Global Voices Advocacy » Feature

Internet Regulation and the ITU: Civil Society Must Be Heard

Ellery Biddle — Tue, 22 May 2012 20:35:55 +0000

Since its infancy, the Internet has benefited from a lightweight and decentralized approach to governance—a combination of targeted government regulation, technical coordination by companies, and a number of formal and informal multistakeholder organizations to help guide the Internet’s development, such as the IETF, W3C, and the IGF, just to name a few.

Typically, these multistakeholder organizations include technologists, academic experts, and civil society representatives, as well as governments and corporate voices. They have historically operated using principles of openness, transparency, inclusiveness, and consensus. This framework has given users in most countries considerable freedom to innovate, participate, and build out the network on their own terms. In other words, it has created and supported the open, decentralized, and global Internet as we know it.

Global Internet traffic map. Labeled for reuse. Posted by Martin Irvine.

But this framework is not set in stone. This December, the International Telecommunication Union, a government-centric UN treaty body, will decide whether and how it might regulate policy and technical standards for the global Internet in the future. Until now, the ITU has been dedicated to setting technical standards for interoperability of international telecommunications, radio, and satellite systems, in addition to promoting access to ICT. However, some member states have expressed interest in expanding the ITU’s mandate to cover Internet-related technical and policy matters.
The emergence of the ITU as a regulatory body for the Internet would shift authority away from the decentralized, multistakeholder approach that has served the Internet since its inception, and make Internet regulation a more centralized and less inclusive process.

A diverse group of civil society organizations and academics in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Egypt, the EU, India, Kenya, Pakistan, the US and beyond have come together to request, in the form of an open letter, more transparency from the ITU and its Member States as it considers proposals that could give it power to regulate the Internet. This request is grounded in commitments of the World Summit on Information Society (a conference organized by the ITU) to build a people-centered, inclusive, and development-oriented information society. Summit commitments require international organizations to ensure meaningful participation of all stakeholders, particularly from developing countries, in the regulation and management of the global ICT environment.

The letter states:

The continued success of the information society depends on the full, equal, and meaningful participation of civil society stakeholders (along side the private sector, the academic and technical community, and governments)…such participation depends on transparency and openness of process at every stage of substantive and procedural dialogue.

The letter asks ITU leaders and Member States to remove restrictions on the sharing of documents related to the treaty process and to open the process to meaningful civil society participation by “providing formal speaking opportunities and according civil society views an equal weight as those of other stakeholders.” It encourages Member States to “open public processes at the national level to solicit input on proposed amendments to the treaty from all relevant stakeholders, including civil society, and release individual proposals for public debate.”

When governments regulate the Internet without input from civil society, and academic and technical experts, the resulting policies are more likely to place undue limitations on users’ rights to free expression, freedom of information, and privacy.

While advocates often focus on extreme cases such as surveillance practices in Syria and filtering policies in China, ACTA in Europe and SOPA in the US also provide strong examples of policies that were formulated with little or no participation by civil society. Particularly in 2012, we have also seen that Internet users and concerned citizens are eager to participate in public debate about how the Internet should be regulated. At their core, the information society – and the Internet – are people-centered, and citizens have a clear stake where regulation could impact their rights to freedom of expression, freedom of information, and privacy.

The emergence of the ITU as a regulatory body for the Internet would represent a sea change in Internet governance at the global level. The negotiations in December could lead to unintended consequences, especially if not all stakeholders are allowed input into the process – new regulations could undermine the success of the Internet as a platform for innovation, economic growth, human development and democratic participation.

Civil society organizations and academics are invited to join this call to address deficiencies in the ITU treaty process. The letter has been posted on various civil society organization websites. The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) has posted the letter in English, along with an up-to-date list of signatories, and information on how to sign the letter. Chilean NGO Derechos Digitales has posted the letter in Spanish. This post will be updated as translations in other languages become available.
This post was co-authored by Ellery Biddle and Cynthia Wong, Director of CDT's Project on Global Internet Freedom.

Netizen Report: Eurovision Edition

Rebecca MacKinnon — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:32:13 +0000

Photo of 2012 Eurovision stage during rehearsal by Zeljko Joksimovic

Most of this report was researched, written, and edited by Weiping Li, James Losey, Tom Risen, and Sarah Myers.

Azerbaijan, host of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, has faced a number of digital disruptions as it prepares to host the annual singing competition this week. The song contest websites www.eurovision.az and www.eurovision.tv have been the subject of a cyber attack by an unknown group, followed a day later by the shutdown of a major mobile network which affected more than a million Azeri users. The government has meanwhile, announced it is taking steps to expand broadband Internet infrastructure in the country, helping more of its citizens to stay connected.

An embarrassing situation has recently come from recent criticisms of the Azeri government's approach to human rights and the Internet. In the last edition of the Netizen Report, we reported that the Azeri government has used intimidation to prevent people from participating in online social networks. Last month, an investigation by Swedish news show Uppdrag Granskning revealed that the government has spied on its citizens with equipment supplied by the Swedish telecommunications giant Teliasonera. Among the more nasty outcomes of the surveillance was the interrogation of several Azeri citizens just because they voted for an Armenian song in the 2009 Eurovision contest. For more information about the state of freedom of expression in Azerbaijan, a report released last year by the Media Rights Institute is available here.

Censorship and surveillance are in no short supply elsewhere, as events this week have shown:

Censorship

Last Sunday afternoon, Pakistani social media users found the Twitter website blocked for several hours, with mixed reports on access continuing throughout the day. While the reason for the site's censorship remains unconfirmed, an Express Times correspondent claimed it was the result of tweets about a “blasphemous” competition of Prophet Muhammad’s caricatures, which Twitter refused to take down at the Pakistani government’s request. Others suggested it may be part of government tests of its url filtering system. The blocks ended after the Pakistani Prime Minister issued an order to unblock Twitter; however, the incident has once again cast a shadow over Internet freedom in Pakistan.

