Censorship Disasters In The Last Decade

CENSORSHIP DISASTERS IN THE LAST DECADE NO FREEDOM, NO RIGHTS TO SPEAK Among 249 countries on the face of this earth, only 90 countries are considered "Free", mostly American and European countries. Rest of the countries have restrictions on using the internet in one way or another; the worst part is that no rights to speech are available in most of the countries. REASONS FOR CENSORSHIP *30 Religious Many countries have censorship due to Religious conflicts. Business Reasons Torrent industry is harmful for Hollywood business and so it is blocked in USA and UK. thtll Political Turkey, Syria and Egypt have suffered censorships to quell political uprisings. Social Porn websites are considered harmful for kids and teenagers, and are blocked widely on social grounds. Legal CENSORSHIP Websites that don't fulfill legal obligations are blocked according to ISP laws. FREEDOM HOUSE REPORT In 2012, Freedom House started an annual report on Countries' current state of Freedom on the Internet. The results were shocking. FREE - 2012 PARTLY FREE- CENSORED 24% %33 %41 FREE PARTLY FREE 2013 rCENSORED 15 9. 7 Countries moved from partially free to free Countries Moved From Countries Moved to More Free to Partially Free Countries including Great Strict Censorship From Free and Partially Free countries Britain countries Partly Free Not Free Free REGIONAL PATTERNS 1 (3%) 14 (69%) 10 (28%) Americas 8 (21%) 17 (43%) 14 (36%) Asia-Pacific 9 (31%) 7 (24%) 13 (45%) Central and Eastern Europe/Eurasia 6 (33%) 11 (61%) 1 (6%) Middle East and North Africa 18 (37%) 20 (41%) 11 (22%) Sub-Saharan Africa 0 (0%) 1 (4%) 14 (96%) Western Europe GOOGLE TRANSPARENCY REPORT There is another form of censorship that is unknown by many. Governments, Courts, Police and even Corporations submit requests to Google to delete specific content on a daily basis. That content may have offensive, illegal or copyright issues; but in most cases, governments or authorities request Google to delete content just to hide some facts. This act kills the free rights of speech. In 2013 1335 requests were submitted 18,929 items were deleted forever 5 Major Reasons to Delete The Content Are: Defamation - 35% Privacy and Security- 14% Adult Content - 13% Electoral Law – 3% Government Criticism - 3% Top 10 Countries by Numbers of Requests Submitted Items Removed Requests Compliance Name of Country 55% 3415 438 United States 46% 1416 237 Brazil 42% 9610 184 Turkey 219 96 74% Germany 219 57 58% France 65% 318 49 Switzerland 368 46 63% United Kingdom 91% 1738 35 Argentina 56% 135 27 Italy 28% 58 25 Japan Note: This is not the worst form of censorship because it is controlled by Google and only those requests are entertained that fulfill compliance requirements. Yet, it is a form of censorship - caging free rights of speech and preventing access to important information. ENEMIES OF THE INTERNET Eritrea - Most censored country in the world - Only 0.78% people have internet access. - No mobile internet available - The fifth highest number of exiled journalists Worst Censorship Disaster: Eritrea has been using an automatic Internet filtering system since 1995. No domestic news has been published outside the country since September 2001. 28 Journalists were imprisoned, 27 are in exile and 5 have died since 2001. O North Korea - 2nd worst censored country in the world - Cour has its own intranet, "Kwangmyong" - Only foreigners can use 3G phone network - Only High Authorities can access World Wide Web Worst Censorship Disaster: Kim Jong Un took over his father in 2011 and soon after many journalists were sentenced to death due to publishing content against the king. All 20 newspapers are now under strict control of the Information Minister. SyriaE - 3rd worst censored country in the world - There is a hackers' group called Syrian Electronic Army - SEA uses phishing tactics to compromise accounts Arabic Wikipedia has been blocked since 2008 Twitter, Facebook and YouTube were blocked 10 times Worst Censorship Disaster: Since demonstration began calling for Assad's removal in 2011, government has imposed a complete blackout, stopping foreign journalists to enter and report freely. Local journalists were also attacked, detained and tortured for covering the demonstrations. Many Journalists were said to be missing.. Iran - The 4th worst censored country in the world - 20 million Internet users - 50% of the top 500 websites are blocked in Iran - Government has banned Cyber Cafes in 2012 - Facebook and Twitter are blocked in Iran Worst Censorship Disaster: Since 2009, BBC Persian-Language service has been banned by the government for covering the protesters describing abuse by security forces. Soon after the incident, friends and relative of BBC staff were questioned, detained and intimidated by the forces. Uzbekistan - Uzbekistan is 5th worst censored country in the world - Extensive filtering is used to block blacklisted sites - Facebook was banned in 2010 for a few days - BBC was blocked in 2010 and remained blocked until 2012 - Government conducts mass surveillance of public emails Worst Censorship Disaster: The worst disaster occurred at early 2014 in Uzbekistan when the entire country's internet and mobile messaging service was cut off for more than 7 hours due to urgent repairs. Burma - Burma is among the worst censored countries - Internet was first introduced in 2000 - Only 1.0% of citizens have Internet facility - Lack of Infrastructure makes using internet very costly - Government uses software-based filtering system Worst Censorship Disaster: In 2011, when Burma transitioned from military to civilian government, a new law was passed increasing the penalties for journalists and especially bloggers, who comprise 75% of total internet users. The new law stated that if any journalist or blogger disobeyed government policies, he or she will face 5 years of jail. It was a hard strike on Internet censorship where rights of speech were detained. CubaE - 7th worst censored country in the world - Special permit is required from the Govt. to use the Net - Citizens can access local internet only to exchange emails - Internet costs from €1.20 an hour - Only 12% of the population has access to the Internet Worst Censorship Disaster: In 2006, the Cuban government introduced a law that if any foreigners were found to be giving access to open internet to any citizen of Cuba, he or she may have to face prosecution. Many foreigners have been harassed due to the enforcement of this law. Turkey O - Turkish government controls all online traffic - YouTube has been blocked three times - Over 30,000 websites are blocked in Turkey - On March 2014, PM Erdogan ordered to block Twitter - On January 2014, SoundCloud website were blocked WE BAN Worst Censorship Disaster: 2014 was the year that started in Turkey with worst censorship on the internet. First Twitter was blocked and Prime Minister Erdogan started a wipe out of Twitter in Turkey. Following this in the same year YouTube was also banned completely for few days due to a leaked video of a political figure. Internet censorship is spreading like wildfire, worldwide. Every single day, more and more countries are putting restrictions on free use of the internet. It is time you get your internet freedom back Free Yourself Now With PureVPN! References http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Turkey http://cpj.org/reports/2012/05/10-most-censored-countries.php http://www.businessinsider.com/10-most-censored-countries-2011-4?op=1 http://www.theguardian.com/technology/datablog/2012/apr/16/internet-censorship-country-list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship http://hkworkshop09.flatclassroomproject.org/Statistics+relating+to+world+internet-censorship http://courses.cs.vt.edu/professionalism/Censorship/notes.html http://www.freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/FIW%202013%20Booklet.pdf 1 26% 46% 30%