Tuesday, April 24, 2007

China Censorship Expanding?

According to Reuters, the Chinese President Hu Jintao announced a tighter grip on the internet. A summary of the meeting of the Communist Party Politburo was read on a Chinese news broadcast: “Development and administration of Internet culture must stick to the direction of socialist advanced culture, adhere to correct propaganda guidance.” [Via Boing Boing.]

China Censorship Expandin ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (6)

YouTube Thailand Censorship Continues

Boing Boing via one of their readers reminds us that YouTube is still being blocked in Thailand, and also includes a screenshot of what a visitor saw from Bangkok (above – you gotta love the big brother eye). The page points to ict.cyberclean.org, and the English part reads:

Sorry! the web site you are accessing has been blocked by ministry of information and communication technology

According to Reuters on April 6th, the blocking was implemented due to “clips offensive to [Thailand’s] revered monarch,” and Google went into negotiations with the Thailand communications minister, who said “It will be a few days before we lift the ban on the entire site.” Apparently, not yet.

Ronald Deibert, director of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, argues that “In general, Internet censorship is on the rise globally.” Deibert says that over the past year, more than two dozen countries regularly blocked entire sites or specific content, whereas in 2002 only China, Iran and Saudi Arabia did so. Google/ YouTube were not available for comment.

YouTube Thailand Censorsh ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (3)

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