In South America, Venezuelan netizens also experienced censorship of news website La Patilla by a state-owned ISP, possibly due to a video and livestream of a prison in Venezuela which recently experienced clashes between inmates and guards.

Several legislators in different countries have proposed to take legal action to regulate the Internet in the past week: in Russia, a Duma deputy called for the Prosecutor General of Russia to prosecute those who use social media to spread extremism. The Bolivian Senate has also proposed a bill to restrain expressions of racism and discrimination on social networks.

Indian IT Minister Kapil Sibal has said he will call a meeting of MPs and stakeholders to discuss the ‘Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules 2011’ in response to protests by opposition MPs against the rules, which critics believe give the government excessive censorship and surveillance powers.

The Bahraini government has announced plans to prosecute people who upload video footage of protests to the Internet.

Thuggery

The Bahraini government has also escalated its crackdown on activists: the government announced plans to take action against social media users who post false or insulting statements about the regime. In addition human rights activist Nabeel Rajab appeared in court this week to face charges of inciting illegal rallies online, saying “the decision to arrest me and put me on trial was a political decision.”

In other areas of the Middle East: Kuwaiti blogger Lawrence al-Rashidi was sentenced to ten years in prison and fined 1,000 Kuwaiti Dinars for insulting the crown prince online; an unknown blogger in Iran was arrested for trying to “disturb public opinion”; Syrian authorities released eight journalist and bloggers who were arrested during a raid on the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) in Damascus, although there are still 31 activists and journalists being detained.

Surveillance

The US Supreme Court agreed to hear a case concerning the government's use of electronic surveillance to monitor international communications by people suspected of having ties to terrorist groups, including journalists and lawyers who represent prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

London’s Metropolitan Police have outfitted 16 boroughs with technology that allows authorities to gather and retain phone data of a suspect held in custody within minutes, regardless of whether the suspect is eventually charged.

Sovereigns of cyberspace

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sina Corp, a Chinese social media company, reported a loss in the first quarter of 2012, possibly due in part to rising costs in hiring personnel to censor its content.

Iran has threatened to sue Google for not labeling the Persian Gulf on Google Maps.

Facebook - whose Friday stock market launch (IPO) has been called a flop - is being sued for US$ 15 million in California for by users who claim the company invaded their privacy by tracking their Internet use even after they logged out. Reacting to the IPO, the Paris-based Internet rights group Internet Without Borders is calling for an “electronic union whose aim will be to raise awareness and introduce the public debate on personal data” - given that companies such as Facebook are clearly seeking to exploit users' personal data for financial gain.

National policy

Iran’s telecommunications ministry has ordered local banks, insurance firms and telephone operators not to use foreign-sourced email services such as Google or Yahoo to communicate with clients.

US Congressman Darell Issa, who defended the Internet against the Stop Online Piracy Act, has published a leaked older draft of the US negotiating position of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) on his crowdsourced Madison platform. Thus far, the TPP has been negotiated in secret and Congressman Issa has called for more information to be released on the process and text.

Fifty leading US legal scholars wrote an open letter to the Senate Finance Committee arguing that the only constitutional process for ACTA ratification is through Congress.

The Netherlands is the first country in Europe to establish a legal framework supporting net neutrality.

Internet governance

Over thirty civil society organizations from around the world sent a letter to International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Secretary-General Dr. Hamadoun Touré calling for “full, equal, and meaningful participation of civil society stakeholders” in the World Conference on International Telecommunications.

Bipartisan support is growing in the US Senate to support Internet freedom as a priority ahead for the International Telecommunications Union, which in December will debate whether to extend the 24-year-old treaty to include free governance of the Internet.

The World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS), a multi-stakeholder forum for discussion of the Internet's future, was held in Geneva last week. The future of Internet governance was reportedly a hot and divisive topic.

Copyright

A Finnish court ruled the owner of an open Wi-Fi network is not liable for copyright infringement by others using that network.

Meanwhile, an Indian court has ordered a variety of websites to be blocked including Vimeo, DailyMotion,The Pirate Bay, and Pastebin due to copyright infringement.

Cybersecurity

The Pirate Bay suffered a massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that took the site offline for 24 hours, likely in response to its criticisms of an Anonymous-led DDoS campaign targeting Virgin Media. Virgin Media was the first ISP to act on a UK court ruling that the Pirate Bay website must be blocked by ISPs.

Zambian Watchdog, a citizen news website in Zambia, reported that their website was hacked on behalf of the Patriotic Front government.

Amnesty International’s website became a source for malware after attackers exploited a Java software vulnerability on their site. In a separate incident, some users have started seeing advertisements on Wikipedia, which the non-profit site says means those users have been infected with malware.

Jeremy Hammond, a member of LulzSec, an offshoot of Anonymous, pleaded “not guilty” in New York federal court against a number of charges. Hammond is suspected of masterminding last year’s hacks of the security think-tank Stratfor in addition to downloading credit card data from Sony Pictures Entertainment, InfraGard Atlanta and a number of other websites.

Researchers showed that hackers can remotely control many of the Internet connected security cameras used by banks, retailers and corporations.

The China-based mobile and networking equipment vendor ZTE admitted that there is a backdoor planted in one of its models which could allow others to gain root access; the company has pledged to release a security fix.

