Since 2005, the internet has been increasingly seen as a threat to “security, cultural, social and moral norms in the country,” as expressed by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Reza Taghipour.

This year, Iran has intensified its surveillance and crackdowns even further, causing disconnections and deliberately slowing connection speeds (which were not very fast to begin with). A few weeks ago in February 2012, the governmenttemporarily blocked access to SSL-encrypted sites, making it harder to use censorship circumvention tools. Access to free webmail services such as Gmail and Yahoo! has also been blocked for periods of time since the presidential elections in June 2009, making it difficult for many Iranian users who depend on these services for their daily communication needs.

The latest move to further restrict the internet is the plan to launch a national “clean” internet, which includes, among other things, the requirement for all Iranians to register their websites with the Ministry of Art and Culture, and the establishment of a national search engine and webmail service provided by the government.

The recent increase in censorship and plans for a national internet are particularly worrying for sexual rights activists who are rely on the internet for their advocacy. According to a sexual rights activist in Iran (who wishes to remain anonymous), “After such a long time of working on LGBT rights, we are only seeing some positive impact in this field in recent years. In my own experience as a gay person in Iran, I am only seeing discussions on sexual rights in the past year. We really owe the internet for this.”

Due to the existing government restrictions placed on education and mass media, the internet is one of the few key channels for the public to access information about their rights.

“People are very uninformed about their rights,” says one activist, “if it wasn’t for the internet, people wouldn’t be aware that police don’t have the right to be violent; that politicians can have two jobs; that religions (Bahà‘ís, Jews, Christians, etc.) are free to practice as long as they don’t advertise; and that the hijab is not mandatory by law and that police cannot dictate what people wear.”

Many fear that censoring the internet will also prevent Iran from moving forward and that the notion of freer society will die with the free and open internet.

But the national internet does carry some benefits. Iranian authorities have said that the average user would be allotted 10 mbps of bandwidth, compared to the 128 kbps that most Iranians currently have. It would also give Iranians access to sites like Youtube, even if it is a government-approved, Iranian Youtube. The reality is that the national internet won’t likely pose a problem for citizens who use theinternet for routine things like checking their bank accounts, emailing and chatting.

But the picture is much different for sexual rights activists, who will no longer be able to connect to each other or to network with other advocates outside the country:

“It is the end for people like us,” says one activist. “Many organisations who work on sexual rights and provide counselling, hotlines and support are either banned or not recognized by the government. Now external sites from outside of Iran will also be banned, likely as of May 2012.”

Activist communities are now afraid to speak out for fear of being imprisoned, or even sentenced to death). For many, the end of the open internet in Iran comes with a sense of powerlessness: “there isn’t much people can do to react to this. Those who protested the elections are still in jail, and for people like me, who are dependant on the internet, are left with no other choice than to leave Iran.”

Source: APC

They join 10 other nations on the campaign group's register of states that restrict net access, filter content and imprison bloggers.

India and Kazakhstan have also joined RWB's list of "countries under surveillance" because of concerns that they are becoming more repressive.

The body says 2011 was the "deadliest year" yet for so-called "netizens".

It says at least 199 arrests of internet campaigners were recorded over the year - a 31% increase on 2010.

It adds that China, followed by Vietnam and Iran currently hold the largest number of netizens in jail.

New entries

RWB said it had added Bahrain to its list after the death of Zakariya Rashid Hassan. It said the forum moderator had maintained a website focused on stories about his birthplace, al-Dair, ahead of his arrest on 9 April.

It said Mr Hassan was charged with disseminating false news and calling for the overthrow of his country's government before he died, six days after being detained.

RWB says the country's law authorities have also arrested other netizens, smeared free speech activists and disrupted communications at the time of demonstrations.

Bahrain's government expressed a number of concerns about the report, which it said failed to "present the reality of the situation" there.

Several positive steps had been taken towards reforming the media sector since the publication of a report by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) into last year's crackdown on anti-government protests, it said, including relaxing censorship and increasing the range of political opinions in the media.

In Belarus, the campaign group says, President Alexander Lukashenko's government has increased the number of blocked websites and arrested some bloggers while inviting others to "preventative conversations" with the police during which they are pressured not to cover protests.

It says the regime has also used Twitter to send messages designed to intimidate demonstrators. It adds that the country's main internet service provider has diverted users to sites containing malware when they tried to log into the Vkontakte social network.

