Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering

by Ronald Deibert (Editor), John Palfrey (Editor), Rafal Rohozinski (Editor), Jonathan Zittrain (Editor), Janice Gross Stein (Foreword by)

Overview

A study of Internet blocking and filtering around the world: analyses by leading researchers and survey results that document filtering practices in dozens of countries.

Many countries around the world block or filter Internet content, denying access to information that they deem too sensitive for ordinary citizens—most often about politics, but sometimes relating to sexuality, culture, or religion. Access Denied documents and analyzes Internet filtering practices in more than three dozen countries, offering the first rigorously conducted study of an accelerating trend.

Internet filtering takes place in more than three dozen states worldwide, including many countries in Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. Related Internet content-control mechanisms are also in place in Canada, the United States and a cluster of countries in Europe. Drawing on a just-completed survey of global Internet filtering undertaken by the OpenNet Initiative (a collaboration of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, and the University of Cambridge) and relying on work by regional experts and an extensive network of researchers, Access Denied examines the political, legal, social, and cultural contexts of Internet filtering in these states from a variety of perspectives. Chapters discuss the mechanisms and politics of Internet filtering, the strengths and limitations of the technology that powers it, the relevance of international law, ethical considerations for corporations that supply states with the tools for blocking and filtering, and the implications of Internet filtering for activist communities that increasingly rely on Internet technologies for communicating their missions. Reports on Internet content regulation in forty different countries follow, with each two-page country profile outlining the types of content blocked by category and documenting key findings.

Contributors
Ross Anderson, Malcolm Birdling, Ronald Deibert, Robert Faris, Vesselina Haralampieva [as per Rob Faris], Steven Murdoch, Helmi Noman, John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, Mary Rundle, Nart Villeneuve, Stephanie Wang, Jonathan Zittrain

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262290722
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	01/25/2008
Series:	Information Revolution and Global Politics
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	472
File size:	5 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Ronald J. Deibert is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Citizen Lab and Canada Centre for Global Security Studies, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto.

John Palfrey is Head of School at Phillips Academy, Andover, coauthor of Born Digital: How Children Grow Up in a Digital Age, and author of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge volume Intellectual Property Strategy.

Rafal Rohozinski is the former Director of the Advanced Network Research Group at Cambridge University (Cambridge Security Programme). He is a principal with The SecDev Group, a global strategy and research analytics firm.

Jonathan Zittrain is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he cofounded the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and Professor of Computer Science at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He is the author of The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It.

Jonathan Zittrain is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he cofounded the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and Professor of Computer Science at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He is the author of The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It.

John Palfrey is Head of School at Phillips Academy, Andover, coauthor of Born Digital: How Children Grow Up in a Digital Age, and author of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge volume Intellectual Property Strategy.

Jonathan Zittrain is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he cofounded the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and Professor of Computer Science at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He is the author of The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It.

John Palfrey is Head of School at Phillips Academy, Andover, coauthor of Born Digital: How Children Grow Up in a Digital Age, and author of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge volume Intellectual Property Strategy.

Ross Anderson is a Professor of Security Engineering at the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge.

Jonathan Zittrain is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he cofounded the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and Professor of Computer Science at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He is the author of The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It.

John Palfrey is Head of School at Phillips Academy, Andover, coauthor of Born Digital: How Children Grow Up in a Digital Age, and author of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge volume Intellectual Property Strategy.

Ronald J. Deibert is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Citizen Lab and Canada Centre for Global Security Studies, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto.

Rafal Rohozinski is the former Director of the Advanced Network Research Group at Cambridge University (Cambridge Security Programme). He is a principal with The SecDev Group, a global strategy and research analytics firm.

Table of Contents

Foreword   Janice Stein     vii
Preface   John Palfrey     ix
Introduction   Jonathan Zittrain   John Palfrey     1
Measuring Global Internet Filtering   Robert Faris   Nart Villeneuve     5
Internet Filtering: The Politics and Mechanisms of Control   Jonathan Zittrain   John Palfrey     29
Tools and Technology of Internet Filtering   Steven J. Murdoch   Ross Anderson     57
Filtering and the International System: A Question of Commitment   Mary Rundle   Malcolm Birdling     73
Reluctant Gatekeepers: Corporate Ethics on a Filtered Internet   Jonathan Zittrain   John Palfrey     103
Good for Liberty, Bad for Security? Global Civil Society and the Securitization of the Internet   Ronald Deibert   Rafal Rohozinski     123
Regional Overviews     151
Introduction     153
Asia     155
Australia and New Zealand     166
Commonwealth of Independent States     177
Europe     186
Latin America     197
Middle East and North Africa     207
Sub-Saharan Africa     213
UnitedStates and Canada     226
Country Summaries     235
Introduction     237
Afghanistan     240
Algeria     245
Azerbaijan     249
Bahrain     254
Belarus     258
China (including Hong Kong)     263
Cuba     272
Egypt     276
Ethiopia     281
India     286
Iran     292
Iraq     300
Israel     304
Jordan     308
Kazakhstan     312
Kyrgyzstan     317
Libya     321
Malaysia     325
Moldova     329
Morocco     333
Myanmar (Burma)     338
Nepal     343
North Korea     347
Oman     350
Pakistan     355
Saudi Arabia     360
Singapore     364
South Korea     369
Sudan     375
Syria     380
Tajikistan     385
Thailand     390
Tunisia     395
Ukraine     400
United Arab Emirates      405
Uzbekistan     409
Venezuela     416
Vietnam     420
Yemen     425
Zimbabwe     429
Contributors     433
Index     435

What People are Saying About This

Lawrence Lessig

No one had a clear sense of the nature of Internet censorship until now.

This extraordinary work maps the unfreedom of the net. Unfortunately, that state is becoming the norm.

James Der Derian

In Access Denied an unlikely avant-garde of scholars,lawyers, hacktivists, and computer programmers come together to combat efforts by repressive regimes, corporate firms, and intelligence agencies to surveil, filter,and block the Internet. Through critical analysis, regional surveys, and the use of innovative software, the authors reveal the penumbra of a networked global civil society emerging from the Dark Side's efforts to eclipse the Internet. Everyone who supports open thought and the free flow of information should read Access Denied.

Endorsement

No one had a clear sense of the nature of Internet censorship until now. This extraordinary work maps the unfreedom of the net. Unfortunately, that state is becoming the norm.

—Lawrence Lessig, Stanford University

From the Publisher

In Access Denied an unlikely avant-garde of scholars, lawyers, hacktivists, and computer programmers come together to combat efforts by repressive regimes, corporate firms, and intelligence agencies to surveil, filter, and block the Internet. Through critical analysis, regional surveys, and the use of innovative software, the authors reveal the penumbra of a networked global civil society emerging from the Dark Side's efforts to eclipse the Internet. Everyone who supports open thought and the free flow of information should read Access Denied.

—James Der Derian, Director, Global Security Program, Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University

No one had a clear sense of the nature of Internet censorship until now. This extraordinary work maps the unfreedom of the net. Unfortunately, that state is becoming the norm.

—Lawrence Lessig, Stanford University