Web blocks remain one year on for China’s Uighurs

By Tsering

Flickr Creative Commons | Dimitry Perstin

By Marianne Barriaux   | AFP | July 5, 2010

URUMQI, China — For Ruzmammat, the Internet is a crucial way of keeping in touch with his Uighur friends in China’s Xinjiang region — a lifeline that was denied to him for 10 months following deadly ethnic riots.

Authorities cut off the web in Xinjiang in the aftermath of violence that erupted a year ago in the regional capital Urumqi between mainly Muslim Uighurs and majority Han Chinese, leaving nearly 200 dead and 1,700 injured.

Access to dozens of websites, largely government-run or national web portals, was restored earlier this year, and most others came back on stream in May.

But three major portals used by Uighurs for news and discussion remain blocked — a reality which is hindering efforts by members of the Turkic-speaking minority to preserve their culture, experts say.

“If something big happens outside (Urumqi), that’s how we communicate,” said Ruzmammat, a 22-year-old web cafe employee in a mainly Uighur quarter of Urumqi, sitting at a computer as other men played games or chatted online.

“But we also use the sites for other stuff like finding jobs,” he said.

Authorities accused Uighurs inside and outside China of using the Internet to orchestrate the unrest last year and analysts say foreign Uighur-language websites remain inaccessible in the region as a result.

Such sites are “important for Uighurs wishing to be in contact with each other and with the outside world, and for the propagation of the Uighur language and culture,” said Michael Dillon, a Xinjiang expert based in Britain.

When the regional government announced the general restoration of Internet access in May, it warned that “anyone transmitting harmful information will be dealt with in accordance with the law”.

According to Ilham Tohti, an outspoken Uighur professor and blogger who lives in Beijing, many people who operated Uighur websites “have been thrown in prison or have disappeared” since the July 2009 unrest.

The Chinese government has further upped the stakes by requiring many website operators to register their names and claim responsibility for their content, creating a climate of fear, he told AFP in an interview in Beijing.

“Under this situation, many people involved in websites face great obstacles and a lot of pressure,” Tohti said.

He added that before the unrest in Urumqi, there had been a “lively” online discussion among Uighurs — deemed crucial amid tight restrictions on other publications such as magazines — but people were now scared to say much.

“With many websites closed, this has closed off our ability to debate, to exchange opinions,” he said.

China has long maintained an extensive nationwide system of Internet censorship, known as the “Great Firewall”, aimed at filtering out information deemed politically sensitive and harmful.

But the shutdown in Xinjiang went far beyond that. Paris-based media watchdog Reporters without Borders described it as the “longest ever case of government censorship of this kind”.

The government also cut text messaging services and international phone calls over fears of more unrest, isolating Xinjiang even further. These were only restored in January.

Despite this, people in the region still found ways to communicate within Xinjiang and with the outside world, according to Dru Gladney, an expert on Uighurs at Pomona College in California.

“They cut mobiles off for a while, but people used landlines and public phones, and they also smuggled out videos and photos on memory sticks,” he said.

“But it hurt the business people in the region and Han as well as Uighurs were very upset at being cut off because the Internet is so important for business.”

Tohti said Xinjiang’s 20 million people, nine million of whom are Uighurs, had been stripped of a “vital” tool of information for nearly a year.

“Today’s world is inseparable from the Internet. Whether it is entertainment, news, education, research, social contact or business, the Internet is indispensable,” he said.

Indonesia sex scandal stirs internet debate

By Tsering

Flickr Creative Commons | Ivan Bandura

By Karishma Vaswani | BBC News | July 5, 2010

It is being called Indonesia’s first ever celebrity sex scandal.

For the last few weeks, Indonesians have been captivated by an ongoing saga over X-rated videos that have appeared on the internet, allegedly featuring three of the country’s most popular celebrities.

Pop star Nazril Ariel has denied any involvement, but has been charged under anti-pornography laws.

TV presenter Luna Maya and soapstar Cut Tari have also denied involvement in the sex tapes, saying the footage was doctored.

But the rate at which the videos have spread on the web has raised fears about the way Indonesians are using technology, even prompting the vice-president to voice concern about what the younger generation is doing online.

The scandal has stirred debate about attitudes to sex and internet regulation in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

Public protest

Celebrity sex scandals may be nothing new in some other countries, but in Indonesia it has got a lot of people very angry.

Demonstrations against the stars have been taking place since the videos appeared online.

At a rally organised by Hizb ut-Tahrir, a conservative Muslim group known for trying to push a strict Islamic agenda, men, women and young children held posters and waved banners in the searing heat.

The adults were frustrated by what they see as the moral deterioration of their society.

Many were young parents worried about the kind of place Indonesia is turning into, and what that means for their children.

Uzham Izhar, 32, had brought her two-year-old daughter.

“We want to live in an Indonesia that follows Islamic values,” she said, as she patted her daughter asleep on her lap.

“Islamic law isn’t just for Muslims, it’s for the whole country.

“This kind of country is very dangerous, and it is particularly dangerous for my young daughter. I don’t want her growing up in this kind of Indonesia.”

Her concerns are being echoed by many who are worried that the younger generation’s attitude to sex and morality is not in tune with Indonesia’s cultural and religious heritage.

More than 80% of Indonesians are Muslim, and while it is a secular nation, most people are still largely conservative.

But that is changing, especially among young people who have access to information in a way their parents could never have dreamed of.

