My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: Human rights activists have dubbed the Beijing Games the “Genocide Olympics” over concerns of China’s involvement in the Darfur crisis. The situation there is worsening by the day. Human Rights First claims that China is arming the conflict. The…
Showing all posts tagged Yahoo
Assisting repression
Following allegations that Western web majors such as Yahoo and Microsoft were assisting the Chinese regime in finding Tibetans after the recent violence, Yahoo has denied the allegations: “Contrary to media reports, Yahoo! Inc. is not displaying images on its web sites of individuals wanted by Chinese authorities in connection with the recent unrest in…
Money always trumps human rights?
This is how Western internet multinationals, such as Yahoo and Microsoft, are helping the Chinese regime in their hunt for Tibetans: Yahoo China pasted a “most wanted” poster across its homepage today in aid of the police’s witch-hunt for 24 Tibetans accused of taking part in the recent riots. MSN China made the same move,…
www.censorship.com
My following article appears in today’s ABC Unleashed: Fidel Castro controlled Cuba for nearly half a century. His rule was defined by defiance and dictatorship, brutal repression against dissidents and the management of an immoral American embargo. Free speech has always been the Achilles’ heel of the regime. During my visit to the island last…
The sound of freedom
As China tries to defend its aggressive behaviour against protesting Tibetans – calling them “criminals” and arresting hundreds of people – the regime’s battle against the internet is temporarily successful but ultimately futile. The Times London explains: YouTube, the video-sharing website which has become a home to amateur footage of news events, has been blocked…
The dual challenge
Major internet companies are starting to realise that their collusion with repressive regimes is biting them on the arse: More Chinese dissidents sue Yahoo! Of course, China appears to be in the middle of a sexual revolution, so perhaps internet censorship isn’t on the minds of many citizens.
URL Not Available
My latest column for New Matilda is about China’s crackdown on internal dissent and its fear of the internet: Although China is also battling a seemingly unsurmountable pollution problem, the regime appears determined to ignore Western calls for greater openness. “Why can’t China accept that dissent and argument are part of being a normal country?”…
The Orwellian censorship of Wikileaks
The following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: Internet censorship is something we normally associate with countries such as Iran or China, but increasingly Western governmental and legal authorities are aggressively restricting the ability of users to view information unimpeded. Such is the story with Wikileaks, one of the most essential websites launched in…
The big boys want to get bigger
This news was almost inevitable: Jerry Yang, the chief executive of Yahoo, was finishing a regularly scheduled company board meeting Thursday night when his assistant interrupted him with an urgent phone call. It was Steven A. Ballmer, the chief executive of Microsoft, and his message was curt. He did not call to negotiate. Microsoft would…
Futile censorship
Repressive regimes around the world are continually trying to block citizen’s access to the internet. But trust bloggers to fight back, designing proxies to allow anybody to freely access YouTube, Flickr, MySpace and many others.