‘Children’s Law’ Used to Censor Online Media in Turkey

By Tsering

Flickr Creative Commons | Sinistra Ecologia Libertà

Turkish Weekly | September 27, 2010 

Bans on websites containing a small amount of content in violation of Turkish law may be depriving people of their constitutional right to free access to information, according to a legal scholar in Istanbul.

The popular websites YouTube and Google are among those Turkish users often have difficulty reaching, a problem the country’s president chalked up to tax-related issues, rather than censorship, in a recent speech.

“The law initially aimed to protect children and families, but it has mostly been used for political control and censorship,” Yaman Akdeniz, a lawyer and professor at Istanbul Bilgi University, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review late last week after an informational meeting. The meeting is a first step toward discussions that will be held among civil-society organizations and the Parliament on the “Internet ban” law in Turkey.

Law No. 5651, which entered into force in November 2007, followed by the approval of three related bylaws, authorizes the country’s courts or its telecommunications authority to cut off access to Internet websites under certain circumstances.

“Banning access [to Internet sites] does not solve the problem,” Akdeniz said, adding that problems such as child pornography, libel and the like, included in the framework of the law’s eighth article, cannot be solved in this way. Even if the law could solve such problems, blanket bans on access would be a disproportionate response, he said.

Akdeniz also said there were many gaps in the law and existing provisions were not being implemented properly by the relevant public authorities. “Those who commit crimes such as posting child pornography are not punished by the Internet ban,” he said, adding that it is the general public that is harmed by such bans.

“This is why I believe the law takes a disproportionate approach,” he said, explaining that criminals are left free to repeat their crimes while innocent people are deprived of the ability to use Internet website sources for educational, informational and other legal purposes. Moreover, Akdeniz said, the Turkish penal code already covers the crimes listed in Article 8 of the Internet ban law.

Once a court decides to ban access to certain Internet sites, the decision can be appealed within 10 days after it enters into force, a procedure Akdeniz objected to. “I see banning access to information as a violation of my constitutional rights,” he said, adding that there should be no time limit to appeal Internet ban decisions.

Moreover, Akdeniz said, even when he had appealed such decisions on time, the court said he had no right to appeal as he was not a party to the case, something he said was also unjust. “The wrong methodology is being applied,” he said.

Akdeniz also said Internet ban decisions carried the status of preventative measures, which had to be temporary in legal terms, but whose effects could eventually last permanently.

“The validity time for such decisions must be determined either by law, or by a court decision,” he said, explaining that the court had said in related decisions that a ban would be annulled once the violation of law No. 5651 had ended.

“This also constitutes a concern,” Akdeniz said, adding that Turkish courts considered the violation ended only if the content violating Turkish law cannot be accessed from anywhere around the globe. “Although many website-managing companies, such as YouTube, can localize an access ban to [block] content that violates Turkish laws within Turkey, Turkish court decisions have no jurisdiction across borders,” he said.

President Abdullah Gül said Friday in a speech to students at Columbia University in New York that blocking of websites in Turkey was due simply to unresolved tax issues. “A problem that stands is that some Internet sites are unreachable in Turkey, but this is not a result of censorship,” Gül said. “Tax laws have not been updated, and I have urged them to do so.”

Responding to the idea that certain Internet sites had been blocked because their owners had not paid taxes in Turkey, Akdeniz said Turkish tax law does not include any provisions predicting this scenario.

“Turkey is a country that aspires to join the EU, but its Internet policies are approaching [those of] China,” Akdeniz said.

The academic said after having exhausted all legal channels within the Turkish system, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a last resort, a place where the issue may find a resolution that does not violate people’s fundamental right to be informed and get access to information.

Political website director released on bail

By Tsering

Flickr Creative Commons | Tim Parkinson

By Achara Ashayagachat | Bangkok Post | September 26, 2010

The director of political news website Prachatai.com has been released on bail as media freedom activists blasted authorities over her arrest on charges of violating the Computer Crime Act and committing lese majeste.

Chiranuch Premchaiporn, 43, who was detained by police at Suvarnabhumi airport on Friday upon her return from a conference in Hungary on media freedom, was granted bail about 1am yesterday.

Bail of 200,000 baht in cash was paid on her behalf and she was released on condition she report to the Khon Kaen Muang district police station – where she was taken for questioning after her arrest – on Oct 24.

She faces charges of lese majeste and violating the Computer Crime Act for allegedly disseminating content deemed insulting to the monarchy through Prachatai.com.