Censorship?

All of this has put the government under pressure.

Indonesia’s Communications Ministry drafted a decree last year to regulate the internet but it was not pushed through because it was seen as unpopular with the public.

Now, the ministry is re-drafting the decree and says it will be in place by the end of the year.

Critics say officials are using this celebrity sex saga as an opportunity to re-introduce censorship in a country that has only recently become a democracy after three decades of authoritarian rule.

But Communications Ministry chief Basuki Yusuf says the claims are ridiculous.

“Democracy doesn’t mean absolute freedom,” he told the BBC in his office in central Jakarta.

“The internet is just technology. It has a good side and a bad side. We can’t forget there is always a risk for the misuse and even the abuse of the internet – that it could violate our values and our future generations.”

But the government seems to be out of step with Indonesia’s young generation on this issue.

They resent the assumption that the only reason they are using the internet is to download pornographic material or access “immoral” content.

This is a country that is increasingly comfortable with technology.

In restaurants and cafes around Jakarta, it is not unusual to see teenagers and professionals browsing the web on their laptops, iPhones or Blackberries, and other gadgets.

There are more than 40 million internet users in Indonesia – and that number is growing fast.

Indonesian is the top Asian language on Facebook, and other local sites are also growing in popularity, which is why any clampdown on the internet is being met with stiff resistance from young people here.

Margareta Astaman is a 24-year-old blogger.

Her blog, Have a Sip of Margarita, has become so well-known that publishers have turned some of her entries about her daily life into a series of books.

She says the government is over-reacting to the celebrity sex scandal.

“We live in the internet, everything we do is on the internet, so limiting access will limit ourselves,” she said, adding that it may have some negative effects in society but that the positive also needs to be recognised.

Here, as in other countries, the web has become a vital part of everyday life, especially for Indonesia’s youth.

It is a forum for complaints about politicians, a place to chat and connect with friends and family, and a tool for expression.

The question this country is wrestling with is whether a new-found love of technology can co-exist with traditional values and religious beliefs.

Afghanistan begins Internet filtering with Gmail, Facebook

By Tsering

Flickr Creative Commons | Colleen Taugher

By Rebekah Heacock | OpenNet Initiative | June, 28 2010

Afghanistan has followed up on its promise to begin filtering the Internet: the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) reports the country is now blocking Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, YouTube and a host of sites related to alcohol, gambling and sex.

In March, the government announced its intention to begin filtering the Afghan internet, admitting that it lacked the technology but was investigating ways to block sites related to violence, terrorism, pornography or gambling.

Under the Taliban, Afghan citizens were completely cut off from the Internet. The government banned the Internet in 2001 because it contained “obscene, immoral and anti-Islamic material.” In 2006, fewer than just citizen per thousand had Internet access. The current government has made greater Internet access a priority, and in the past decade the number of Internet users in the country has grown from almost none to around 500,000.

While the proposed filtering plan was billed as part of the war against the Taliban, some worry that the government is reverting to Taliban-era control over online content. In an interview with Public Radio International, the BBC’s Dawood Azami notes that the Afghan media are particularly concerned:

But now the government says that there are some websites which are “immoral” and against the traditions of the Afghan people so they are planning to not only block those websites that glorify violence, but they are also trying or planning to block those websites which the Taliban didn’t like…. [The Afghan press corps] are unhappy about this. They say that if these restrictions are imposed, it would mean that the government would be able to block any website they don’t like, or block those websites which are critical of the government. So there is this concern in the journalist community in Afghanistan.

While the desire to restrict access to pro-violence content is understandable, the government’s decision to block such a wide swath of sites — including, the EFF says, Gmail — is harder to justify as part of an anti-terrorist plan.

A Win for Yahoo! and for Privacy in Belgium

By Jen Swallow | Legal Director EMEA | Product Compliance

Flickr Creative Commons | Steakpinball

Yahoo! welcomes the decision last week by the Court of Appeal in Belgium, which highlights the importance of local law enforcement authorities following established international protocols when conducting their investigations.

In March 2009, a Belgian Criminal Court entered judgment in a criminal case against Yahoo! Inc. for the failure to disclose user data to Belgian law enforcement authorities. Yahoo! does not have a local subsidiary or a website in Belgium.  More importantly, the Belgian authorities did not follow the recognised legal process when it sought to obtain the user data from Yahoo! Inc., located in the U.S..  An official diplomatic channel exists between the U.S. and Belgium to facilitate appropriate information exchange (set up under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty), but this route was not taken by the Belgian authorities despite our encouragement to do so.

On 30 June 2010, the Belgian Court of Appeal overturned the March 2009 judgment. The Court of Appeal found there was insufficient jurisdiction to bring Yahoo! Inc.’s actions under Belgian telecommunications laws, and Yahoo! Inc. was acquitted of all charges and fines against it.

This judgment is a win for both the privacy of our users and also for common sense in international law enforcement:  the global nature of the internet does not subject companies offering services online – and their customers’ data – to the jurisdiction of every country globally.  We hope this judgment can send a signal to law enforcement authorities to use established legal process in their investigations; following such procedures is the best way to ensure that information gathering for law enforcement is conducted effectively and efficiently, whilst safeguarding data privacy and freedom of expression over the Internet.

By Jen Swallow | Legal Director, Product Compliance EMEA | Albert Yung | Legal Intern | Yahoo! UK