This is previously unheard of, and privacy advocates are having quite a fit over it. It is one thing when an authoritarian nation like China or a turmoil stricken nation like Iran has these massive government censoring acts, but Australia is perfectly democratic and peaceful. Some worry it could be a catalyst for other democratic nations to follow suit.

Nine ISPs ran this trial censoring software on their users, but only those who opted in, and reportedly that was only a handful. Out of the people tested, feedback was positive. They say the system blocked everything it should have, and only a couple had minor complaints.

Although the people didn’t like the idea of censorship to begin with, the government really dropped the bomb when they say they would have no say in whether the software would be mandatory or not. They are not even sure whether the game software would be an opt out system or not!

Although the public and even the government themselves are representing some fear about this proposed Great Barrier Reef around their virtual shores, these filters and their supporters have enough support and new evidence of perfect functioning with the trials to possibly get this censoring software mandatory for all Australian citizens.

It will still take time though. The sample set was so small, no generalized results can be made quite yet. People still had trouble accessing sites that were completely legal and should not have been blocked. There is also the matter of making the age restrictions for everyone regardless of age or not. Many ISPs have spoken after refusing to run the trial and they don’t look like they will go down without a fight if the censoring software is legally required on everyone’s computers.

This is the perfect example of where a change IP proxy could come into play. When the government blocks these sites, you can still get around it; the system is definitely not infallible. An IP changer could allow you to enter the site you actually wish to visit. When you visit the change IP proxy’s site, you will see an address bar; type in the site you wish to go to and the proxy will act as a middle man and go and retrieve it for you. This way, in your browsing history all that would seen is the name of the proxy server over and over again. Also, with your IP address changed to the proxy’s, you would be safe from any Internet police the government would try and track you down with.

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First we’ll discuss Chinese surveillance, as this is the most prevalent and infamous aspect of their e-dictatorship. As freedom is a luxury we often take for granted in the U.S. and other democratic countries, Internet police seem  like a funny cliché that would appear in an action movie. In fact, they are not, and almost 30,000 are employed to monitor and possibly arrest offending citizens and other “criminals”.

YouTube is a deadly sin, and watching funny cat videos is a crime against humanity. What happens to these feline loving crooks then you ask? For starters, depending on the severity of the offense (were there tabby cats involved?) a steep fine of the standard one-hundred and eighty dollars could ensue, or possibly jail time in a desolate prison. Everything is recorded by the government and sent to a central database for them to peruse at will. “The Internet Detective” is what the program is called, and it does reconnaissance on everything from e-mails to bank transactions. Some refer to it (less than lovingly) as the Great Firewall of China, for its blocks and other acts of censorship that shut down programs that often have no bad content whatsoever.

As mentioned before, violating China’s laws can warrant jail time or a steep fine. Non-Chinese civilians are not exonerated from these laws either. Journalists have been known to find themselves in jail for writing so-called “slander” towards the Chinese government: also known as things that could provoke the citizens to question communism. U.S. companies are not free either; while Google offers its full services to the entire world, each country having their own site, China patrols and regularly restricts information on their Google. After a while, Google was banned entirely after China accidentally let a dirty pun slip through, because it wasn’t quite a “bad” keyword. The word meant something harmless, and a bit insensible in English, while its Chinese translation made it a bit racier.

During the 2008 Olympics, the Chinese government toppled a giant. After doing some standard reconnaissance, the Chinese found that many of the competing athletes were listening to a pro-Tibetan song. Enraged, and even though the athletes probably had no idea that the song was about anything politically charged, China did the unthinkable; it shut down and censored iTunes for its civilians. Apple’s giant music sharing program went down with a thud heard around the world, and some athletes even mentioned the fiasco to media members who then enlightened the whole world.

This got people angry. Government may seem omni-powerful, but only if the people allow it. When the public began an outcry over the banning of their beloved music program, the Great Firewall was quickly lowered and iTunes was quickly off of the blacklist. They are no fools though; as interest and coverage waned, the once sheepish government immediately took back the reins and got back to its usual censoring tactics.