Chatpong Pongsuwan, the Khon Kaen police investigator overseeing the case, said on Friday that an individual whose identity was not disclosed had lodged a complaint against Ms Chiranuch in 2008.

Supinya Klangnarong, coordinator of the Thai Netizen Network, said she believed Ms Chiranuch’s arrest would draw international attention to the deteriorating state of media freedom in Thailand.

Thai Journalists Association president Prasong Lertratanawisute said he was concerned that proper procedure had not been observed in Ms Chiranuch’s case. He said his association has been calling for a review of the Computer Crime Act for the past few years.

Ubonrat Siriyuwasak, a journalism academic, said Ms Chiranuch’s arrest was not conducive to the “government-sponsored media reform atmosphere”, referring to the Abhisit government’s campaign to reform the media as part of national reconciliation efforts.

Ms Ubonrat said the government had exploited media technology for its own political purposes, yet it wanted to prevent Thailand’s online society from becoming vibrant and healthy for fear of a backlash.

There were efforts to curb free speech rather than promote and protect an open atmosphere for political discussions in cyberspace, she said.

Amnesty International yesterday released a statement condemning Ms Chiranuch’s arrest.

“The Thai government has frequently used the 2007 Computer-related Crimes Act to uphold the country’s lese majeste law in a growing trend of censorship to silence peaceful political dissent,” the statement said.

“The lese majeste law goes beyond reasonable restrictions on freedom of expression provided for under international human rights law.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also condemned Ms Chiranuch’s arrest. Shawn Crispin, its senior Southeast Asia representative, said the government should stop using anti-monarchy charges to suppress legitimate criticism.

Ms Chiranuch was arrested on March 6 last year when police raided Prachatai’s Bangkok news office and seized computer equipment.

She was later released on bail, but remains involved in court proceedings over comments allegedly critical of a member of the royal family posted on one of Prachatai’s discussion forums.

The latest charges against Ms Chiranuch come amid an intensifying crackdown on Thai media, according to CPJ research.

Since imposing a state of emergency on April 7, the Abhisit government has closed a satellite television news station, community radio stations, print publications and websites aligned with the anti-government United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship movement, said the CPJ.

Russia’s blogging revolution

By Tsering

Flickr Creative Commons | Howard Lifshitz

By Alexey Kovalev | The Guardian | September 24, 2010

Artyom Tiunov, a 25-year-old architect from Novosibirsk, was recently detained by Russian police on suspicion of theft and subjected to 14 hours of brutal interrogation. The police hoped he would confess to a crime he didn’t commit. They hoped he would provide them with an open-and-shut case; every police department has to present a certain number of these in a given a period or be subjected to severe questioning over their low clear-up rate. This pressure has become a major source of the abuse and corruption which everybody, including the police themselves, hopes to see off in the reforms scheduled for 2012-13..

But instead the police had to release Tiunov after being confronted with CCTV footage of him exiting a restaurant at the time of the alleged crime. Tiunov described the whole ordeal on his Livejournal.com page – a blogging platform massively popular in Russia ,hosting over 1.5 million Russian-language blogs – and the post, titled “Wrong place, wrong time”, attracted more than 1,000 comments in just two days. But instead of going to a protest rally against police brutality – not effective enough, he says – he continues to blog about his confrontation with the police over his unlawful detention and files complaints and requests for investigation.

The online outrage is gaining momentum and the whole case is now too public to be ignored by the authorities or mainstream media. Tiunov says he saw the chief of the police department that had detained him clutch a printed-out blogpost with all the outraged comments – which means that they are well aware of the public attention the case is receiving. However, he remains calmly realistic: “He didn’t seem scared or concerned. The chance that the online hype will make them more courteous towards detainees or at least more cautious is measly. But that doesn’t mean I’ll stop trying. And everybody should do the same, then it’ll start to change”.

Tiunov seems to be one of a new breed of Russian dissenter: a young, smart, iPhone-wielding professional, tech-savvy enough to understand the power of the internet and to use it to his advantage. He may not have any political persuasion at all, but when he runs into trouble with the state’s institutions, he won’t be attending a political demonstration and risk being batoned or arrested. He knows exactly how to generate enough hype to make his case public, and the online environment seems to be quite encouraging of his actions. Many have noted the curious absence of censorship on the Russian-speaking internet which largely remains a free-for-all zone, quite unlike traditional media which are kept on a tight leash, as demonstrated by the recent simultaneous smear campaigns against Moscow’s rebellious mayor Yuri Luzhkov, and neighbouring post-Soviet countries where bloggers are intimidated and opposition websites shut down on a regular basis.