Cool things

Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt challenged Boston University graduates in his commencement address to “Take your eyes off that screen and look into the eyes of the person you love. Have a conversation, a real conversation.”

Vint Cerf, one of the “fathers of the Internet,” delivered the keynote speech at F2C: Freedom to Connect 2012 on Monday - watch the video of his speech here.

Publications and studies

Sara Kehaulani Goo: Facebook: a profile of its ‘friends’
The Internet Society, OECD, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization: The Relationship Between Local Content, Internet Development, and Access Prices
Mobile Internet Censorship: What’s happening and what we can do about it, Open Rights Group and the LSE Media Project
How Should the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) be Improved? by Christopher Steck, Telefonica.

For upcoming events related to the future of citizen rights in the digital age, see the Global Voices Events Calendar.

Subscribe to the Netizen Report by email

Pakistan: Twitter has been Blocked

Tarek Amr — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:56:51 +0000

Twitter has been blocked in Pakistan on Sunday. The country's top telecommunications officials said that it was blocked because it refused to remove tweets considered offensive to Islam.

The tweets were promoting a competition on Facebook to post images of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, said Mohammad Yaseen, chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication's Authority. Many Muslims regard depictions of the prophet, even favorable ones, as blasphemous.

The competitions is called Draw Muhammad Day, as tweeted the Welsh-Pakistani photographer, Sufian Ahmed

Must have something to do with #DrawMuhammadDay RT @fursid: Why #twiter is blocked on many ISPs in #Pakistan?

— sufian ahmed (@paktographer) May 20, 2012

The news comes few hours after the Pakistani Minister of Interior, Rehman Malik, tweeted:

Dear all, I assure u that Twitter and FB will continue in our countryand it will not be blocked. Pl do not believe in rumors.

— Rehman Malik (@SenRehmanMalik) May 19, 2012

According to the Pakistani officials, “Both Facebook and Twitter were involved. We negotiated with both. Facebook has agreed to remove the stuff but Twitter is not responding to us”. Matih Abbas commented on this:

So Facebook now ranks less in blasphemy than twitter ? LOL #Twitterban

— Matih Abbas (@mat1h) May 20, 2012

In fact, Facebooks also has been blocked for a while in Pakistan a couple of years ago.

Faizan Lakhani wondered:

They cant stop corruption, they cant stop terrorism, they cant ban killers, but they can ban Twitter. #Pakistan

— Faizan Lakhani (@faizanlakhani) May 20, 2012

Finally, it worth mentioning that few months ago, in March 2012, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority published a request for proposals for the “deployment and operation of a national level URL Filtering and Blocking System”. Yet, seems that the government's effort are not succeeding so far, as Pakistanis still find ways to reach twitter even after the block. Aaqil Mahmood published some tips for breaking the block in his blog. And Yannis Koutsomitis ‏tweeted that TweetDeck and other twitter applications are still working.

Update: Nine hours after the ban, reports came that the ban has been removed.

Letter for Civil Society Involvement in WCIT

Guest Contributor — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:07:15 +0000

This page features a letter from academics and civil society groups from around the world to International Telecommunication Union Secretary-General Dr. Hamadoun Touré regarding the lack of opportunity for civil society participation in the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) process.

A PDF of the letter is available here. For more background on the WCIT, see our policy post, Civil Society Must Have Voice as ITU Debates the Internet, and our ITU resource page.

Civil society organizations and academics are invited to join this call to address deficiencies in the WCIT process. For more information, contact signon@cdt.org.

17 May 2012

To Secretary-General Dr. Hamadoun Touré, the Council Working Group to Prepare for the WCIT-12, and ITU Member States:

The undersigned human rights advocates, academics, freedom of expression groups, and civil society organizations write to express our desire to participate in the preparatory process undertaken for the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT). The current preparatory process lacks the transparency, openness of process, and inclusiveness of all relevant stakeholders that are imperative under commitments made at the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS). We ask that the Secretary-General, the Council Working Group, and Member States work to resolve these process deficiencies in several concrete ways.

The continued success of the information society depends on the full, equal, and meaningful participation of civil society stakeholders (along side the private sector, the academic and technical community, and governments) in the management of information and communications technology, including both technical and public policy issues. Indeed, WSIS outcome documents recognize the need for a multi-stakeholder approach in technical management and policy decision-making for ICTs. The Tunis Agenda for the Information Society urges international organizations “to ensure that all stakeholders, particularly from developing countries, have the opportunity to participate in policy decision-making … and to promote and facilitate such participation.” And such participation depends on transparency and openness of process at every stage of substantive and procedural dialogue.

Yet there has been scant participation by civil society in the Council Working Group’s preparatory process for the WCIT so far, even as media reports indicate that some Member States have proposed amending the International Telecommunication Regulations to address issues that could impact the exercise of human rights in the digital age, including freedom of expression, access to information, and privacy rights. Under the current process, civil society participation is severely limited by restrictions on sharing of preparatory documents, high barriers for ITU membership (including cost), and lack of mechanisms for remote participation in preparatory meetings.

As an important step towards fulfilling WSIS commitments for building a more inclusive information society, the undersigned request that the Secretary-General, the Council Working Group, and Member States:

Remove restrictions on the sharing of WCIT documents and release all preparatory materials, including the Council Working Group’s final report, consolidated reports from all preparatory activity, and proposed revisions to the International Telecommunication Regulations;

Open the preparatory process to meaningful participation by civil society in its own right and without cost at Council Working Group meetings and the WCIT itself, providing formal speaking opportunities and according civil society views an equal weight as those of other stakeholders. Facilitate remote participation to the extent possible; and

For Member States, open public processes at the national level to solicit input on proposed amendments to the International Telecommunication Regulations from all relevant stakeholders, including civil society, and release individual proposals for public debate.

