Western Internet companies, including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Cisco Systems, have been aiding authorities in censoring individuals who distribute sensitive information or criticise the government. The International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX) reports that Yahoo has helped prosecute three journalists in China by providing information to the state from their e-mail accounts.
Microsofts MSN Spaces has agreed to Chinese Government demands that Microsoft shut down web logs (blogs) deemed "offensive."  Some parts of Microsoft's MSN site in China block blog entries which use words such as freedom, democracy, demonstration, and human rights.

Google currently filters out results in its Chinese search engine (google.cn), denying access to information on Tibet, Falun Gong, and other topics sensitive in the eyes of the government.

Meanwhile, Cisco Systems has supplied equipment and technologies to China that critics say would enable authorities to control what the country's 100 million Internet users view online.

Denial of access affects women

China is not the only country suffering from a censorship regime. Other governments like Iran, Yemen, Burma and Tunisia are also clamping down on information made available online.

The Open Net Initiative (ONI), a Harvard-formed organisation, conducted in-depth studies in 2005 on countries with Internet censorship. Studies range from focused filtering of pornographic sites in Bahrain to legal regulation and technical control of the state on political issues in China.

Iran, along with China, is among a small group of states with sophisticated state-mandated filtering systems. Like other Middle Eastern countries, Iran relies on commercial software (SmartFilter, made by the US-based company, Secure Computing) to implement the web filtering process.

ONI reports that some states have effectively blocked access of their citizens to many pornographic sites, most anonymyser tools (which allow users to surf the Internet without detection), sites dealing with provocative attire, sites with gay and lesbian content, politically sensitive sites, targeted Web logs ("blogs"), and women's rights sites, among others.

The Iran study shows that there has been an increase in blocking of womens rights sites in recent years. For example, SmartFilter categorises <www.feminista.com> (home to the Journal of Feminist Construction, which contains essays on womens rights) as containing nudity.

Even the Iranian Feminist Tribune, a website on womens issues, was blocked as part of Irans censorship campaign. Feminist Tribune Editor Parvin Ardalan commented in a Time Magazine article (2006) on the effect of blocking womens websites in Iran. We lost one of our greatest tools, she said. It has hindered our work, which I suppose was the goal.

Time article writer Azadeh Moaven reported that keyword filters and censorship software enabled the Iran government to block thousands of websites containing news, opposition blogs, political content and satire. Censors block the site of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), while filters limit access to Google searches on suggestive words like women.  Said activist Sussan Tahmasebi in the Time article, The end result is a marginalisation of womens issues.

Electronic censorship

In Yemen, ONI reports limited access to Internet content through the aid of commercial filtering technology and state control over two Internet service providers (ISPs)TeleYemen (operators of the service YNET) and YemenNet, through the Ministry of Telecommunications.

Sites like Lets TalkChildren, Families and HIV <www.kidstalkaids.org>, a site for children dealing with the reality of AIDS, and Teen Source <www.teensource.org>, a guide for sex education, health and relationships, are routinely blocked in Yemen. Other categories in the blocked list are websites with "Adult Content," "Lingerie and Swimsuit," "Nudity," "Sex Education," "Abused Drugs," "Marijuana," and "Gambling."

Meanwhile, Burma uses filtering software from US-based company Fortinet to restrict online activity. Censorship includes regulation of speech, and implemented by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), a group of military officials who maintains authoritarian rule over the Burmese society.

Based on a list of sites with content known to be sensitive to the Burmese state, ONI found 84% of sites blocked, including many political opposition and pro-democracy pages. These findings align with Burma's well-documented efforts to monitor e-mail service provider sites and control political dissent and opposition movements.

In Tunisia, online materials on political opposition, human rights, methods of bypassing filtering, and pornography are also aggressively filtered. Recently, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) website, a source of information for over 500,000 journalists in 110 countries, was banned. ONI says that though citizens are theoretically free to receive and share information, they are prevented from doing so on a number of vital topics by a state that combines sophisticated American technology, harsh laws, and informal pressures to limit access."

Role of net giants

In a 2005 statement following Microsofts censorship of blogs, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said that the lack of ethics on the part of these companies was extremely worrying. Their management frequently justifies collaboration with Chinese censorship by saying that all they are doing is obeying local legislation."

"We believe that this argument does not hold water and that these multinationals must respect certain basic ethical principles, in whatever country they are operating," said RSF.

IFEX cites RSF as recommending regulations barring US-based companies from locating their host servers within repressive countries. "If the authorities of a repressive country desire to close down a publication hosted by a US company, they would have to request it under a procedure supervised by US judicial authorities," RSF said.

Sources:

BBC News. (2005, June 14). Microsoft censors Chinese blogs. Retrieved March 8, 2006 from <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4088702.stm>.

International Federation of Journalists. (2006, March 1). Protest to President Ben Ali of Tunisia over IFJ website ban following UN Summit criticism. Retrieved March 8, 2006 from <www.ifj.org/default.asp?Index=3616&Language=EN>.

International Freedom of Expression eXchange. (2006, February 21). Internet giants criticised for aiding censorship. IFEX Communique 15(7). Retrieved March 8, 2006 from <www.ifex.org>.

Moaven, A. (2006, January 23). Slamming its doors.  Time Magazine, 167 (3), pp. 24-25.

The Open Initiative. (2006). Internet filtering in Yemen in 2004-2005: A country study. OpenNet Initiative.  Retrieved March 8, 2006 from <http://www.opennetinitiative.net/studies/yemen/index.html>.

The Open Initiative. (2006). Internet filtering in Tunisia in 2005: A country study. OpenNet Initiative.  Retrieved March 8, 2006 from <http://www.opennetinitiative.net/studies/tunisia/>.

The Open Initiative. (2006). Internet filtering in Iran in 2004-2005: A country study. OpenNet Initiative.  Retrieved March 8, 2006 from <http://www.opennetinitiative.net/studies/iran/>.

USA Today. (2006, February 22). U.S. technology has been used to block, censor Net for years. Newsdesk.org. Retrieved March 8, 2006 from <www.newsdesk.org/archives/000538print.php>.

Williams, D. (2006, December 22).  Wary of dissent, Tunisia makes war on the web. Washington Post Foreign Service. Retrieved March 8, 2006 from <www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/21/AR2005122101981_pf.html>.