For example, the owner of @KermlinRussia, a spoof of Dmitry Medvedev’s official Twitter account spewing out sarcastic parodies of the president’s every tweet, says he hasn’t been contacted by anyone from the real Kremlin with any cease-and-desist demands, which suggests that Medvedev himself might actually enjoy a bit of good internet comedy (although his own tweets are snore-inducingly tedious). Or it’s a case of “won’t dignify with a response” – we can’t know for sure. In any case, jokes, cartoons and Photoshopped images of both Medvedev and Putin – often quite venomous – abound in Runet, and none of their authors have been under any pressure to take them down.

Yes, some are being prosecuted for bitter online remarks and servers confiscated, and some pro-Kremlin politicians call for censorship crudely disguised as “security measures“, but apart from several isolated and widely publicised cases Runet seems to remain virtually free from state control. Google Transparency Report doesn’t list a single data or removal request from Russia – unlike, for example, a staggering 4,287 from the USA. 

Instead, Edinaya Rossiya (United Russia), the ruling party, employs a different strategy. Recently, it proudly announced the start of Project Blogosphere aimed at “political domination through direct communication with voters in social networks and online debates”, or, in normal-speak, pro-active propaganda rather than suppression. That, however, is proving to be a risky strategy: older politicians, encouraged to start their own blog, rely on their assistants to generate Soviet-style triumphalist reports with little to no actual feedback, while younger, more active members of Edinaya Rossiya have caused some major PR blunders for the party, much to the amusement of the online population.

For example, during the recent wildfire crisis, Ruslan Gattarov and Vladimir Burmatov, two senior members of ER’s youth wing (Molodaya Gvardiya, The Young Guard of United Russia), tried to use the disaster for their own political gain. They assembled a volunteer firefighting team, dressed them in party colours and went on to extinguish a fire in a forest several hundred kilometres from Moscow, all the while tweeting and posing for photographs with flags and party logos in the foreground.

What they didn’t realise was that their every move, tweet and photo was being meticulously analysed by the very people they hoped to impress and “dominate” – the bloggers. Soon a detailed blogpost appeared dismissing Gattarov and Burmatov’s proud reports as fake: their clothes looked far too clean for a messy operation like forest firefighting, and the area in question wasn’t even on fire. As it turned out, they simply set a bush on fire and photographed themselves putting it out to boast the party’s active involvement in the firefighting operation. Outrage ensued, much to the embarrassment of both the Young Guard and the party.

These are just a few examples of how the internet promotes transparency in Russia and accountability of those in power. We can’t know for sure whether it’s due to the government’s inherited inertia and reliance on old-fashioned top-down management, or whether this lax attitude towards online content is a genuine sign of democratisation. But please blog on.

Iranian prosecutors demand death penalty for ‘blogfather’

By Tsering

Flickr Creative Commons | Joi Ito

By Richard Spencer | The Guardian | September 23, 2010

Hossein Derakhshan, 35, who has both Iranian and Canadian nationality, won his nickname after developing a blog platform for Persian characters that was widely copied by online activists and commentators.

While living in Canada and Britain he became known as a defender of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president, against attacks from his many critics in the West. But he also went on a one-man peace mission to Israel, trying to show an Israeli perspective on conflicts in the Middle East to Iranians and also to “humanise” Iranians for his hosts.

He was arrested within weeks of his voluntary return to Iran in 2008. His alleged offences include working with “hostile” governments, propaganda against the Islamic establishment, propaganda in favour of anti-revolutionary groups, and insulting religious sanctities.

An anonymous source told Radio Free Europe that the trial had taken place behind closed doors and that although no sentence had yet been handed down, the prosecutor had sought the death penalty.

His mother, Ozra Kiarashpour, has confirmed that he has been convicted. “The prosecutor has asked for the severest sentence possible to punish Hossein and make an example of him,” she said in an interview with a dissident website. “We can’t do anything about the judge’s ruling except to pray.”

A death penalty would be unusual although writers and dissidents have been sentenced to lengthy jail terms. In the last week, two dissident journalists have been sentenced to six years’ jail on similar charges, one for an interview he conducted for the BBC Persian service. Exile groups say that capital punishment is increasingly being sought against those accused of “mohareb”, or offending God and his prophet.

Mr Derakhshan’s family speculates that he might have been victim of a power struggle in the country’s ruling conservative faction, given that he was arrested so soon after praising the regime. He had also received a guarantee from the High Council of Iranian Affairs Abroad that he would be safe if he returned.