We welcome Secretary-General Touré’s commitment to creating a more inclusive information society and ensuring equitable access to ICT around the world. Collectively and individually, the undersigned human rights advocates, academics, freedom of expression groups, and civil society organizations work to fulfill this vision through a range of national and global institutions and we call for the same opportunity to engage at the WCIT, consistent with WSIS commitments. We urge you to ensure the outcomes of the WCIT and its preparatory process truly represent the common interests of all who have a stake in the future of our information society.

Sincerely,

Access

Article 19

Association for Progressive Communications (APC)

Eduardo Bertoni, Centro de Estudios en Libertad de Expresión y Acceso a la

Información (CELE), Universidad de Palermo, Argentina

Bytes for All, Pakistan

Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC)

Center for Democracy & Technology

Center for Technology and Society (CTS/FGV), Brazil

Centre for Internet & Society (CIS), India

Consumers International

Digitale Gesellschaft e.V.

Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights

Electronic Frontier Foundation

European Digital Rights

Freedom House

Global Partners & Associates

Global Voices Advocacy

Human Rights in China

Human Rights Watch

Internet Democracy Project, India

Internet Governance Project (IGP)

Kictanet, Kenya

Rebecca MacKinnon

MobileActive Corp

New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute

ONG Derechos Digitales, Chile

Open Rights Group

Panoptykon Foundation, Poland

Public Knowledge

Reporters sans frontières / Reporters Without Borders

World Press Freedom Committee

Netizen Report: RuNet Edition

Rebecca MacKinnon — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:08:15 +0000

From the Livejournal blog of Russian blogger Kirill Mikhailov

Most of this report was researched, written, and edited by Weiping Li, James Losey, Tom Risen, and Sarah Myers.

In March, Vladimir Putin reclaimed the Russian presidency amidst accusations of fraud. A wave of protests prompted new attacks on media: at least 15 journalists have been arrested or beaten, and independent news organizations targeted by distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) in an attempt to limit coverage of the protests.

Attacks have also targeted Russia's citizen journalists. Last week a DDoS attack targeted UStream user reggamortis1, who was using the service to report on recent protests in the country. The targeting of Kirill Mikhailov, the citizen journalist behind the account, has created strong suspicion that the Russian government was behind the attack. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has also expressed concerns over attacks on media organizations, and also four journalists who were recently injured by police.

More posts on this issue can be found at Global Voices’ RuNet Echo, a project that aims to expand and deepen understanding of the Russian language Internet and related online communities. Meanwhile, the global battle for freedom and control of the Internet continues…

Censorship

Indian newspaper The Hindu has profiled the hunger strike against Internet censorship in India as organized by Save Your Voice, quoting striker Alok Dixit as saying “The empowerment that social media provides has begun to be seen as threatening. This is an attempt to clamp down on an individual’s right to dissent and his freedom of expression.”

Iran’s web censorship regime censored a statement by its own Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, because he used the word “antifiltering” in the context of an interview with Iran's semiofficial Mehr news agency. [CORRECTION NOTE: An earlier version of this item incorrectly reported that the interview was conducted by RFE/RL, which is obviously impossible given that the regime is no fan of RFE/RL. We regret the error.]

Sina Weibo, a popular micro-blogging platform in China, has issued guidelines to users prohibiting some categories of content including statements that are “untrue” or threaten stability.

A U.S. State Department study shows that more foreign media is entering North Korea than ever before, while word of mouth is still seen as the most important source of information.

Thuggery

On May 5, Bahraini activist Nabeel Rajab was arrested when arriving home. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is calling for his release.

Ampon Tangnopponkul, a Thai grandfather arrested for sending four SMS messages claimed to be offensive to the monarchy has died. He had been sentenced to 20 years in prison, five years for each message sent, yet at his trial said he did not know how to send SMS messages.

Azerbaijan’s government is using intimidation rather than censorship to limit dissent online, making social media use seem like a form of bad citizenship and a source of deviance and criminality.

Surveillance

The Syrian government is using malware, sometimes disguised as encryption software, to spy on its citizens.

Sweden passed a law allowing police to monitor Internet traffic and telephone conversations, even before someone has been suspected of a crime.

Internet governance

The United Nations' World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) 2012 Forum is taking place in Geneva this week. The goal, according to the Forum website, “is to achieve a common vision, desire and commitment to build a people-centric, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information.” All netizens are welcome to participate remotely via this website.

Among the many issues to be discussed this week at WSIS is a proposal by the Indian government to create a new global Internet governance body.

Sovereigns of cyberspace

Twitter is currently fighting a court order requesting three months of messages from an Occupy Wall Street protester. The Electronic Frontier Foundation noted that this type of court order could reveal location data without requiring a search warrant. Often these types of requests include gag orders, which means companies might not even tell users that their data is being requested. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, few companies fight these types of request.

Facebook recently conducted a live Q&A with users about its privacy policies; a detailed explanation of recent changes to those policies can be found on the Site Governance page. The company also recently launched a Terms and Policies Hub to help people understand the laws of Facebookistan. The company's Initial Public Offering is planned for Friday May 18, but new research indicates that privacy concerns could dampen investor enthusiasm.

While some countries block access to certain websites, some websites or services prevent users from other geographic areas from gaining access. To counter this, a New Zealand Internet Service Provider (ISP) is offering a “global mode” to access services that might be locked to a given region or country.

Citizen journalism

Al Jazeera has launched a new portal for citizen reporters to upload videos. The portal is also making steps to evaluate the veracity of videos. Additionally, the Robert F. Kennedy Center announced an award for international social media journalism.

