminder of Morocco's tenuous and uneven progress on human rights" by Human Rights Watch.  As President of the Association for Human Rights in the ...

Nigeria government launches attack against bloggers

The Nigerian government has just launched a “$5 million war” against bloggers and online news media such as Sahara Reporters [...] On the one hand this is good news as the Nigerian government wakes up to the power of citizens media and that we are watching and reproting on their every step. On the other hand this is very dangerous for bloggers in the country and those outside who may wish to return home whether for a short holiday, work or permanently.

Study: Deep Packet Inspection and Internet Censorship

The academic debate on deep packet inspection (DPI) centres on methods of network management and copyright protection and is directly linked to a wider debate on freedom of speech on the Internet. The debate is deeply rooted in an Anglo-Saxon perspective of the Internet and is frequently depicted as a titanic struggle for the right to fundamentally free and unfettered access to the Internet. This debate is to a great extent defined by commercial interests. These interests whether of copyright owners, Internet service providers, application developers or consumers, are all essentially economic.

China: Blocking and framing Google

Last night, Google including search, gmail, document and other applications was blocked for 2 hours, although some ISPs have restored the access in couple of hours, a number of twitterers said that Google has still been blocked in some parts of China. Guardian quoted Xiao Qiang, the founder of China ...

China: 2009 Declaration of the Anonymous Netizens

In reaction to a series of internet censorship policy, in particular the introduction of Green Dam, a declaration has been circulated on the net in the past two days calling netizens to express and protect their rights to anonymity on July 1st. Below are the declaration posters and English translation ...

China: Google.cn buys Green Dam service?

Blogger dancing with G, quoted from a Google.cn source, reported that the company had spent a big sum of money to buy the Green Dam service for bettering the detection of obscene content. According to the blogger, google.cn's move is to make peace with the Chinese authority. Moreover, Google.cn has ...

Egypt: A Week of ‘Bad News' for bloggers

Last week ended up with a number of bad news for some Egyptian bloggers. Diaa Eddin Gad from Sawt Ghadeb (Angry Voice), is harassed by State Security police. Diaa, who was released last March after being arrested and ill-treated, told Global Voices in a phone call, that a force of State Security raided his house two weeks ago, and searched his apartment, and the whole building where he is living. He said:

Mauritania: Webmaster of Taqadoumy.com arrested

Hanevy Ould Dahah, 34, founder and manager of Mauritania’s leading news website www.taqadoumy.com was arrested on June 18 in Nouakchott when members of Mauritania’s security forces without presenting him with any charges, he was handcuffed and led to a police station in Mauritania’s capital.

Iran: Reformist and activist bloggers arrested

As protesters continue their demonstrations all over Iran against 12th June presidential election results, Iranian authorities have arrested hundreds of activists, including bloggers. Mohammad Ali Abtahi, former reformist vice president and an adviser to Mehdi Karoubi, a reformist candidate, was arrested last Tuesday. Abtahi used to update his blog each day ...