On his return, he made a Twitter comment that he “loved being in Iran” and was “generally impressed”. Previously, he had defended Iran’s right to develop nuclear weapons in self-defence, saying he would defend the country against any military assault.

But he also offended the authorities by tackling pro-reform issues, and on a previous visit home had been arrested and made to apologise for telling readers in Iran how to get round internet censorship.

Microsoft to offer free software to Russian NGOs: official

By Tsering

Flickr Creative Commons | Howard Lifshitz

AFP | September 15, 2010

MOSCOW — Microsoft on Wednesday said it would supply free software to Russian nongovernmental organisations after a media report that the US software giant was aiding Russian police in stifling dissent.

The New York Times said earlier this month that Russian authorities had used a crackdown on pirated Microsoft software as a pretext to confiscate computers and harass non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Lawyers retained by Microsoft backed police during their raids on several occasions, it said.

After the report the company condemned the Russian authorities’ practice of using anti-piracy laws to put pressure on NGOs and said it would ensure that Russian NGOs have free software.

“We are preparing a programme of free software for NGOs and for some media,” a spokeswoman for Microsoft’s Moscow office, Irina Meshkova, told AFP.

“We will announce the list and the selection criteria later, as well as the timescale for this decision to come into force,” she added.

In January, police raided the office of Russian NGO Baikal Environmental Wave, saying that they were searching for pirated Microsoft software, the New York Times reported.

Police confiscated computers in the operation against the campaign group, which opposes the government-authorised reopening of a paper factory on the banks of pristine Lake Baikal in Siberia

On Monday, Microsoft senior vice president Brad Smith said in a blog post that the company would draw up a new software licence for NGOs that would provide them with free, legal software.

“We’re creating in Russia a new NGO Legal Assistance Program focused specifically on helping NGOs document to the authorities that this new software license proves that they have legal software,” he said.

Microsoft estimated last year that it loses around one billion dollars per year from piracy in Russia.

Burma’s junta can’t escape from the net

By Tsering

Flickr Creative Commons | Preetam Rai

By Phoebe Kennedy | The Independent | September 14, 2010 

Cyber-activists plan to scrutinise the country’s elections

Burma‘s military rulers won’t be inviting foreign observers to monitor November’s general election – a poll already dismissed as a sham by Western governments – but the country’s network of bloggers and “citizen journalists” is planning to do the job for them.

Despite internet censorship and harsh punishments for those caught criticising the junta online, Burma has a lively cyber community of bloggers and Facebookers who believe the internet is the strongest force for change in a country which has been locked under military dictatorship for half a century. The 7 November election won’t be free or fair – senior general Than Shwe has already seen to that by bankrolling a huge proxy party stuffed with ex-military candidates, while intimidating and financially squeezing the small opposition parties which have dared to stand.

But gathered in an internet café in central Rangoon, a group of young cyber-activists say they are taking the vote seriously, even if the result is a foregone conclusion.

“The regime is going to keep power after the election – we all know that – but boycotting the election will not help. We need to grab any opportunity to bring change,” said Aung, a 27-year-old female blogger and author of the popular Burmese-language blog “Me and My Stuff”.

Optimistic and sometimes painfully idealistic, the bloggers are strongly opposed to the government but are fed up with what is written about Burma from outside the country: media reports, blogs written by political exiles and human rights websites are all damning of the junta but offer nothing positive, they say.

“They are just attacking the regime and nothing else,” said Eugene, a 30-year-old blogger. “They don’t show us a way out. They talk about the problems but not the solution – many people are searching for more, and we want to give them that.”

Like everyone under the age of 38 in Burma, none of the bloggers has voted before. The last national election in 1990 was won overwhelmingly by Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, but the generals overturned the result.

Despite their inexperience of democracy, the bloggers see their role as educating and informing.

“We want to explain how the election will work,” said “Timpler” the cyber name of a 30-year-old IT consultant and father of two. “I already post information about political parties, the election commission and other things about politics. Some people can be quite outspoken, making fun of the government politicians, or saying that they are lying.”

On election day itself, the bloggers plan to spread out across Rangoon and other cities and towns to create an network of election monitors.

“Our role as bloggers, or CJs (citizen journalists) will be to individually monitor the election,” said Aung. “We plan to organise ourselves to phone in from the polling stations and use SMS and Twitter to get information out and to say whether the voting is free. This as our responsibility.”