The United States Department of State Office of Innovation and eDiplomacy recently held two tech camps in Tel Aviv and Ramallah to raise the digital literacy of organizations focused on women's empowerment.

National policy & politics

The Netherlands became the second country on earth and the first country in Europe to pass a net neutrality law. While the net neutrality law passed in Chile in 2010, focused on preventing ISPs from prioritizing some traffic over others, the Dutch law goes farther by limiting the use of privacy invasive technologies such as Deep Packet Inspection.

In Austria, the state broadcaster ORF is shutting down its Facebook pages after broadcasting regulators ruled it is not allowed to have a presence on social media.

The German Pirate Party is having a breakthrough success in Germany’s state elections, after winning access to Germany’s largest state of North Rhine-Westphalia, its fourth consecutive state parliament victory.

In related news, a new court ruling by the Court of The Hague has forbidden the Dutch Pirate Party from providing website links around the Netherlands’ censorship of the Swedish file-sharing Pirate Bay website that inspired the political party.

According to an unconfirmed leak on the Chinese Internet, the Working Guide for Internet Commentators, more commonly known as the 50 Cent Party, has outlined the practices for Chinese citizens hired to propagandize for the Chinese government online.

Privacy

MySpace, the predecessor to Facebook as the most popular social network, has been charged by the Federal Trade Commission for sharing personal information and web browsing history with advertising companies.

Copyright

Louis Vuitton, the luxury brand that has targeted artists for using the brand in their artwork, has asked a Florida court to require domain registers to remove several hundred websites from registries.

By contrast, the Italian Communications Authority is absolving its attempt to regulate copyright online.

Cool things

A series of instructional videos show online safety tips, including email and Facebook security and private browsing.

Global Voices has announced the Breaking Borders Award for 2012. More info or to nominate someone can be found here.

A BBC series is analyzing the Antikythera Mechanism, widely considered the world’s oldest computer.

Publications and studies

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released the 2011 Internet Crime Report;
The United Kingdom based Open Rights Group has published a new report on mobile Internet censorship in Britain.

For upcoming events related to the future of citizen rights in the digital age, see the Global Voices Events Calendar.

Subscribe to the Netizen Report by email

A man serving an anti-royal sentence in Thailand dies in prison

Aim Sinpeng — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:24:48 +0000

The death of Ampon, known locally as “Akong”, is a shame for Thailand.

Akong was sentenced to 20 years in jailed for an unproven lese majeste case on the basis of Thailand's Computer Crime Act. The 61-year-old grandfather, who had long battled with oral cancer, was believed to have died as a result of this disease. Attempts to get bail for Akong, most notably due to his illness, was repeatedly denied. Campaigns by activists and scholars in Thailand and abroad to free Ampon, while rallied substantial popular support, did not alter his situation. This case was hailed as one of “the most severe lese majeste convictions yet recorded.”

Amphon Tangnoppakul, right, pauses as he is arrested by Thai police - Image: AP Photo

This bizarre and tragic story began in August 2010 when Akong was arrested in his home and detained without charge for 2 months. In January 2011 he was finally charged for sending 4 SMS messages deemed offensive to the monarchy to then prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's personal secretary and other cabinet members. Akong denied such charges.

During the trial, Ampon admitted not knowing how to send SMS messages and that he did not recognize the numbers belonging to the receivers. He wept throughout the entire ordeal and repeated his love for the king.

Judge Chanatip Mueanpawong clarified the verdict ” The prosecution could not produce a witness to definitively confirm that the defendant was the one sending the messages to the plaintiff's phone. It was difficult to present compelling evidence because the defendant, who committed such acts, would naturally conceal his actions so that others could not observe them. As such it is necessary to rely on circumstantial evidence to indicate the defendant's intentions.”
Akong was sentenced to 20 years in prison, 5 years for each SMS message sent.
The mobile phone messages were alleged by the authorities to have contained vulgar language defaming the queen and insulting the honor of the monarchy.

According to iLaw, the police relied on phone log by service provider and police witnesses to convict Akong.
The Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission agrees the case was circumstantial at best and warns mobile phone users to be especially mindful of their phone activity.

While in custody, the Court of Appeals repeatedly denied Ampon bail, citing the severity of the case as a threat to national security and possibility of his flight.

The death of “Uncle SMS” elicited strong, and polarized, reaction in the cyber community - many were outraged, while some cheerful.

“I wish this country would see justice and freedom, but I could only wish. I wish the ignorant would see the light, but I could only dream. I guess I would have to put up with this reality. After all death is inevitable” wrote Poltahan Manoke Klang Prapan.

Piangkam Pradabkwan composed a poem on her Facebook page, whose last verse was: “Akong is dead. Who killed the old man? Justice came too late - this is a crime. Human lives are cheap and abundant. They breathe and smell death every day.”

Others weren't so upset about the passing of Akong. “Please make merit for the old man. By now he's probably in hell with fire burning in his mouth,” major181226 responded to the Youtube clip about Akong. “He deserved to die. Our land would now be elevated. When the color ordeal is over, our country could progress. Or don't you agree?” posted Purno5.

The Akong case was about injustice and mistreatment of prisoners. We failed as a society to put our political differences aside when faced with such gross human rights violations. In this we should be ashamed.

Zambia: Citizen News Website Hacked

Gershom Ndhlovu — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:19:30 +0000

On Wednesday, 9 May 2012, netizens who flock to various citizen-run news websites such as Zambian Watchdog and Tumfweko were met with “page not available” or messages to similar effect. As frustrating at not accessing the websites that have come to be known for their expose stories as it was, the non-technical readers dismissed it as one of those things the internet threw at you once in a while.

