U.S. Tech Firms Help Governments Censor Internet

["David Farber" <dave () farber net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: "Seth Finkelstein"<sethf () sethf com>
Sent: 18/07/05 5:46:42 AM
To: "David J. Farber"<dave () farber net>
Cc: "ip ip"<ip () v2 listbox com>
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 () sethf com http://sethf.com
Censorware Investigations - http://sethf.com/anticensorware/
Interview - http://sethf.com/essays/major/greplaw-interview.php

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