While most of the bourgeois in China would be intimidated enough to fall in line with these censoring threats. Others are so scared by the repercussions garnered by Internet crimes they shun it entirely. On the other hand, some civilian’s siren song is the rowdy “We’re not gonna take it!” Some choose to run the risk of jail time or a fine; fed up with not being able to tweet, message, or mail, they have found ways around the virtual blockades. Many use anonymous proxies to change their IP addresses and hide their identities. This effectively throws off the Internet police and puts them in such a predicament that they can’t even try and track the rebellious soul. These computer savvy civilians who bypass the censorship run a huge risk, but are showing other members of less-than-democratic nations that it can be done; the unjust governments are not all powerful, and there are loopholes.

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RSF (as the site will be referred to from here on) is primarily a news site, dealing with any issues that are pertinent throughout the globe., but particularly focusing on ones about freedom.

The site is very easily laid out. Some news websites can be quite convoluted, with headlines all over the screen, distracting your attention this way and that, but RSF lays their website out to be easily navigable: at the top, the major news. Near the middle, news organized by country and region. At the bottom, a “barometer”, showing journalist casualties, media assistants imprisoned, among other things to allow a quick check-up on foreign affairs. Underneath this, there is a search engine that allows you to view all things pertinent to a year, view Internet threats by country, or do an overall world report. On the side, there is merchandise to buy, and other sites the site recommends. Unlike some sites, RSF doesn’t have pop-ups touting its merchandise, and it doesn’t throw itself at you begging you to buy something.

RSF stands for “Reporter Sans Frontieres”, or, as the English speaking would say, “Reporter Without Borders.” The name follows suit with their organization; they don’t shy away from sensitive news, and won’t stop reporting just because a country doesn’t like it. They believe in Internet freedom, and demonstrate this by reporting the real news and hot topics all of the time, and not leaving anything out. Here you may find articles about the killing of journalists, or even writing protesting an oppressive leader’s habits. They take no prisoners; the way news should be. They don’t sugarcoat anything, calling Iran “the world’s biggest Internet jail”. This is true, and most news companies would have trouble coming out and saying it. The site even has a “Predators” section on its main page, which brazenly point out online predators to keep tabs on.

The site was formed in France with the original intention of being an alternative journalism site. After that failed, the current owner set the site’s sights on freedom of press. You can see the hints of alternative journalism throughout the site, but the freedom of press is palpable as soon as you log on. The site is a contributing member of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange, an organization dedicated to finding and revealing to the world unjust cases of people’s freedom of press and rights. In 2005, they actually won the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize, and graciously shared it with two other organizations. Recently, the site has released books and guides to help the average person remain anonymous on the Internet, and avoid censorship.

The site has a whole section called “Things We Like.” This is a collection of things that constantly update and show things that tie-in with the site’s aim for freedom of press and Internet expression. Currently, they are advertising a benefit for a journalist named Samir Kassir who was killed unjustly in a car bombing. He was described as a “talented and courageous” journalist, who risked and eventually gave his life to bring the real news to the public. The “Events” and “Campaigns” sections brings the things the website believes enhance and further their cause into the light. Investigating any three of these links will provide a user with ways to learn more and possibly participate in the website and its related causes. There is a section on the main page that provides an in-depth biography of the site, and a unique section that explains their expenditures, something very rare on the Internet. If you are really interested and have a fire for the subject matter, there is a tab called “Work With Us”, where one could find themselves the author of these Fourth Amendment touting articles.

Having a freedom of expression and press is a rapidly waning reality in a world where censorship, and sometimes simply believing the phrase “Ignorance is bliss” blocks us from knowing the true goings-on of the world. This site cuts through all of that: no matter how terrible the story is, if it needs to be heard, it will be. They also won’t back down to censorship or government pressure, and have seen many rewards for it. RSF always delivers the inside scoop in a convenient fashion, and hosts it on a visually appealing and easy to follow website. They leave no one behind either, hosting 6 of the world’s most popular languages. If you want the real news, and nothing but, and completely uncensored, look no further than RSF. If you just want a quick debriefing on the state of affairs around the world, take a quick look at the bottom of the main page and choose your country of concern. RSF is truly the people’s news.