President Sata looking at the Facebook page of opposition MMD MP Dora Siliya. Picture courtesy of McLan Mkuni on the Bemba vs Nyanja: Miponto Sha Ci Mbuya group page.

A day after the glitch, Zambian Watchdog reported that its website was a target of a sustained attack allegedly by the PF government. Reported the website popularly known as ZWD among Zambian netizens:

PF government agents last Wednesday carried out their most ambitious attack on the Zambian Watchdog website with view of destroying it.

“The site has been attacked using denial of service and no personal information has been compromised”
The attackers have used Optima/Darkness DDoS botnet that is popular in the Russian-speaking cybercrime black market.
The Attack caused inaccessibility to the news for close to 8 hours.
Other websites like http://www.tumfweko.com were also brought down that day.

Although difficult to prove that the attack was carried out by the PF government, the relationship between the Zambian Watchdog and the PF has not been all rosy even as an opposition party before the 2011 elections. President Michael Sata’s statement when he swore in Attorney General Mumba Malila shortly after he took up the president did not help matters.

President Sata told Mr Malila who had once held the same position under the defeated MMD government:

“Last year when we were preparing for elections, these so called unregistered internet sites reported that Mr Sata had collapsed, Mr Sata is very sick, Mr Sata has died…

“So, I am not asking for a witch- hunt, but you as Attorney-General, let us enforce the laws of this country because all these internets are all orchestrated by the UPND. Last year the Watchdog website lied that he was dead, he was too sick, when in fact not. “

Chilling though, was a story that was reported earlier this year that the government had released K5 billion or US$1 million to send police and security staff around the world to train them to hack the targeted websites.

The Independent Post, which was also hit by a similar attack, quoting an email it got from Zambian Watchdog quoted from the Cyber War Zone website, reported:

Watchdog comment: The Watchdog is aware of the hackers sponsored by the PF government to wipe out all Independent news websites in Zambia.

About K5 billion tax payers money has been released to government agents and some have been sent to China and other countries to learn how to hack websites. Even though we hear that most of this money has been used on beer and prostitutes.

Graph of the distribution of DDoS attacks on Zambian Watchdog. Image source: zambianwatchdog.com.

A Wikipedia entry claiming that President Sata had been assassinated did not help matters in the relationship between citizen news websites and the government. It was shortly after that incident that the reported K5 billion was released for the war against recalcitrant news websites.

Commenting on the Zambian Watchdog attack story, Mufana Wamahafu wrote:

The PF will soon run out of cash in their quest to close critical online publications.Even if ZWD is brought down today, another one will immediately be setup by the same owners. The PF will have to subcontract the Vietnamese and Russians at what cost? Because we all know that PF has no capacity to even learn how to go about this whole process.Its a party of thick heards. I mean the president is a grade ZERO ZERO ZERO. Please hear this: ONLINE NEWS IS HERE TO STAY. FINITO!!! This is just a tip of the iceberg, ZWD and the rest of these online newspapers has’nt even reached their optimum. Its too early to press the panic button ba kaponya imwe [you louts].

Reacted a reader calling himself Say What?:

DoS attacks don’t come cheap and are difficult to sustain.
If the PF really is behind this then some great use of our tax money, huh? No price too high to pay for suppressing freedom of speech? Guess I missed that line in the PF Manifesto.

But one reader, Jackson, had a different view:

I DONT THINK A SERIOUS GOVT. CAN LOSE SLEEP OVER A SMALL,BIASED,TRIBAL AND UNETHICAL WEBSITE. THESE ALLEGATIONS ARE TOTALLY BASELESS.

On 2 April, 2012 Zambian Watchdog reported that the government has intensified crackdown on Internet users:

The PF government has heightened its internet crack down on citizens who use to discuss matters that affect them.

But the crackdown on the Internet may land the Zambian government in trouble as it risks being listed as one of the Internet enemies.

The government through its secret service is now monitoring and gathering Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of people who regularly comment on political matters on popular news websites or social media like Facebook and Twitter.

As example, the Zambia Media Forum, a private discussion group has been invaded by state agents who are passing on details of group members to the state.

Zambia Medium Forum is a discussion group whose members are mostly Zambian journalists and Civil Society activists. Some of the members work for government and parastatal companies./p>

Last week, at least three members of the Forum were interrogated by OP [Office of the Predisent] agents from their respective offices.

Originally posted on Global Voices.

Breaking Borders Award 2012!

Ivan Sigal — Fri, 11 May 2012 16:18:39 +0000

We're excited to announce the second edition of the Breaking Borders Award for 2012. The award is a prize created by Google and Global Voices to honor outstanding web or mobile projects initiated by individuals or groups that demonstrate courage, energy and resourcefulness in using the Internet to promote freedom of expression. Closing date for applications is May 20, 2012.

This year’s award will be focused on the extended community working with Global Voices. Many of our community members are also affiliated with other projects that have had significant impacts on freedom of expression in their communities and have a grassroots, civic character. We want to reward projects that have had a real impact, but are not incredibly well known, and for whom the support could make a significant difference in their development.

The Breaking Borders winners will be announced at the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2012, in Nairobi, Kenya on July 2-3, 2012.

Visit the Summit web site for background information on the goals of the meeting, the program of events, and registration details.

