Tag: censorship

China still surfs free as Green Dam is halted

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There were parties in the street late last night in Beijing as Chinese students celebrated the last-minute halt of the Green Dam plan.

The meet up was originally planned to discuss censorship, debate other studenty matters and generally fill in time while the web went down for 24 hours to apply the Chinese government’s much criticised content filter.

The students, in the green protest t-shirts, arrived at the event instead to find an unlikey partial victory over their leaders with the news that the roll out of the project has been pushed back – at least for now. It’s unclear how long it will be before Green Dam does come into action, or if indeed it will be moth balled perminantly, but, at least for now, the students of China have the result they were looking for.

Daniel Sung Internet

Chinese surfers to experience even more censorship

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From 1st July all computers sold in China must be pre-loaded with software that prevents access to certain websites, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

For a country that is already ranked as the most stringent of online censors according to Herdict.com the move indicates further control for the Chinese government and less freedom for its public.

The software’s main developer claims that its Green Dam-Youth Escort programme would protect young internet users from “harmful” material such as pornography. However, China has been guilty in the past of restricting access to much less harmful sites. Only last week sites including Twitter, Hotmail, Live, Flickr and YouTube were reportedly off-limits.

Charles Mok, chairman of the Hong Kong division of Internet Society also expressed concerns that the software may be used “to collect personal data or filter other web sites”.

The Chinese government state that the programme is aimed at “constructing a green, healthy, and harmonious Internet environment, and preventing harmful information on the Internet from influencing and poisoning young people.”

Critics, such as myself, argue however that the programme is aimed at further controlling young minds, preventing them from finding out about some of the many atrocities their government are responsible for.

Why else would they ban access to Amnesty International?

TechDigest writer Internet

Apple isn't a fan of boobs or booty

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Both “boobs” and “booty” have been banned from being used in marketing text for an application called “Wobble”, which allows users to add ‘wobble points’, around which any picture they like will wobble. If that confused you, check the promotional video for the app, but be warned, it’s probably mildly NSFW.

Back in December, an application called iBoobs was banned from the App store, and now ‘Wobble’ is under threat too. When the developer complained about the censorship, Apple told him “Wobble and Apple had an agreement that we needed to comply with”.

Apple are rather tetchy about the tone of the app store. For a long time, burp and fart apps weren’t allowed (though they’re now ridiculously popular), and full-on porn has never been allowed. Where does the line get drawn, though? Share your opinion in the comments.

(via TechCrunch, image courtesy of “Jiggles” app)

Related posts: Apple still not down with the “netbook” scene – insists software is more important than hardware | Apple releases the chains on iTunes DRM

Duncan Geere iPhone, Mobile phones

IWF reverses Wikipedia block decision

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Following massive negative publicity after blocking British internet users from accessing pages on Wikipedia, the Internet Watch Foundation has reversed overruled its own appeals process and once again allowed access to the site.

The block came about after a member of public complained about this page (potentially NSFW) on the English Wikipedia, displaying the album art for a record called Virgin Killer. The art features a young girl naked with a crack in the plastic concealing her genitalia, but nothing obscuring her chest.

Duncan Geere Internet

British ISPs block Wikipedia over album cover

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That image to the right, when uncensored, is the cover to German heavy metal band Scorpions’ 1976 album “Virgin Killer”. It was the centre of a storm yesterday after six British ISPs blocked their subscribers from accessing pages that featured it, including Wikipedia.

As well as the block of the offending page, another result was that Wikipedia editors and administrators in the UK became suddenly unable to edit pages when not logged in. This has prompted an uproar amongst users of the site – which relies on editing by volunteers for its content.

Duncan Geere Broadband, Columns & Opinion, Internet, Websites

China still censoring the internet for journalists covering the Olympics. What a bunch of [BLANK]ing [BLANKS].

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With the 2008 Beijing Olympics a mere week away it’s almost reassuring to see that despite the massive costs, huge corporate sponsorship deals and globalisation eroding countries individuality, China are trying their best to keep their own culture and traditions alive.

Despite earlier reports to the contrary, during the Games this year, the Chinese tradition of censorship of the internet and blocking websites that in any way contradict the brutal and repressive government’s official line looks set to continue…

James O'Malley Internet, Websites, Wi-Fi