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泥濘中的老虎 - 2008-8-27 2:33:00
By Mike Steere
For CNN

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Believe the conspiracy theories: Out of sight and without your knowledge, governments truly are filtering what you see on the Internet.

The recent conflict between Georgia and Russia has highlighted many of the issues at play with Internet filtering, as its increasing use by governments raises serious doubts about the freedom of the Web.

Georgian authorities blocked most access to Russian news broadcasters and Web sites after the outbreak of the conflict, and both sides reported Web sites being blocked, removed or attacked as the situation unfolded.

According to one of CNN's iReporters in Georgia, the situation has been very frightening for citizens.

Andro Kiknadze said an online forum he used to organize supporters appeared to have been taken down, and he described a "cyberwar" in which some Web sites appear to be blocked.

"Please, please help us. We are losing our treasure, our freedom. I am almost crying because I'm seeing my country is falling," Kiknadze said.

So, what is Internet filtering, and why all the fuss?

Filtering simply means restricting access, blocking or taking down Web sites.

Karin Karlekar, senior researcher at freedom promoter Freedom House, said there were several ways in which content could be "filtered."

She said governments could use purpose-built filtering technology, censor Web sites, filter search results -- with the assistance of multinational corporations, and block applications and circumvention tools -- to stop online applications like Facebook, YouTube or Voice Over IPs that enable social networking.

And the use of these tactics appears to be quite widespread.

According to a 2007 report by the OpenNet Initiative, which surveyed more than 40 countries, almost two-thirds of the states involved were filtering content to some degree.

Ron Deibert, director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for Internet Studies at the University of Toronto, said in the research, "states are applying ever more fine grained methods to limit and shape the information environment to which their citizens have access."

"Some states block access to a wide swathe of content, while others tend to concentrate on one or two narrow baskets. South Korea, for example, tends to block access only to sites related to North Korea," Deibert said.

Although countries such as Iran and China -- home to the "Great Firewall of China" -- are obvious examples of where filtering is prevalent, other countries are also restricting content for varying reasons.

Ian Brown, research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, said the Internet in some European countries, including the United Kingdom, was also filtered. However, this was mostly to block child pornography and content that incited or glorified terrorism, he said.

Most democracies, and particularly those of the U.S. and India, had unrestricted Internet, though more than 40 countries were known to filter content, he said.

And it's not just governments involved in filtering. Search engine Google has been heavily criticized for working with the Chinese government to block searches for material about Taiwan, Tibet, democracy and other sensitive issues on its Chinese portal. Share your views on filtering and censorship of Web sites.

With recent developments in Georgia and Internet restrictions during conflict in Estonia last year, there are concerns that filtering could be further utilized in future "cyberwarfare."

Brown believed that filtering would be used more commonly in repressive states in the future. Although he didn't have exact figures, Brown understood the Chinese military had more than 100,000 people employed to look at cyber warfare.

Jonathan Zittrain, co-founder of Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, said the tactic was very powerful.

"Filtering can help shape the message a country's citizens see, including, as may have happened recently when Georgia filtered some Russian Web sites, for the purpose of preventing enemy propaganda from reaching one's citizens."

Although Karlekar agreed that filtering was a strong aspect to cyber warfare, she said other trends were more concerning.

"Filtering isn't the primary technological way that Internet freedom can be compromised. The kind of 'cyberwarfare' that we hear about usually isn't filtering as much as 'denial of service' attacks that disable servers hosting particular Web sites, either of opposition media outlets or of foreign governments.

"Another type of 'cyberwarfare' that occurs more regularly is hacking into computers and stealing information, as well as planting Trojans or viruses," Karlekar said.

So, if governments are stepping up their Internet filtering and the threat of cyberwarfare is increasing, how can citizens sidestep the restrictions?

Zittrain said tech-savvy citizens are using a variety of tools to circumvent filtering.

"They range from the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Tor'software to commercial anonymizers and virtual private networks and 'buddy system' software like Psiphon, which allows a person in one place to handle requests for Web sites from someone in a place that filters."

In Iran, some citizens were overcoming Internet restrictions by using Freedom House's Gozaar Web site.

Karlekar said the site offered news and debates with a plurality of voices and gave Iranians an opportunity to participate. The domain name was changed weekly to keep ahead of Iranian authorities, she said.

