Recently in Censorship Category
Yesterday my daughter Shireen asked me again to help her get around the filters at school. She can get to her email, but she can't get to DeviantArt, where she posts photos and artwork. Nor can she use her IM client, and she'd wanted to ask me a question while she was at school. I pointed her at a web IM client that would probably work, and promised to set up an encrypted proxy server on our web site so she could browse wherever she wanted. I also pointed out that her problem is in miniature the same problem faced by millions of folks in Iran, China and other countries that try to restrict the flow of information to and from the internet.
While I can sympathize (in theory) with people who see the internet as a corrupting influence, I do not sympathize with the view of "the State as parent", and furthermore, I believe the correct solution to corrupting influences (whether you are a parent or a country) is education and knowledge—not hiding them under a rock and pretending they don't exist. If your meme can't win the battle of information, then it doesn't deserve to survive. (I suppose it's not terribly surprising that such a darwinist approach to ideas doesn't go over well with theocracies. :-) And of course in the case of Iran and China, two of the biggest censorship offenders (how nice to know that Iran is using American software to do the job), the censorship has far more to do with maintaining power than any particular ideology.
In any case, while looking for something completely different this morning, I came across the following Firefox web browser extension.
I actually hadn't realized that Iran blocked Flickr, there's an active Iranian community there.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. But it's a pity, Flickr's a great way to see what Iran really looks like right now.
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iranian court reopens Kazemi case
Iran's Supreme Court has ordered a new investigation into the death of the Iranian-Canadian photojournalist, Zahra Kazemi, while in custody in 2003.
Zahra Kazemi died in a hospital in Tehran in July 2003Judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi said the court had objected to the acquittal in 2004 of an intelligence agent accused of beating her to death.
He said judges had "found some formal flaws" in previous investigations.
Kazemi, 54, died in Tehran in July 2003 having received head injuries during more than three days of interrogation.
She was arrested on 23 June 2003 while taking photographs outside Evin prison in the north of the capital, but was never formally charged with any offence.
The case severely strained relations between the Canadian and Iranian governments.
Kudos to Google, at least, for arguing that allowing Iranians to use GMail doesn't constitute "doing business with Iran". But shame on Microsoft and Yahoo! for not having the guts to wait until the government complains.
Iran booted from Yahoo!, Microsoft lists - UPI.com
SEATTLE, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Two U.S.-based e-mail services, Microsoft and Yahoo!, have taken Iran off their country lists. Yahoo! issued a statement saying it continually reviews its business operations to comply with U.S. restrictions on "conducting business in specified countries, such as Iran." "
…
Iran remains an option for Google G-mail users. The company said it did not believe that keeping Iran on its country list violates the sanctions.
Sanctions in general are a mistake–they hurt the people who you most want on your side. But in all battles, information is a weapon, and in the modern age, the access to the internet is a critical component of that. Iran, China and other governments know that very well, and do their best to limit their people's access to information. When we impose sanctions that help them, we are playing right into their hands.
Farsi is currently one of the top-ten blogging languages. Until Iran blocked access, Iranians were the third largest group of users (after Brazil and the U.S.) of Google's Orkut social networking service. Somehow I don't think the Sepah-e Pasdaran-e Enghelab-e Islami (سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی) is doing a lot of blogging.
P.S. That last piece of Farsi was a test case. Someone who can actually read it, please let me know if it displayed correctly. I'm also interested as to whether Farsi displays correctly when entered in the comment forms (not that I'll be able to read any comments you leave in Farsi, but I can get them translated, so feel free.)
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