RIM: Not Pressed to Filter Content in India

By Kee

Flickr Creative Commons | Honou

by R. Jai Krishna | The Wall Street Journal | January 11, 2011

NEW DELHI— Research In Motion Ltd. Tuesday said it hasn’t received any request from the Indian government or its agencies to filter Internet-accessed content on its BlackBerry smart phones.

RIM’s comments, in an email to Dow Jones Newswires, follow its announcement Monday that it would implement Internet content filtering in Indonesia “as soon as possible.”

That decision came after a minister threatened to shut down BlackBerry services if the Canadian company failed to block websites containing pornography. According to a RIM executive in Indonesia, it will be the first time the company applies Internet filtering in any country.

RIM has come under pressure from the Indian government to provide access to data on its secure networks. India wants to monitor RIM’s corporate email and messenger services, fearing BlackBerry’s heavy encryption makes the services convenient for terrorists to use without being monitored.

In a statement on Jan. 6, RIM said its ongoing talks with the Indian government for allowing monitoring of its BlackBerry services are “on track.”

Asia-Pacific Governments Chip Away at Internet Freedom

By Kee

Flickr Creative Commons | Jared Tarbell

By Adrian Addison | AFP | November 5, 2010

HONG KONG (AFP) – The tentacles of government censors are creeping ever further across the web in the Asia-Pacific region as officials from Thailand to Australia try to control what people say and do online.  Aside from China, which has a vast army of censors operating behind what has been dubbed the “Great Firewall”, other countries are also taking steps to restrict access to the Internet.

A massive cyber attack has crippled the web in military-ruled Myanmar ahead of Sunday’s controversial election, IT experts say, raising fears of a deliberate communications blackout for the vote.  But moves to rein in Internet freedoms in other countries in the region are often presented as being well intentioned.

Australia proposes introducing an Internet filter to block sites containing material such as rape, drug use, bestiality and child sex abuse.  Prime Minister Julia Gillard has defended the plan as a moral move which will bring the web into line with TV and film which have long been censored by the state.

“My fundamental outlook is this: it is unlawful for me as an adult to go to a cinema and watch certain sorts of content, it’s unlawful and we believe it to be wrong,” Gillard said recently.  “If we accept that then it seems to me that the moral question is not changed by the medium that the images come through.” 

Yet the plan has been heavily criticised as setting a precedent for censorship and has even been attacked by web giants Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft.  Australian anti-censorship campaigner Geordie Guy said while the filter was not designed to control political dissent it was a case of the state “putting its foot down on what the population can see”.

In another Asia-Pacific democracy, the Philippines, several bills have been filed seeking restrictions on the Internet, mainly focused on pornography and the trafficking of women.

And in Thailand, a wide-ranging campaign of government censorship has shut down thousands of Internet sites.  It is a reflection of the deep political divide in the country, where 91 people died and nearly 1,900 were hurt in clashes between Red Shirts and troops during two months of protests, which ended with a bloody army crackdown in May.  Thousands of web pages have also been removed in recent years on the grounds that they were insulting to the Thai royal family.

In April, a Red Shirt sympathiser was arrested and charged for allegedly insulting the monarchy on Facebook — a serious crime punishable by up to 15 years in jail.  He remains in detention awaiting possible trial.  The editor of the popular Prachatai website could face up to 70 years in jail after she was arrested on charges of insulting the monarchy and breaching computer law — for comments posted by users of the site.

John Palfrey, co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, says online censorship and surveillance are growing around the world.

“This increase in control is taking place concurrently with the growth of the role that the Internet and digital media are playing in the ways that people live and societies function,” he told AFP.

“Oftentimes, these online controls grow out of well-meaning online protections designed to help keep children safe.  But the same mechanisms that we use to keep our children from unwanted content and contact can be used to keep dissidents from communicating with one another or with the world outside their own society.  The tools that prevent harmful forms of pornography from being published can also keep a political manifesto from reaching its intended audience.  The same tools that bring a terrorist to justice before he can harm his targets can also be used to put a muck-raking journalist in prison for something that she said in an email or a web chat.”

Sometimes calls for censorship of the Internet are for religious reasons.

