Global Media Watchdog Names Enemies of Internet

Paris - The Arab Spring is changing the face of Internet freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders, which released its latest "Enemies of the Internet" list Monday.

The annual report classifies as "enemies" countries that severely curtail freedom of expression on and access to the Web. It also draws up a list of states "under surveillance."

The group added Bahrain to its enemies list, citing a news blackout and harassment of bloggers in an attempt to quell a yearlong Shiite-led rebellion against the Sunni monarchy.

The country had previously been under surveillance.

"Bahrain offers a perfect example of successful crackdowns, with an information blackout achieved through an impressive arsenal of repressive measures: exclusion of the foreign media, harassment of human rights defenders, arrests of bloggers and netizens (one of whom died behind bars), prosecutions and defamation campaigns against free expression activists, disruption of communications," the Paris-based group's report said.

But the Arab Spring — the name given to a cascade of revolts across the Arab world — has also led to the opening up of some regimes.

Libya, where the repressive rule of Moammar Gadhafi was thrown off in a violent revolt, was removed from the list of countries under surveillance.

"In Libya, many challenges remain but the overthrow of the Gadhafi regime has ended an era of censorship," the report said.

The group said that the Arab Spring had also highlighted the importance of the Internet — and therefore the importance of protecting access to and expression on it.

"The Internet and social networks have been conclusively established as tools for protest, campaigning and circulating information, and as vehicles for freedom," the group said. "More than ever before, online freedom of expression is now a major foreign and domestic policy issue."

The enemies list contains countries that are well known for blocking Internet content, like China, Myanmar and North Korea.

But the list of those under surveillance contains some surprises like Australia and France.

Reporters Without Borders criticized Australia for persuading Internet service providers to create a national content-filtering system, which blocks access to child pornography sites and others deemed inappropriate. 

The group is concerned that the government is still also pursuing a system of mandatory content-filtering whose criteria are "very broad."

France landed on the surveillance list last year for a series of criminal indictments of journalists for stories they wrote. It remains on the list this year because of a law that could punish people who repeatedly illegally download content by cutting off their Internet access.

FBI Warns that People Who Use AOL at Internet Cafés Could be Terrorists

By Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

United States - America Online users beware: If you access your AOL account from a computer at an Internet café, your name may wind up on a terrorist-watch list.

 

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), AOL users at public computer venues are just one possible type of suspicious person that business owners need to keep tabs on.

 

The FBI has been distributing flyers to paintball centers, banks, dive shops and even tattoo shops to educate them on how to spot potential terrorist activities.

 

In addition to noting who is accessing AOL, Internet café owners should watch out for and report customers who always pay for their service with cash, attempt to shield their screen from other people in the room, communicate through video games or use VOIP, all of which are signs of a would-be terrorist, says the FBI.

 

The flyers do remind business owners and their employees that “It is important to remember that just because someone’s speech, actions, beliefs, appearance, or way of life is different; it does not mean that he or she is suspicious.”

Internet Domain Names to Be Bid on in a Few Days

Several new domain address will be bid on starting January 12^th at 12:01 a.m. GMT. A thousand of them to be exact.

The domain names, which include ".sport", ''.NYC", ".bank", and “.Vegas", will then be added to the current internet system starting spring of 2013. Any challenges to the names may push back the requested name until as late as 2014.

Companies are seeing this move as possibly a way to gain more money from people and groups which wish to use their domain name for a website.

Some other companies however are worried about its efficiency. Dan Jaffe of the lobbying group Association of National Advertisers likened the expansion to a sinking ship. “You don't want a ship to have holes... and ask everybody to come on board. You should close the holes, then run a pilot project to see if the systems you put in place are actually effective."

Others however worry it will open the internet to many more scams by using names that seem alike such as “Amazom” instead of “Amazon”.

Another concern is about the possibility it will be able to be used to spread hate groups or have domain names that end in profanities.

However don't get excited about getting something like “.Coolname” just yet. At the moment it seems only those who have a vast amount of wealth will be able to take part in the bids. Just to apply for the name requires the purchaser to pay 185-thousand dollars and a ten-year commitment totaling 250-thousand dollars. Those prices are without things like the cost to run the site, computers, or staff.

The bidding is set to end in April.

What I want to know is what will prevent this from creating a two-tier internet? Anyone with enough money to get one of these domain names would also have enough money to ensure their part of the internet is never slowed down or yanked off the internet completely.