Kinney Rucker

CompSci82
Professor Astrachan
November 4, 2009

Synopsis# 3 Censorship

This week’s readings Iranians and Others Outwit Net Censors by John Markoff,

and Firewalls and Power: An Overview of Global State Censorship of the Internet by Ronald J.

Deibert and Nart Villeneuve. Both readings examine how many countries like China, Saudi

Arabia and Iran where the governments try to filter certain websites on the internet from its

citizens. In the article Iranians and Others Outwit Net Censors talks about how on some

websites they offer downloads for free of several different software, help Iranians escape

governmental censorship. “ College Students discovered the key first, then spread it through e-

mail messages and file-sharing. By late autumn more than 400,000 Iranians Internet users to

evade government censorship” (Iranians and Others Outwit Net Censors by John Markoff). This

software was created by Chinese experts who work with Falun Gong, which is a group who have

been censored by the Chinese government for 10 years.

These governments are taking aggressive approaches to filter out certain criteria that

reaches their country. I agree with Iran’s and China’s aggressive approach; because they are

filtering out horrific content such as child pornography and other sexually oriented material.

From a ethical standpoint I think it is a good idea; furthermore it keeps its youth from the filth
that lies on the internet. With all of these software it could be detrimental to the citizens because

if they are using the software they could be breaking laws in the country “The danger in this

quiet electronic war is driven home by stark warning on the group’s Web site: Bypassing

censorship may violate law. Serious thought should be given to the risks involved and potential

consequences” (Iranians and Others Outwit Net Censors by John Markoff).

Even though their intentions are good to help other people avoid black-listed websites

that are black-listed by their country for example the Tor Project, which is a nonprofit

organization that are anticensorship activist, giver away software that is used to send messages

secretly or to get through blocked websites. I thought that is article was very interesting because

it opens the light to both sides of the argument; from the view of the software makers and the

governments; and how one rebels against the government who in a sense is trying to protect its

citizens. This article also raises the question of does the citizens in these countries have any

rights that are being violated by the government if so which ones would be violated.

I think if what is being sent through cyberspace is detrimental to people especially the

youth it should be filtered and kept from being seen by some people.

I think that both articles complement each other, because the article by John Markoff tells

the story of how anticensorship activist try to get around government censors with certain types

of software, and the article by Deibert and Villeneuve, tells the story of affects of filtering and

blocking certain sites from its citizens; for example overblocking “many blacklists are generated

through a combination of manual designated websites as well as automated searches”( Firewalls

and Power: An Overview of Global State Censorship of the Internet by Ronald J. Deibert and

Nart Villeneuve). By doing this many websites are often wrongly classified and end up on

blocking lists; some of the white-listed sites are put on the black-list. I thought one of the most
interesting section of the article was the Internet cafè content filtering section. I thought that

this section was very interesting because I feel that it is unethical one to have surveillance and

police in cafès to monitor what people are watching. “Many countries have adopted legislation

and implemented initiatives to ensure that cafè owners implement some form of content filtering

in cyber cafès… Taiwan has introduced regulations that require Internet cafès block access to

pornography and gambling websites. In addition to regulations, some countries have stepped

surveillance and police presence in Internet cafès. I think that this tapes into people’s privacy

and that it is unfair.

I think that both parties have legitimate arguments. I understand why some governments

are severally watching what goes on their internet to protect their citizens; and I also understand

the point of the anticensorship activist and how it is seen as a violating to a person’s right to

privacy and maybe in some ways freedom of speech if the government is watching everything a

person is saying.