The bloggers are well aware of the risks. Fellow blogger Nay Phone Latt was arrested in early 2008 and sentenced to 12 years in prison for breaking the Electronics Act. The 30-year-old was a prominent blogger during the September 2007 “Saffron Revolution” and documented the uprising led by Buddhist monks and its violent aftermath, in which dozens of peaceful protesters were shot dead.

Nay Phone Latt, named this year as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people, is serving his sentence in the remote Hpa’an prison in eastern Burma. His family is able to visit him occasionally, but the only communication he now has with his online community is by hand-written letter.

The bloggers plan to be careful. Their individual blogs can be easily traced to them, so they may use a group blog such as Burmese Bloggers without Borders, the site they set up in 2007 to record the uprising. The regime has tried to block blog sites inside Burma and they cannot always be viewed. But the bloggers say the government’s haphazard approach to controlling the internet and their own superior technical knowledge keep them a step ahead.

“We can get around their controls and blocks, it’s easy for us. We use anonymity software and proxy servers outside the country. That’s just natural for us,” said Aung, an English language graduate and IT trainer. The bloggers’ hope for the election is that a civilian-fronted government will bring some new freedoms, small cracks in the system that can be wedged open by their drive and activism.

“There will be no revolution, but even a little change will be good for us,” said Aung. “We don’t want to be politicians, we see ourselves as social activists. We believe in the power of new media to make a difference in our country.”

From the blogs

Simple loss of faith, February 2009

We no longer have faith in the government, the education system and the health-care system, etc. A visit to any government office will require a string of briberies to get things done, starting from the lowest-rank. Many educators and health practitioners have traded in their sense of integrity in exchange for the pursuit of materialistic goals or simply the need of survival. Schools have lost their essence of education and nurturing. Our educational certificates no longer hold much worth. People no longer have a sense of pride at being “educated”. Corruptions and lies have crept into Burma over the decades and slowly but surely, settled into the daily lives of our people.

Past is haunting, present is daunting, July 2008

So, what is the present situation in Burma now? Burmese civilians did try their best whenever the circumstances favoured. Then military regime has repeatedly tortured and killed whomever is against them. Many families were broken and destroyed under this oppression. Mothers are crying. Sons are dying. Political prisoner are lying in the darkness. Political crisis makes ever-deepening social crisis and in turn it’s causing political unrest again. Moreover, Nargis cyclone pushes Burma to the edge of the worst. Everything seems hopeless and unimaginable what would happen to worrisome and desperate 50 million souls. Will it be another revolution? Will it be another cyclone to make us sufferer? Will it be another earthquake to punish dictator? Will it be any betterment? Will it be even worse? One thing for sure is present is daunting.

All of Burma is a prison, June 2008

Why is my brother in Insein [prison]? On Feb. 15, the military raided the offices of the Myanmar Nation and took my brother, the weekly journal’s editor in chief, to jail. His crime? Possession of a UN report on the military’s brutal crackdown on last September’s demonstrations by monks and democracy activists – known around the world as the “Saffron Revolution”.

My brother’s name is Thet Zin, and he is one of hundreds of Burmese citizens who struggle to tell the truth about what is happening in their country – whether through traditional forms of journalism or through the internet – under threat of arrest or worse by the military regime. Along with my brother, his office manager, Sein Win Maung, was also arrested.

Source: Burmese Bloggers w/o Borders

Cuban blogger Sanchez calls media prize a ‘shield’

By Tsering

Flickr Creative Commons | Jared Tarbell

AFP | September 5, 2010

HAVANA — Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez said winning the media watchdog IPI prize of World Press Freedom Hero is a “protective shield” that will help her break “the wall of censorship,” she told AFP Sunday.

“For someone who three years ago started opening cracks in the walls of censorship, my first feeling is that of enormous gratification,” Sanchez said of the award she was given Friday.

The recognition from the Vienna-based International Press Institute, which hailed her defiance of press restrictions and commitment to free speech, is “also a shield to keep daring” to put out news from the closeted Communist isle.

Sanchez began her blog Generation Y, which now counts over one million readers, in 2007. However, access to the site was banned in Cuba in 2008.

To bypass this, Sanchez, who celebrated her 35th birthday Saturday, emails her comments to friends abroad who post her notes on the Internet.`

In 2008, Time Magazine in the United States named her one of the 100 most influential people. The following year, her blog was listed as one of the 25 best blogs of the year by the magazine.

The future of Cuba is “where the power of the Internet can be used to promote freedom of expression,” Sanchez told AFP, adding that the IPI prize was an additional “incentive” to keep going.

“Gradually the circle of censorship is in the process of breaking down. I am very happy. I will continue,” she said.