Elsewhere RWB accuses China and Syria of hiring bloggers to troll sites containing posts from cyber-dissidents, and then flood the pages with messages supporting the governments.

It raises concern that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has announced plans to create a "clean" web with its own search engine and messaging service, and says Vietnam has attacked Catholic networks and campaigners trying to raise awareness about environmentally damaging bauxite mines.

Watch list

RWB said India had joined its "surveillance" list after stepping up internet monitoring efforts following 2008's Mumbai bombings. It claims that the country's national security policy undermines the protection of users' personal data.

Kazakhstan was added to the list after being said to have cut communications around the city of Zhanaozen during a riot and having introduced new "repressive internet regulations".

Australia remains on the register because of its government's efforts to introduce a mandatory web filtering system to block content deemed inappropriate, such as child pornography. RWB says it is concerned that the system would not be managed in a transparent matter.

France is also on the list because of its "three strikes" policy on illegal downloads which can lead to net access being suspended.

The organisation also notes that a blogger became Egypt's first political prisoner of the post-Mubarak era after Maikel Nabil Sanad was convicted for criticising the armed forces.

Although the UK does not make either of RWB's list, the body notes that the UN has raised concerns about its Digital Rights Bill aimed at defending copyright.

It also says that Blackberry's decision to assist the authorities without a prior court order during the London riots is "a worrying development".

RWB also highlights the role of firms which provide monitoring equipment and software to repressive regimes.

It says that western companies have been criticised for activities in Syria, Egypt and Libya when Col Muammar Gaddafi's regime was still in charge.

The organisation notes that the European Parliament has adopted a resolution supporting tougher export controls, and that a bill with a similar aim is being considered by US lawmakers.

Source: BBC News

Reporters Without Borders has updated its 2012 "Enemies of the Internet " list to include Bahrain and Belarus.

The updated list, which was released on Monday to mark what the organisation called "World Day Against Cyber-Censorship", still includes countries like China, North Korea and Saudi Arabia from the previous year.

The Paris-based non-governmental organisation that advocates freedom of the press said that in 2011 Internet users were "at the heart of the political changes in the Arab world and elsewhere".

In Bahrain, RWB said, the government "has bolstered its censorship efforts" in reaction to the pro-democracy uprising that began on February 14, 2011.

"Bahrain offers a perfect example of successful crackdowns, with an information blackout achieved through an impressive arsenal of repressive measures: exclusion of the foreign media, harassment of human rights defenders, arrests of bloggers and netizens (one of whom died behind bars), prosecutions and defamation campaigns against free expression activists, disruption of communications," the report said.

In Belarus, RWB said, "The Internet – a mobilisation and information platform – has received the full brunt of the authorities’ brutal crackdown on the opposition."

The report continued that "some 100 Belarusian journalists were interrogated in 2011 alone, and over 30 given prison terms".

Libya, where the government of Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in a violent revolt, was removed from the list of "countries under surveillance".

"In Libya, many challenges remain but the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime has ended an era of censorship," the report said.

Venezuela was also removed from that list, whereas India and Kazakhstan were added to it.

"On World Day Against Cyber-Censorship, we pay tribute to the ordinary citizens who often risk their lives or their freedom to keep us informed and to ensure that often brutal crackdowns do not take place without the outside world knowing," RWB said.

Source: AJE

Yahoo is blocking profiles containing the word “sexual,” and labelling them spam. This includes the words pansexual, transsexual and bisexual.

Xtra first learned about this from a blog post. Although the writer of "Just Some Guy" has been unavailable for comment, the blog details his frustrating experience.

“I just made a new Yahoo account and I was filling out my profile information. I finished, hit save, and was told I had infringed upon the terms of use and my information couldn’t be saved. The only explanation given was simply the word ‘spam.’ Then I removed the word ‘bisexual’ and it saved properly.”

Like MSN and Gmail, Yahoo profiles allow users to include a brief description of themselves. Profiles are used to “connect to friends, post information about yourself, and manage updates,” Yahoo states.

When Xtra created a profile with words containing the suffix “sexual,"  the profile was also blocked and flagged as “spam.”

“The content was not saved since it infringes on Yahoo! Terms of use (Spam),” it stated.

Shane Thomas, director of Yahoo Pride, says the company is working on trying to fix the problem. “It was not an intentional move on behalf of Yahoo to censor,” he says. 

“Based on our initial examination of this, it appears to be a glitch in the system. We are trying to sort out how to fix that glitch. We are actively seeking out a solution.”

