censorship

Typically when policy makers brainstorm ideas on new legislation, they'll talk to their colleagues or constituents. But California Rep. Zoe Lofgren is trying something different -- she's turning to Reddit.

Lofgren will be tuning into Reddit tomorrow to ask people for ideas on how to best protect Web sites accused of copyright infringement, according to political news site The Hill. The congresswoman is working on new legislation that would notify Web site owners blamed for copyright violations. The law would also halt the government from shutting down Web sites until the owners were able to defend themselves.

"… Read more

Google, Gmail, and other Google services seem to be accessible again in China this morning, according to a report, after an outage that coincided with the start of the once-a-decade meeting to appoint a new Communist government.

Access to the services returned after 6 a.m. local time, after an approximately 12-hour outage, according to IDC News Service, which cited Google's Transparency Report, along with confirmation from GreatFire.org, a group that monitors Internet censorship in China.

Early yesterday, California time, data provided by Google's Transparency Report showed a sharp drop off in traffic to Google's Web sites … Read more

Iran is notorious for being a foe of the Internet, and the U.S. government has decided to do something about it.

The State Department announced today that it was sanctioning Iran for creating an "electronic curtain" that cuts off its citizens from the rest of the world.

The sanctions are against four individuals and five organizations that have been particularly oppressive when it comes to the freedom of information on the Internet.

According to a statement from State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland, these groups have "engaged in censorship or other activities that prohibit, limit, or penalize … Read more

Siri may have run afoul of Chinese law over the past few months, forcing Apple to rein her in.

Some users have apparently asked Apple's voice-activated assistant where they could find prostitutes in China, according to the government-run Xinhua News Agency. And Siri has been directing them to supposed nearby locations. Prostitution, however, is illegal in China.

The novelty of Siri's responses prompted China's version of Twitter, Sina Weibo, to light up with comments and jokes. According to the BBC, one user wrote that finding an escort is easier than finding a Chinese restaurant.

"When I … Read more

The Chinese government is not too happy today with The New York Times.

A report from the newspaper yesterday detailed how relatives of Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao have grown extraordinarily wealthy during his time in China's ruling elite. The NYT reported that his family has "controlled assets" valued at $2.7 billion. His wealth stands in stark contrast to the poverty that afflicts large numbers of people in China, and was built in some cases, with financial backing from state-owned companies.

In response, China has blocked the newspaper's site in both English and Chinese for … Read more

If you were paying attention last month, you might remember alarming headlines reporting an anti-Islam YouTube video "sparks violence in Libya," is "inciting violence," and caused "U.S. embassy workers' deaths."

One problem: those reports were untrue.

A flurry of disclosures in Washington, D.C., this week revealed that the Obama administration's blaming of the YouTube video for prompting a military-style attack that killed four Americans in Benghazi was wrong. And those revelations have reignited a long-running partisan debate over national security and security funding.

Republicans suggested that the White House's efforts … Read more

Turkey and YouTube have a checkered past, so today's news isn't a big surprise -- the video-sharing site will now operate under a local Web domain -- "com.tr" -- and be subject to the country's content regulations and taxes.

According to Reuters, Turkey had been working to get YouTube to agree to this set-up for some time.

"This is an important development," Turkish Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yildirim told Reuters. "For a long time we have made a call to Internet firms in Turkey: 'You are operating in this country, … Read more

Apparently, China's "Great Firewall" is permeable.

Social media use in the Far East country has reportedly skyrocketed over the last three years despite the government's strict bans on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and other social-networking sites. This is according to new data by global Internet research company GlobalWebIndex.

The data estimates that Facebook users have increased from nearly 8 million to more than 63 million since July 2009, and Twitter users have gone from 11 million to 35 million. Despite these wild jumps in numbers, they are still only a small percentage of China's population -- … Read more

Google today bowed to demands from Brazil to restrict access to a YouTube video that had attacked a mayoral candidate.

"Late last night, we learned that our final legal appeal has been denied and so now we have no choice but to block the video in Brazil," Fabio Coelho, head of Google's Brazil operations, said in a post today. "We are deeply disappointed that we have never had the full opportunity to argue in court that these were legitimate free speech videos and should remain available in Brazil."

The move came a day after Brazilian … Read more