Alison Bethel McKenzie, director of the Vienna-based International Press Institute, said Friday that Sanchez’s “tremendously important work provides a glimpse into what is otherwise a closed world.”

She “represents a future where the power of the Internet can be harnessed to promote free speech,” McKenzie said in a statement.

Harassed and beaten on separate occasions, Sanchez has noted on her blog that she is constantly watched by state security agents.

But she refuses to stop writing: “If you are insulted by the mediocre, the opportunists, if you are slandered by the employees of the powerful but dying machinery, take it as a compliment,” she has written.

Chile: First Country to Legislate Net Neutrality

By Tsering

Flickr Creative Commons | turkletom

By Silvia Viñas | Global Voices Online | September 4, 2010

After nearly three years of discussions, Chile approved the commonly named Net Neutrality Law [es] ^[1], which includes the addition of three articles to the General Law of Telecommunications.

The reform implies ^[2], among other things, that Internet Service Providers will not be able to arbitrarily block, interfere, discriminate, hinder or restrict content, applications or legal services that users perform on their networks. Additionally, the reform establishes the obligation to make information about connection plans transparent and allow the possibility to request parental controls at the expense of the applicant. The establishment of this legal guarantee has been seen as a great triumph for the principle of net neutrality ^[3] and Chile has been highlighted as the first country to establish this principle by law. ^[4]

One of the most important elements of this new law is that its initiative was promoted by a group of citizens organized through the Neutralidad Sí [es] ^[6] community, who convinced representatives from Congress about the importance of having a law like this which guarantees rights of the users. Earlier, this group of users worked hard to show that important Internet Service Providers were performing acts contrary to the principle of neutrality, like blocking ports that allow the exchange of P2P files [es]. ^[7]

Felipe Morandé, Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, said that [es] ^[8], “It is a concrete step toward having greater transparency in the broadband market, stimulating competition for quality of service, which is the pillar of our public policy in telecommunications,” and he pointed out that the law, “places our country at the forefront in the world in terms of net neutrality. It shows that there is the political will in Chile to modernize the regulation of telecommunications and empower consumers. That is the path that we are following for the benefit of the citizens.”

The initiative has been generally well received by the public, as in ChileGeek for example, where Diego Narvaez mentions [es] ^[9] four reasons why this is good legislation, pointing out that,

con este proyecto la legislación se pone a la vanguardia respecto a otros países como EEUU y comunidad Europea, en donde la neutralidad de la red no se encuentra legislada por el fuerte lobby que efectúan las empresas de telecomunicaciones y proveedoras de acceso.

with this project the law is placed at the forefront in respect to other countries like the US and the European community, where net neutrality is not legislated because of the strong lobby made by telecommunication companies and access providers.

But not everyone agrees. Although legislating on such an important matter seems like positive news, there are doubts about the real reach of the recently approved law. In Blawger, a blog specializing on legal matters, Miguel Morachimo says that [es], ^[10]

El proyecto ha sido denominado de “neutralidad de red” pero en verdad señala obligaciones diversas para los ISPs y las empresas de telecomunicaciones que les provean de servicios, entre las cuales está la de no discriminación arbitraria en la capa de aplicaciones, servicios o contenidos legales con efectos anticompetitivos. Sin embargo, la no discriminación es una obligación que ya está presente en la regulación sectorial chilena

The project has been called “net neutrality” but in reality it points to diverse obligations for ISPs [Internet Service Providers] and telecommunication companies that provide services, which include the non arbitrary discrimination in applications, services or legal content with anticompetitive effects. However , non-discrimination is an obligation that is already present in the Chilean sector’s regulation.

Siminalry, NGO Derechos Digitales (Digital Rights), a Chilean non-governmental organization which defends online rights, also raised doubts about the law [es] ^[11], stating that,

La consagración legal de la neutralidad no es absoluta, sino que se configura como un derecho de los usuarios sujeto a límites importantes. Por una parte, al establecer la ley que los prestadores de Internet “No podrán arbitrariamente bloquear, interferir, discriminar, entorpecer ni restringir” el derecho a usar contenidos y redes (Art. 24 H a), deja abierta la posibilidad de intervención en la medida en que ésta no sera arbitraria.

Junto con lo anterior, la neutralidad es garantizada como un derecho a utilizar contenidos o servicios y realizar actividades de carácter legal a través de Internet sin dicha intervención discriminatoria. En consecuencia, un uso ilegal autorizaría al proveedor de conexión a ejercer medidas contrarias al principio de neutralidad.

