[IP] U.S. Tech Firms Help Governments Censor Internet
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From: "Seth Finkelstein"<sethf@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: 18/07/05 5:46:42 AM
To: "David J. Farber"<dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "ip ip"<ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: U.S. Tech Firms Help Governments Censor Internet
[For IP, if worthwhile. Key quote = "D'Amato said the commission,
which reports to Congress, hopes to put pressure on these companies
by bringing them in for hearings, soon."]
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,162781,00.html
U.S. Tech Firms Help Governments Censor Internet
Sunday, July 17, 2005 By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos
WASHINGTON -- Free speech advocates are frustrated with a host of
American companies they say have been collaborating with oppressive
regimes in countries like China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, to help them
filter and monitor the Internet activity of their citizens.
Big technology names like Microsoft, Yahoo! and Cisco Systems have
been criticized roundly in recent years for providing foreign
governments with the tools they need to crack down on Internet use,
but critics say they have not been able to do much more than
complain.
"These companies' lack of ethics is extremely worrisome," said
Lucie Morillon, the Washington representative of Reporters Without
Borders, an international advocacy group for journalists that
monitors government repression of the Internet worldwide,
documenting dissidents charged with breaking their country's
Internet laws. For instance, the organization reports that an
estimated 60 "cyber-dissidents" are in Chinese jails today.
"It's the role of watchdog organizations like ours -- and any
citizen who is willing --to let these companies know that this is a
matter of human rights," Morillon said. "Write to these companies
and make them feel bad."
Critics last month blasted Microsoft, the largest software company
in the world, when it acknowledged that it was working with the
Chinese government to censor its new Chinese-language Web portal
and new free Web log tool, MSN Spaces.
In addition to the vigilant filtering of content transmitted
through Web sites, e-mail, message boards, chat rooms and blogs,
the Communist government in Beijing announced in June that everyone
in China publishing a blog would have to register it with the
government by the end of the month.
Already, anyone who opens a Web account in China must register it
with police, according to the Open Net Initiative, a collaborative
effort by the University of Toronto, Harvard University and the
University of Cambridge.
"China's Internet filtering regime is the most sophisticated effort
of its kind in the world," ONI authors declared in a recent report
on China. "The implications of this distorted online information
environment for China's users are profound, and disturbing."
According to the ONI, about 15 to 20 nations across the globe are
actively filtering their citizens' Internet access. In June, the
group announced that Iran's filtering efforts are reaching the
sophisticated status of China.
"Iran is also one of a growing number of countries, particularly in
the Middle East region, that rely upon commercial software
developed by for-profit United States companies to carry out the
core of its filtering regime," ONI's report on Iran reads. "In
effect, Iran outsources many of the decisions for what its citizens
can access on the Internet to a United States company, which in
turn profits from its complicity in such a regime."
ONI reported that Iran relies on filtering software designed by
U.S.-based Secure Computing, called "SmartFilter." It helps block a
range of banned words, topics and images - most of which Tehran
says contradict the country's strict Muslim beliefs.
Unlike China, selling technology to Iran is illegal because of U.S.
sanctions. David Burt, spokesman for Secure Computing, said that
the big Iranian Internet service providers, which are controlled by
the government, are using SmartFilter illegally.
"We have no contracts with any ISPs in Iran. A couple of the
biggest ones are illegally using our software," said Burt. "I think
our options of going after these foreign companies are limited."
But Secure Computing legally provides its software to other
countries that filter Internet content, including Saudi Arabia. "We
sell to ISPs all over the world," acknowledged Burt. "It's really
up to the customer on how they use the product."
Representatives from Nortel and Cisco said they do not specifically
design their technology for regimes like China to repress Internet
access. They say they cannot control the use of the technology once
it is enabled. For instance, the firewall that Cisco designed to
combat viruses can also be used to block political content that the
government does not like.
"Cisco has been and will continue to be a key driver of Internet
growth worldwide," said spokesman John Earnhardt. "Cisco Systems
has not specially designed any products for any government, or any
regional market, to block or filter content. The products that
Cisco Systems sells in the U.S., China, India, Pakistan, France,
Mexico, etc. are the same products that we sell worldwide."
The fact that U.S. companies like Nortel Networks and Cisco Systems
have been silent on what they consider the misuse of their
technology by governments creating back doors into monitoring
Internet use and filtering capabilities, has angered many.
"I think that companies chartered in free countries ought to ask
the question, 'What is our technology being used for in
authoritarian [countries], and is it a purpose that we want to be
behind?'" said Jonathan Zittrain, co-director of the Berkman Center
for Internet & Society and assistant professor of law at Harvard
University.
Dick D'Amato, chairman of the U.S-China Economic and Security
Review Commission, which has held hearings on the Chinese Internet
filtering issue, called the companies' explanations a "copout".
"They know what's being done with [the technology]," he said. "They
need to be held accountable for what they are doing."
Western companies providing technology to authoritarian governments
say that playing by the rules of the host country is the price they
pay for doing business there.
"MSN (Microsoft Network) abides by the laws and regulations of each
country in which it operates," an MSN spokesperson told
FOXNews.com.
Yahoo! made a similar argument two years ago, and continues to do
so as critics complain that the regime censors its Yahoo! China
portal.
"Just like any other global company, Yahoo! must ensure that its
local country sites must operate within the laws, regulations and
customs of the country in which they are based," Yahoo! said in a
statement to FOXNews.com.
But the watchdogs don't buy it - especially, they say, when the
Chinese government prohibits any political dissent, even to the
point of blocking out searches that include words like "democracy,"
as well as international news sites of which the government does
not approve.
D'Amato said the commission, which reports to Congress, hopes to
put pressure on these companies by bringing them in for hearings,
soon.
"I'm not so sure they'll come," he said. "They're running for cover."
--
Seth Finkelstein Consulting Programmer sethf@xxxxxxxxx http://sethf.com
Censorware Investigations - http://sethf.com/anticensorware/
Interview - http://sethf.com/essays/major/greplaw-interview.php
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