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Iranians are blogging on FaceBook, sending messages of their protest on Twitter, and Mahmoud Ahadinejad is trying to shut them down. His success is only minimal however; the output of these troubled Iran citizens has increased since the presidential election and the ensuing mass censorship attempt.

Just recently, on Twitter, links and news of peaceful protests coupled with photos have become the most popular searches on Twitter, according to a recent statistic.

Since protesting out in the open can often have deadly effects, some have made Twitter their virtual protest base. One of these silent protesters is Mir Hussein Moussavi. One feed advocating him (Moussavi1388) has almost 7000 fans, and regularly updates news and urging to keep up the fight.

While Twitter isn’t the only medium these e-protests seek safety through, (Mr. Moussavi’s FaceBook page has 50,000 fans) it would be safe to say it is their weapon of choice.

Twitter is fully aware of the home it is supplying for these rebels… and completely supports them! Twitter is actually delaying schedules maintenance due to the Iranian election. They realize the power they have to make this election the most fair it can be.

The Twitter feed “StopAhmadi” is a radical one against the entrenched leader. They post photos and blogs about Moussavi’s cause and keep the public informed of injustices.

Another feed “PersianKiwi” is attempting to bypass any blocks that Iran could place on Twitter by hosting the page on Google. They fully acknowledge that Iran would block separate pages, and are blatantly trying to bypass this.

While users of Twitter are just using it to post protest messages and the like, some are going on the offensive. One such instance (DDOSIran) actually tried to topple the government for a short time by having everyone visit the government’s sites. Too much traffic will shut down a site, and this is what they aimed for.

The account was deleted after it did what it was trying to, and when questioned, Twitter admitted to nothing to do with the deletion of the account.

As the election drew closer, text message services were shut down, and access to Twitter and FaceBook became blocked, and the protesters knew this was a government act. Some have found ways around this injustice.

Many Iranians have been finding ways to avoid the Big Brother government from snooping; the most popular being a proxy server.

Some Americans are even stepping in to help out. Austin Heap, of San Francisco is hosting his own private proxies in hopes that the Iranians can surf freely. At any point in time, one of these proxies is allowing 750 people free Internet access.

Global Internet Freedom Consortium, an organization tied to the banned movement of Chinese Falun Gong which taught ways to get around Internet censorship, reported a triple increase in their traffic, and much of it coming from Iran.

With so many ways of getting around government censorship, it has become a game of whack-a-mole: the government blocks one thing, and another pops up that the people found.

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Sanlu offered to buy $640,000 worth of advertising in exchange for the mass cover-up of their most recent foible; thousands of infants hospitalized, four deaths, and recurrent kidney illness, after consuming Sanlu’s milk. Sanlu attempted to make up for lost profits by “enhancing” the milk with melamine, rather than actually adding in satisfactory amounts of protein. Melamine is NOT a replacement for protein, and is actually found in plastics and is flame retardant.

Sanlu has since stopped producing this tainted pseudo-milk, but not before offering up the bribe to Baidu to delete and censor any information on the scandal. These kind of things need to be told, and not just shoved under the table and forgotten. Even with Baidu’s censoring, an anonymous proxy could break through the bureaucracy and expose the issue. Sanlu exhibited terrible business ethics by watering down their product just to make a quick buck, and even worse for substituting a substance found in household products in a solution served to infants. On top of this, the melamine was not even top grade! They used the cheapest stuff they could find! Often, low-grade melamine contains ammonia, a noxious substance used to awaken medical patients slipping into unconsciousness.

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What’s worse is that research shows that the proper steps to safeguard the data aren’t being taken.  It’s encrypted, but the keys to unencrypt the data are stored on the same server, so anyone with a knowledge of cracking or hacking a server can take this data and decipher it with little problem.  Everything they need is right there.  And this doesn’t affect just China but every Skype user everywhere, in every country.

Log files are kept on any connection that is routed through TOM-Skype, so users contacting China are at risk as well.  If you were already worried about your internet privacy, China Skype has just upped the ante.  This is a perfect time to invest in IP Changer software or anonymous proxy software to protect your information and yourself.

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