The legal consecration of neutrality is not absolute, but rather it is configured as a right of the users subject to significant limits. On the one hand, by establishing the law that Internet providers “Can not arbitrarily block, interfere, discriminate, hinder or restrict” the right to use contents and networks (Art. 24 H a), it leaves open the possibility of intervention as long as it is not arbitrary.

Along with this, neutrality is guaranteed as a right to use contents and services and perform activities of a legal character through the Internet without such discriminatory intervention. Therefore, illegal use would allow the connection provider to pursue measures contrary to the principle of neutrality.

In short, the law is perceived as an interesting project in its intentions but unpredictable in its effects and scope. Many of its voids will be filled by a regulation that will be published in ninety days, but its content will not be part of public debate like the text of the law was. At the same time, it is interesting to note that the citizen organization, before the political initiative, is the group trying to face the challenges imposed by the digital world.

Google, Skype targeted in India security crackdown

By Tsering

Flickr Creative Commons | McKay Savage

 By Erika Kinetz | Associated Press | September 2, 2010

MUMBAI, India — India has widened its security crackdown, asking all companies that provide encrypted communications — not just BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion — to install servers in the country to make it easier for the government to obtain users’ data. That would likely affect digital giants like Google and Skype.

“People who operate communication services in India should (install a) server in India as well as make available access to law enforcement agencies,” Home Secretary G.K. Pillai told reporters. “That has been made clear to RIM of BlackBerry but also to other companies.”

On Monday, India withdrew a threat to ban BlackBerry service for at least two more months after RIM agreed to give security officials “lawful access” to encrypted data.

Indian officials have for some time also been concerned about Google and Skype, neither of which maintains servers in India. Google has an Indian unit, but Gmail is offered by Google Inc., a U.S. company subject to U.S. laws. Luxembourg-based Skype has no India operations.

India began a sweeping information security review after the November 2008 terror attack in Mumbai, which was coordinated with cell phones, satellite phones and Internet calls. Officials are also eager to avoid any trouble at the Commonwealth Games, a major sporting event to be held in New Delhi in October.

At the same time, India seems to be gaining confidence in its own attractiveness as a market, taking a tougher stance with international companies, not just in telecommunications — where it is the world’s fastest-growing major market — but also in mining and nuclear energy.

“Our stand is firm. We look forward to get access to data,” Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters. “There is no uncertainty over it.”

The U.N. technology chief expressed support for the Indian demand on Thursday. Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union, told The Associated Press in an interview that officials fighting terrorism had the right to demand access to users’ information.

RIM maintains that the geographic location of a server has no bearing on a government’s ability to crack encrypted data.

But placing a server in India does allow the government to access user content more easily, using Indian laws, rather than waiting for the cooperation of a foreign company or security agency, Indian experts say.

“The moment you will be in Indian land, you will be able to be controlled by the government’s ruling,” said Rajesh Chharia, president of the Internet Service Providers Association of India. “National security is supreme over privacy.”

He said there have been conflicts over data access in the past.

“Right now the server is located outside India. And despite our best efforts to require them to access data, they say we are not governed by your system, we will not be providing it to you,” Chharia said.

He said the government wants everyone — including RIM, Skype, Google, Nokia and MSN Hotmail — to give Indian security agencies more access to their user content.

Skype, Google and Microsoft all said Thursday they’ve yet to receive any notification from the Indian government.

Nokia has already agreed to place a server in India by Nov. 5.

The government says BlackBerry is exploring the possibility of installing a server in India, as part of ongoing negotiations that narrowly avoided a ban on its services on Aug. 31.

One possible compromise could be to set up a BlackBerry Messenger server in India for instant messaging, but keep key corporate enterprise e-mail servers abroad. BlackBerry is eager to convince corporate users that its enterprise e-mail will remain the gold standard for security, despite pressure from governments in Asia and the Middle East, which fear super-encrypted communications could be abused by militants.

Pankaj Mohindroo, president of the Indian Cellular Association, whose members include Nokia and Motorola, said Indian telecom laws are ambiguous, but can be interpreted to mean that all service providers must place servers in India.

He added that users should have faith the Indian government won’t abuse its privileges.

“Interception here is done after clearance by high levels,” he said. “Consumers should never worry some junior police officer is snooping their data. It’s rarely done, and it’s done with very good purpose.”

Looming behind the fight is a sense that India wants the same level of access granted other countries like China.

Google India spokeswoman Paroma Roy Chowdhury said Google does provide user content to law enforcement agencies, but only in exceptional circumstances. All requests are reviewed by an internal committee at Google, she said.