Thomas says he received a call from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) last week about the issue.

“GLAAD also found that when you write bisexual, transsexual and transgender, profiles are being categorized as spam,” Thomas says. “It is going to be fixed.”

GLAAD did not return Xtra’s requests for comment.

Thomas says he does not know if the problem is new or has just gone undetected until now. He does not know when it will be amended. 

A screen capture of the original blog.

Xtra reporter Andrea Houston tries to make a profile, but is also blocked.

Source: Xtra

There was no access to any foreign hosted websites for Iranian users on Sunday from 11:40pm in local time for less than an hour except Wikipedia and Bing search engine.

Users couldn’t access their Webmails and all SSL web address as well on Sat and Mon for all day long.

“Internet is a treat to IRI regime.” Intelligence service minister Mr Salehi said on Tue.

This assessment had many bad feedbacks from politicians in IRI parliament and the government itself.

“Internet is not a instrument of treat, Internet is the treat itself.” Deputy Minister of IRI Intelligence service said two days ago with no attendtion to all feedbacks from other politicians.

Many of authorities talked about having National Intranet instead of internet in Iran recently but none of them explained what the limitations are of “Halal internet” and “Clean Internet”.

“Connecting to internet should be as less as necessity” Ahmadi Moghdam the chief of IRI Police forces said. But he didn’t mention what “necessity point” is, neither.

Through all this all Iranians are worry about the internet situation in Iran because internet is the only way they can access to information free of censorship.

From Feb 9^th to Feb 13^th Gamil, Hotmail and Yahoo mail was out of reach in Iran.

Some of the IRI parliament politicians openly protested against this filtering.

Mr. Ahmad Tavakoli was one of them who talked to media about it.

“This kind of libertine censorship makes people to break the law and is charging government a lot of expenses” he said.

But official officers of Information Technology Ministry of Iran have different opinion.

“We are working on a plan called en bloc filtering to block the inner and foreigners website on a plan which can solve all the problems we have right now with the websites filtering!” Mr. Mohammadreza Aghamiri (official filtering officer in filtering department) said two days ago.

They will present this plan “en bloc filtering” very soon as they said.

“Blocking web mails (Gmail, Yahoo mail and Hotmail) is not happened by a mistake.” He added.

Reason of the filtering of web mails which is mentioned in news was dread of spy!

Especially since Google brought out its new privacy policy and mentioned information of users are used for advertising and business purposes, IRI government has a very clear reason to block Gmail.

IRI government is trying to build up its own web mail and search engine (take a look at en.iran.ir) but not successful yet.

Dealing with internet is one of the most important issues in Iran since all media inside is under control and cannot publish free information. Most of activists uses internet to publish news and information free of censor.

“Internet is an enemy to IRI government” IRI intelligence service minister Mr. Heidar Moslehi said.

“Google is an employee of CIA” he mentioned.

The official officers of Information technology ministry declared that they are working on National Intranet instead of internet for Iranian users.

A federal judge has ordered a Missouri school to cease blocking internet content that affirms LGBT people and educates about LGBT identities. The ACLU of Eastern Missouri had filed suit last summer on behalf of PFLAG and other LGBT groups against Camdenton R-III School District for using a website filtering software that blocked access to sites like the “It Gets Better” campaign, The Trevor Project, and the Gay Straight Alliance Network. Sites that condemn LGBT people and promote harmful ex-gay therapy were allowed, however, because they were categorized under “religion” instead of “sexuality.” The judge found that the school’s filter, URL Blacklist, constituted viewpoint discrimination and granted a preliminary injunction. From the ruling:

The record contains direct evidence that Camdenton intended to discriminate based on viewpoint. Superintended Hadfield agreed at the hearing that school board member John Beckett has expressed “concern with students accessing websites saying it’s okay to be gay.” At a public school board meeting, Mr. Beckett stated that “the amended policy may not have gone far enough,” and that he would like to require parental consent before allowing students to access these sites… These statements are direct evidence that Camdenton continued to use URL Blacklist, despite it being ineffective and falling below professional standards, out of an intent to continue to burden websites expressing a positive viewpoint toward LGBT individuals.

Camdenton has 30 days to discontinue its current internet-filter system to comply with the order. As this is only a preliminary injunction, the ACLU’s case against the district will still proceed. In addition, the group’s “Don’t Filter Me” campaign continues to reach out to school districts across the country and encourages them to adjust their settings so as not to censor LGBT-friendly resources.

Source: Think Progress