Hundreds of Indonesian Islamists rallied in central Jakarta in June to demand the stoning to death and public caning of celebrities who allegedly appeared in homemade sex videos circulating online.  About 1,000 protesters led by radical group Hizbut Tahrir shouted “Allahu akbar” (God is greater) and brandished black flags and banners with slogans such as “Arrest those who commit promiscuous sex”.  Hizbut Tahrir spokesman Mohammed Ismail Yusanto said the Internet was a threat to Islamic values in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.

“The widespread circulation of the celebrity sex videos shows the bad side of uncontrolled information technology, which will surely become one of the most terrible destroyers of morality,” he said.  “Based on sharia law… those who are married should be stoned to death and the unmarried should be caned 100 times in public.  With that kind of punishment it is guaranteed promiscuous sex won’t spread wildly like it is now.”

Radical groups like Hizbut Tahrir have little popular support among Indonesia’s 240 million people in a state which is constitutionally secular and culturally moderate.  But President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has backed calls for tighter controls on the Internet in response to the sex video furore and has warned that the nation risked being “crushed” by the information technology “frenzy”.

While China is a major censor of the Internet in the region, communist Vietnam has also cracked down, arresting bloggers who have criticised the government’s relationship with Beijing.  “Some of the most advanced forms of Internet censorship and surveillance are carried out in Vietnam, following the lead of neighbouring China,” said Harvard University’s Palfrey.

“Over the next five to ten years, I see an escalating struggle between states that wish to control the information environment and citizens who wish to communicate privately and freely with one another.  I expect that we will see substantial growth in the ability of states to listen in on conversations online.”

RIM headache grows as govts seek BlackBerry access

By Tsering

Flickr Creative Commons | Honou

By Yara Bayoumy | Reuters | August 5, 2010

BEIRUT, Aug 5 (Reuters) – BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd (RIM.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) on Thursday faced more demands to open up its smartphones to government scrutiny as Lebanon joined India, Saudi Arabia and the UAE in raising concerns over security.

RIM’s co-CEO Michael Lazaridis fought back in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, accusing foreign officials of picking on smartphones to score political points.

“This is about the Internet,” Lazaridis was quoted as saying in the Journal interview. “Everything on the Internet is encrypted. This is not a BlackBerry-only issue. If they can’t deal with the Internet, they should shut it off.”

Shares of RIM fell nearly 2 percent in trading on the Nasdaq and Toronto stock exchange. The stock has lost about 8 percent of its value since the United Arab Emirates threatened over the weekend to ban BlackBerry email, messaging and Internet services after three years of negotiations with RIM over access to encrypted user data.

The BlackBerry also faces a potential ban in Saudi Arabia as early as Friday if RIM is unable to reach a compromise there. RIM and Saudi officials met on Thursday ahead of the pending ban.

Lebanon raised concerns over the smartphone on Thursday, saying it was studying security concerns related to the BlackBerry and would begin talks with RIM.

Media reports earlier had said that Indonesia was also pressing on RIM to allow monitoring of BlackBerry data, though the country’s communications minister said it was not banning the service.

India, worried that BlackBerry’s highly secure messaging services could be misused by militants, has demanded more access for its security agencies, and the country’s telecoms minister said it had not yet reached an agreement with the company.

The Indian government may block the BlackBerry messenger service but allow emails and voicemails if a solution is not reached, the Times of India said on Thursday, citing unnamed sources.

A broadening stand-off with global governments could hurt sentiment on RIM on Wall Street, which had initially been reassured that a ban by the Gulf states would affect a tiny portion of the BlackBerry’s more than 41 million subscribers.

Lazaridis acknowledged the company was in discussions with various governments, and said the issue will likely get resolved.

RIM has said BlackBerry security is based on a system where customers create their own key and the company neither has a master key nor any “back door” to enable RIM or third parties to gain access to crucial corporate data.

The company said Wednesday it has never provided anything unique to the government of one country and cannot accommodate any request for a copy of a customer’s encryption key. (Additional reporting by Souhail Karam, Writing by Ritsuko Ando in New York, Editing by Tiffany Wu, Dave Zimmerman)

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.