“There have been requests from law enforcement agencies,” she said. “These are reviewed on a strictly case-by-case basis. Only in exceptional circumstances — when there is a threat of large-scale human loss, like a bomb threat — is the content made available.”

According to Google’s website, India made 1,061 requests for user data in the second half of 2009, the most after Brazil, the U.S. and Britain. It did not disclose numbers from China because “Chinese officials consider censorship demands as state secrets.”

Google did not disclose how many requests were granted.

Skype spokeswoman Eunice Lim said by e-mail from Singapore that the company “cooperates with law enforcement agencies as much as is legally possible.”

Skype uses local servers in China and has said on its blog that chat messages into and out of China may be monitored and stored by local authorities. In places like China — where it works with a local partner, Tom Online Inc., and distributes modified Skype software — it complies with local, rather than Luxembourg, law in making data available to security agencies.

“This means there is a possibility that your communications and personal data could be stored, monitored, or blocked and made available to authorized local parties, for instance law enforcement, subject to the local legal standards,” Skype says on its website.

In 2008, a Canadian researcher discovered that the Chinese version of Skype communications software was snooping on text chats that contained certain keywords, including “democracy.”

However, Skype voice calls between computers are encrypted, much like BlackBerry e-mails, and it’s not clear what access law enforcement would gain even if Skype placed a server in India.

Associated Press writer Raphael Satter contributed to this report from London.

Africa’s future belongs to young Africans

By Abbas Gassem | Senior Product Manager | Yahoo! Europe

The Business & Human Rights Program was pleased that BHRP virtual team member, Abbas Gassem, was invited to participate in The President’s Forum with Young African Leaders; read on for his account of the event.

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In early August, I was invited to participate in The President’s Forum with Young Africans Leaders held in Washington, D.C.  President Obama held a town hall meeting with forum delegates, while Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton personally gave a welcome address. The two and a half day summit included sessions on access to capital, freedom of expression through new technologies, youth involvement in democracy and governance, and advocacy.

This year is a monumental time for Africa with 17 countries celebrating 50 years of independence.  And the democracy bug is fitfully catching on. By the end of this year, a score of sub-Saharan Africa’s 48 countries will have gone to the polls for an assortment of local, regional, and national elections.  This is a big year for African voters.

Africa is at a major junction, with colonialism and the fight for independence truly behind it. Yet Africa faces many challenges over the next 50 years.  These challenges are no small feat with poor governance, lack of opportunities for good education, and corruption holding back the rise of Africa. Despite all this, Africa is a continent full of potential. With sixty percent of the African population under the age of 25 and the growth of technology, it is time to break down old barriers.  The FIFA World Cup hosted in South Africa was a success and provides a platform of extraordinary promise for the future. The winds of change are blowing in Africa, driven from within rather than from the outside.  There is an aspiration for better governance, change from old tribal based society to one where ideas win over loyalty, and to be part of global economy that will all bring rapid and foreseen changes in Africa.

During the summit, I met fellow Africans who are eager for this change and who want to take charge of their own destiny.  America has the opportunity to support these aspirations and empower the African youth by supporting education, getting grassroots networks of young people connected, and helping spread technology to remote areas that have little opportunity for their voices to be heard.

I also had the pleasure to facilitate a session on freedom of expression through new technologies.  It is impressive to see how young people are using mobile technology and social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, to share their thoughts.  Technology will be a platform to deliver this change which should not be led by foreign governments or international institutions but rather by the people and for the people.  The more Africans who can bypass the gate keepers with technology, the sooner these aspirations will be realised.

An example of this is the Ushahidi crisis management platform, built by young Kenyans to map reports of violence after the election of 2007, and currently being used as a digital tool for social change across the world.   Another example is the telecommunications firm Safaricom’s highly successful mobile money transfer service, M-Pesa.  Mpesa (”money” in Swahili) is a mobile transfer solution that allows money transfers to be done by mobile customers who do not have a bank account. The service has facilitated over $4B in transactions in Kenya since its launch in late 2007 – and that’s in a country with adjusted annual per-capita income of under $1,700.

Despite all one hears about Africa with the corruption, famine and fighting, the future looks promising.  If you would like to connect with the Young African Leaders Forum, here is their Facebook group.

Abbas Gassem is a Senior Product Manager at Yahoo! Europe and the founder of InsideSomalia.

For more information on the Young African Leaders Forum, visit their website:

http://www.america.gov/young_african_leaders.html