Anonymous user
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2011
- Messages
- 808
- Reaction score
- 0
The United States is playing a game of 'cat and mouse' on the Web and funding new technology aimed at breaking Internet censorship in repressive regimes, including China and Iran, officials have said.
Mr Michael Posner, the US assistant secretary of state for human rights, said projects being funded by the US government included technology that acts as a 'slingshot' - identifying censored material and throwing it back on to the Web for users to find. The project is part of a US$30million (S$37.5 million) state department project to encourage civil liberty online.
'We're responding with new tools. This is a cat-and-mouse game. We're trying to stay one step ahead of the cat,' he said. Censored information would be redirected to e-mail, blogs and other online sources, he said. He would not identify the recipients of funding for security reasons.
The comments are part of an overall US strategy to raise the importance of cyberspace in foreign affairs. The Pentagon is preparing to unveil an international strategy for cyberspace that will make online security an official domain of warfare like land, sea and air.
The US ended two days of talks last week with Chinese officials amid worsening relations over censorship and crackdowns on dissidents. MrPosner said the US was using US$19 million to fund technology that would 'be redirecting information back in that governments have initially blocked'.
Chinese authorities block sites including Twitter and Facebook and censor information online. In March, Google accused China of interfering with its e-mail service. Authorities have been censoring references to pro-democracy uprisings in the Arab world and blocked search results for 'Hillary Clinton' after she gave a speech championing Internet freedom.
In Washington, critics have accused the State Department of being slow to spend the money and kowtowing to China.
Ms Rebecca MacKinnon, co-founder of GlobalVoicesOnline. org, a global organisation for bloggers, said access to information was not the only issue people faced online.
In Egypt, for example, surveillance, not censorship, was a far bigger issue, she said, when the revolution began and the authorities closed down the Internet.
She said technology to help people avoid government scrutiny online and allow them to set up local networks should a regime pull the plug on Internet access was just as valuable.
US to spend $30m fighting internet censorship | World news | The Guardian
What a waste of 30 million IMO
This will probably help boost the **** industry
Bet he thinks the same too
Mr Michael Posner, the US assistant secretary of state for human rights, said projects being funded by the US government included technology that acts as a 'slingshot' - identifying censored material and throwing it back on to the Web for users to find. The project is part of a US$30million (S$37.5 million) state department project to encourage civil liberty online.
'We're responding with new tools. This is a cat-and-mouse game. We're trying to stay one step ahead of the cat,' he said. Censored information would be redirected to e-mail, blogs and other online sources, he said. He would not identify the recipients of funding for security reasons.
The comments are part of an overall US strategy to raise the importance of cyberspace in foreign affairs. The Pentagon is preparing to unveil an international strategy for cyberspace that will make online security an official domain of warfare like land, sea and air.
The US ended two days of talks last week with Chinese officials amid worsening relations over censorship and crackdowns on dissidents. MrPosner said the US was using US$19 million to fund technology that would 'be redirecting information back in that governments have initially blocked'.
Chinese authorities block sites including Twitter and Facebook and censor information online. In March, Google accused China of interfering with its e-mail service. Authorities have been censoring references to pro-democracy uprisings in the Arab world and blocked search results for 'Hillary Clinton' after she gave a speech championing Internet freedom.
In Washington, critics have accused the State Department of being slow to spend the money and kowtowing to China.
Ms Rebecca MacKinnon, co-founder of GlobalVoicesOnline. org, a global organisation for bloggers, said access to information was not the only issue people faced online.
In Egypt, for example, surveillance, not censorship, was a far bigger issue, she said, when the revolution began and the authorities closed down the Internet.
She said technology to help people avoid government scrutiny online and allow them to set up local networks should a regime pull the plug on Internet access was just as valuable.
US to spend $30m fighting internet censorship | World news | The Guardian
What a waste of 30 million IMO
This will probably help boost the **** industry
Bet he thinks the same too