The Breaking Borders Award is open to the extended Global Voices community. Winners will be selected by a panel of experts in the field of freedom of expression. Two cash prizes of $10,000 will be awarded for an individual or group that has:

used online tools to promote free expression or encourage social or political change
created an important tool that enables free expression and expands access to information
been instrumental in forming a community that has advanced free expression and access to information

Who can enter: Any member of the Global Voices community, including Global Voices in English, Lingua and Global Voices Advocacy, who has written, edited or translated at least one post in the history of Global Voices, and all Rising Voices grantees.

Nominations are for ongoing projects that have already demonstrated significant effects in their field of endeavor, based on work achieved in the last two years. We will consider projects that are created by or strongly affiliated with any member of the Global Voices community. If you are a GV volunteer, staff, or board member, and also a creator or hold a leadership role in another project, that project is eligible. You can nominate your own project.

Submit your nomination for the Breaking Borders Award using this online form. Applications close on May 20, 2012.

FAQS

What is the Breaking Borders Award?

The Breaking Borders award was set up by Global Voices and Google to highlight the importance of free expression around the world by honoring an outstanding web projects by individuals or groups, who have shown courage, energy and resourcefulness in using the internet or mobile phones to promote freedom of expression, ensure that diverse political viewpoints are heard and stand up to those who censor information.

Who can participate?

Anyone who is a member of the Global Voices extended community, with a relevant online or mobile presence can participate. Nominate yourself, a blog, website or other online presence you consider has helped promote the free circulation of ideas, stood up against censorship, helped local communities, raised awareness about a specific issue or cause, mobilised government or supported silenced voices.

Are there any geographical restrictions to participate?

No, the nominee can be based or support a cause anywhere in the world.

How do I nominate?

Fill out the nomination form. Please understand that we can accept nominations only if you provide the following information: a) the name and contact information for the nominee (or the organisation/initiative) b) blog, website or other mobile or online presence that showcases the value of the nominee, c) why the nominee merits the Breaking Borders Award, d) if self nominating, how you would use the prize money, and e) your contact details, so we can get in touch with you if we have further questions.

How will the winners be elected?

Members of the Global Voices board will select the final winners.

Will there only be one winner?

There will be two winners.

Will the winner receive a prize?

The awardees will receive a prize of $10,000 each.

What is the deadline for nominations?

The deadline for nominations is the 20th of May, 2012.

When will the winner be announced?

The awards will be announced in July 2012.

The Monarchy of Bahrain: An enemy of the Internet

Yusur Al Bahrani — Fri, 11 May 2012 03:20:58 +0000

More than a year ago, I recall how I used to be threatened by pro-Bahraini government propagandists. Random Facebook users have threatened me after commenting on Nabeel Al Hamar’s, the Advisor for Information Affairs for the King of Bahrain, status on Facebook. I don’t live in Bahrain, and therefore, no one could arrest me for my comments, Tweets, or articles about human rights abuses in Bahrain. However, I felt concerned about my colleagues and friends in Bahrain who are risking their lives everyday for exercising their rights to freedom of expression on Facebook or Twitter or any online media.

On March and April, when the state of emergency was announced in Bahrain, and the Shield of Jazeera (a combination of troops from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates) came to aid the Bahraini forces in attacking peaceful protestors, there has also been a cyber war. Pro-Bahraini government Facebook users (or thugs!) started uploading the photos of activists with red circles around their faces. Instead of questioning the ones who threaten civilians, the government of Bahrain started arresting activists whose photos appear on Facebook. One of them was Ayat Al-Qarmizi, Bahraini poetess, who was later released after months of brutal torture and ill treatment in prison. Some activists disappeared like Global Voices’ blogger Ali Abdulemam, while others were killed like the citizen journalist Ahmed Ismael.

That’s not history yet. Last week, the Bahraini authorities arrested the President of the Human Rights Centre in Bahrain, Nabeel Rajab when he returned from Lebanon at Bahrain’s International Airport. Apparently, the Bahraini government claim that Rajab was arrested because of his “insulting tweets.” I invite all to visit his Twitter page @NABEELRAJAB, and search for “insulting” material. For an oppressive state like Bahrain, using Twitter and other social media to expose human rights violations is “insulting the constitution.”

Sadly hilarious, Manama was announced as “the Capital of Arab Culture,” while it’s the place where the state kills, arrests and kidnaps online activists. I hope that my blog post will not be considered as “insulting” by the Bahraini monarchy neither my Tweets on @YusurAlBahrani.

Netizen Report: Raise Your Voice Edition

Rebecca MacKinnon — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:56:55 +0000

Freedom Fast hunger strike, India. Image courtesy ‘I Love India'.

Most of this report was researched, written, and edited by Weiping Li, Mera Szendro Bok, James Losey, and Sarah Myers.

Internet activists in India are fuming over the country’s sweeping new Internet restrictions on objectionable content, and are beginning to take extreme action to combat the law. This week we recognize Aseem Trivedi and Alok Dixit from Save Your Voice, who have begun a hunger strike in protest of the ‘Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules 2011’ which were quietly issued by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in April 2011.

One of the flaws of the new rules is that they mandate that website or domain owners must take down material within 36 hours when a third party issues a complaint, without giving a chance for content owners to defend the material. The Bangalore-based advocacy group Centre for Internet & Society also pointed out that the rule leads to a general chilling effect on freedom of expression over the Internet.

Member of Parliament Shri P. Rajeev has moved to have the rules annulled amid widespread protests by India’s netizen community. As a growing number of MP's become aware of the issue some see some hope that the censorship law will be discarded. For more details, analysis and links see this post on Global Voices.

Censorship

As the case of the blind activist lawyer Chen Guangcheng remained unresolved, censorship continued to be a pressing issue in China: in the past week, the Web buzzed with the keywords “Chen Guangcheng,” “blind lawyer,” and “U.S. [United States] Embassy,” all of which were censored from the Chinese Internet. But Chinese netizens found ways to circumvent the censorship by replacing the sensitive words with synonyms or homonyms.