Zittrain, a founder of the OpenNet Initiative, which tracks Internet filtering around the world, said the organization is working on a free tool that will let people easily report blockages as they find them.
泥濘中的老虎 - 2008-8-27 2:34:00
译者:sunset123
作者:Mike Steere
原文:Experts: Internet filtering and censorship rife
译文:专家评论:互联网——过滤和审查无处不在

专家评论:互联网——过滤和审查无处不在


相信阴谋无处不在的说法吧, 尽管毫无察觉,你在互联网上看到的确实已经被政府过滤过了。

格鲁吉亚和俄罗斯最近的冲突突显了网络过滤方面发生的许多问题,政府增加了网络过滤技术的使用,引发了人们对网络自由的严重关注。

格俄冲突发生后,格鲁吉亚当局阻断了大部份俄罗斯的新闻广播和网站,随着事件的进展,格俄双方都有网站被封闭,移除和被攻击的报导。

据CNN记者从格鲁吉亚报导,对当地公民来说,这种情形非常可怕。

格鲁吉亚人安德罗.柯克纳德兹说,他经常用于组织支持者活动的一个线上论坛被撤销了,他描述说这是一场“网上战争”,有些网站在这场战争中被关闭了。

柯克纳德兹说:“请帮助我们吧,我们正在失去宝贵的财富。看到国家正在倒塌,我都要哭了。”

那么,互联网过滤究技术竟是怎么一回事呢,为什么会有这些大惊小怪的声音呢?

简单说来,过滤就是限制访问,封闭或撤销网站。

卡茵.柯莱卡是促进自由组织“自由之屋”的高级研究员,她说,有好几种方法可以过滤网络内容。

她指出,政府可以在跨国公司的帮助下,应用一些阻断或欺骗工具,使用预设目标的过滤技术来审查网站和过滤搜索结果,达到阻断像Facebook, YouTube或者Voice Over IPs这样社会化网络的在线申请。

这些手段的使用是相当普遍的。

据OpenNet Initiative(一个专门从事互联网审查问题研究的组织)2007年的报告说,在被观察的四十几个国家中,差不多三分之二有不同程度的对网络内容过滤的行为。

多伦多大学穆克互联网研究中心公民实验室主任朗.戴伯特在研究中说,国家正在应用更为精细的方法,来限制和营造公民可以看得到的信息环境。

戴伯特说:“有些国家对许多网络内容都设置障碍,而另外一些国家只集中于一两个小范围。比如韩国,只阻断有关北朝鲜的内容。”

虽然有些国家像伊朗和中国——长城防火墙的故乡,是充斥网络审查的最好例子,其它国家也为了各种各样的理由限制网络内容。

牛津大学互联网学院的研究员艾安.布朗说,在有些欧洲国家如英国,互联网也是有过滤的,主要是针对儿童色情的内容,还有宣扬恐怖主义的内容。

布朗说,尽管有四十多个国家对网络内容有过滤,在大多数民主国家,如美国和印度,互联网是完全开放的。

网络过滤还不完全是政府的行为。搜索引擎谷歌就因为配合中国政府,在中国端口阻断有关台湾、西藏、民主和其它敏感内容的搜索而招致大量的批评。

最近格鲁吉亚事件的发生,还有爱沙尼亚冲突期间对互联网的限制,使人们担心在将来的“网络战”中,网络过滤会被进一步使用。

布朗相信,在强制性的国家中,网络过滤会被广泛使用。虽然布朗没有确切的数字,他知道中国军方有十多万人从事对网络战争的监控。

哈佛法律学校贝克曼中心的创始人之一乔纳森.兹特恩说,网络过滤是非常强有力的战术。

他说:“过滤技术可以营造一个国家的公众可以看到的信息,就像在最近发生的事情,格鲁吉亚过滤了某些俄国网站,起到了防止敌人向本国公民宣传的作用。”

虽然柯莱卡也同意,网络过滤是网络战争的一个重要方面,她指出其它趋势更加值得关注。

她说:“网络过滤不是网络自由可以向其妥协的主要技术手段。我们听说的“网络战争”通常不仅仅是网络过滤,还有“否定服务”的攻击,可以导致寄存特定网站的服务器丧失功能,包括敌对媒体或者外国政府的网站。”

柯莱卡说:“另外一种更为经常发生的网络战争是黑客,攻击计算机并且偷取信息,还有撒播特洛伊木马或其它病毒。”

那么,假如政府实施网络过滤,网络战争的威胁正在增加,公众怎样才能避开网络限制呢?

兹特恩说,有技术天赋的人们使用各种各样的工具来避开网络过滤技术。

他说:“这些工具从“电子前线基金会”的Tor软件,到商家出售的匿名软件,到虚拟私人网络,还有像Psiphon那样的“伙伴系统”软件,可以帮助网民在有网络过滤地方通过另外地方的人到达要去的网站。”

在伊朗,有些人使用“自由之屋”的Gozaar网站来冲破网络限制。

柯莱卡说,Gozaar网站有新闻,还有不同声音的讨论,给伊朗人参与的机会。网站的域名每周都会变换,以便抢在伊朗当局发现之前。

OpenNet Initiative在全世界范围内跟踪互联网过滤的情况,它的创始人兹特恩说,这个组织正在开发一种自由工具,让人们发现有网络阻断情况时可以很容易的报告。

他相信,这种工具可以帮助人们在网络限制严重的国家里绕过政府设置的障碍得到信息。

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