In this dramatic episode, Twitter also played an important role: New America Foundation Senior Fellow Emily Parker, writing in the New Republic, pointed out that the activists used Twitter to reveal that Chen’s departure from the Embassy was not as voluntary as the Chinese government indicated.

In the Middle East, more countries are preparing to crack down on social media: Israel’s army has upgraded its system to monitor communications over social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter, and Kuwait’s information minister announced that the country is going to regulate social media websites in order to “safeguard the cohesiveness of the population and society.”

May 3 meanwhile marked the World Press Freedom Day. Several articles invited readers to contemplate the role of the Internet and mobile technology in press freedom: Danny O'Brien of Committee to Protect Journalists explored Internet controls in the world's most censored countries, whilst Nieman Labs discussed how mobile technology has fundamentally redefined the role of journalists - with implications for the defense of their freedom to publish.

Surveillance

According to a report from CNET, Microsoft's support for the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which was passed late last month by the U.S. House of Representatives, appears to be weakening. The Act is strongly opposed by civil liberties groups concerned that it it expands the U.S. government's surveillance powers to unacceptable levels. Time Magazine’s Techland breaks down the facts on who supports CISPA and who doesn’t.

The FBI has drafted a law to require web-based services to install “wiretap-friendly” back doors which facilitate government surveillance. This proposal would expand the application of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act to more tech companies, which have been struggling to keep the promise of protecting customers’ privacy.

Sovereigns of cyberspace

Facebook has become the first company to obtain observer status with the Global Network Initiative, a multi-stakeholder organization which brings together tech companies, human rights activists, and socially responsible investors to increase corporate accountability in upholding core principles of free expression and privacy.

Google is negotiating with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over its violation of privacy by bypassing the privacy protection setting in Apple's Safari browser. The fine levied by the FTC could be more than US$ 10 million.

In more Google-related news, the company's recent report to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reveals that the company has been collecting data from unsecured Wi-Fi locations using software developed for Street View.

Internet rights and governance

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which coordinates the global domain name system, has announced that public board meetings will be replaced with a closed door board session. Philip C. Corwin of the Internet Commerce Association has criticized the change and argues the board meetings should be webcast live.

More than 2,000 applications have been submitted to ICANN by organizations around the world wanting to create new “generic top-level domains” (the part of the domain name that comes after the “.”) The application process has been delayed due to a technical glitch, which may have given some applicants an unfair advantage.

The Internet World Stats website released its Q1 2012 statistics, showing that the top five countries with the most Internet users are now China, United States, India, Japan, and Brazil.

The FBI has returned a seized server related to the series of anonymous bomb threats issued against the University of Pittsburgh, to Riseup Networks and May First/People Link. The FBI seizure has been widely criticized by Internet freedom advocates for being overreaching and unnecessary.

Netizen activism

As Malaysian protesters hit the streets for Malaysia’s Bersih 3.0 rally to protest government corruption, smartphones played a crucial role in capturing state violence.

The Reddit community raised US$ 7,500 for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to support Internet freedom initiatives.

The German Pirate Party, which advocates copyright reform and opposes Internet censorship and surveillance, has scored four key electoral victories in the Saarland regional Parliament.

Esra’a Al Shafei, Bahraini activist and founder of Mideast Youth, spoke in a recent interview about her organization CrowdVoice.org, a user-powered service that tracks voices of protest from around the world by crowdsourcing information.

National policy

The British government is considering a new measure to protect children from adult content. The government’s plan is to block all adult material by default, while adults have to opt in when signing contracts with Internet Service Providers if they want to view porn websites.

In Singapore, the government has reached out to the netizen community, asking them to come up with an “Internet Code of Conduct” to tackle issues of anonymity, false rumors and extremism online. The call has been met with opposition from the Internet community.

The Obama Administration is urging Congress to renew provisions of a law called the “Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act” set to expire at the end of this year. The American Civil Liberties Union is calling on Congress to amend FISA which currently enables “dragnet” surveillance and warrantless wiretapping by the National Security Agency. In order to be compatible with Internet freedom, FISA must be revised to mandate greater transparency about the government’s surveillance activities, and strengthening safeguards for privacy.

Copyright

To commemorate the International Day Against DRM (Digital Rights Management) on May 4, Creative Commons listed the reasons why DRM should be boycotted, and the website Defective by Design.org also persuaded Internet users to take action.

The jury in the Oracle-Google copyright dispute has reached a partial verdict on which the jury found that Google’s use of Oracle’s application programming interfaces has infringed on Oracle’s copyright. In a related ruling, the European Court of Justice ruled that APIs and functionality of a computer program are not protected by copyright.

Cybersecurity

A SophosLabs researcher found that a Firefox add-on ShowIP, which shows IP address and related information of a website, also reports online activities of the users to a third-party server without users’ acknowledgement.

Cool things

The Data Journalism Handbook is a free, open-source book and collaborative effort from leading journalism practitioners and advocates that aims to help journalists to use data to improve the news.
The Mobile Africa report identifies best practices and emerging directions for mobile innovation in Africa, and highlights the increasing profile of award winners from Africa in mobile excellence competitions in the region and globally.
Meta Activism, a crowdsourced database of nonviolent methods upgraded to incorporate the latest technology, has launched a new tool to map the best digital resources for advocates.
The State Department has issued a request for proposals of projects that support Internet freedom.

Publications and studies

For upcoming events related to the future of citizen rights in the digital age, see the Global Voices Events Calendar.

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