The University of Sunderland posted a blog post about my research:

A C&T [computing & technology] student, who has spent the last nine years using his computing skills to support Tibetan democracy, claims that the freedom fighters are now facing online espionage on an industrial scale.

Returned from Dharamsala, India .. ran into Oxblood and others. Xeni Jardin has a series of interesting articles for NPR and Wired:

Across the border from Chinese-occupied Tibet, the tech infrastructure in this high mountain village is a mess. But a former Silicon Valley dot-commer and members of the underground security group Cult of the Dead Cow are working with local Tibetan exiles to change that using recycled hardware, solar power, open-source software and nerd ingenuity. The volunteers are building a low-cost wireless mesh network to provide cheap, reliable data and telephony to community organizations.

[Check out the Air Jaldi summit later this year].

®:

District Judge Evans has given the go ahead for the extradition of alleged Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon to the United States.

The Judge said he was satisfied that the extradition would be compatible with McKinnon’s convention rights. The case will now be considered by the Home Secretary.

via http://freegary.org.uk/

Dharamsala’s Tibetan Technology Center Partners With International Experts To Present the ‘Air Jaldi Summit’ And Extended Training Workshops

The Tibetan Technology Center (TibTec), a world leader in wireless mesh network development, announced that it will host the Air Jaldi Summit on wireless technologies in Dharamsala, India in October 2006.

TibTec has partnered with the Djursland International Institute of Rural Wireless Broadband (DIIRWB), the European leader in community-based WiFi development, and will join the World Summits on Free Information Infrastructure (WSFII) to deliver a conference and extended wireless training workshops in October. The conference proper will be held from October 22nd through 25th in Dharamsala, India. The training workshops will span a two-week period directly after the conference.

“We’re delighted to host such a significant event”, said Phuntsok Dorjee, Chief Information Officer with the Tibetan Technology Center. “As a result of developing the Dharamsala wireless mesh network, we were approached by global technology leaders to share our research, and one thing led to another. We accepted an invitation to host an international conference to bring the best and brightest wireless experts to Dharamsala. We’re really looking forward to the conference, especially the training workshops portion of the summit. This is going to be a fantastic event for the region, and for all of India”.

A PBS backgrounder on Ultrareach, a software program designed for Chinese citizens to circumvent their government's Internet censorship: transcript.

WorldVoteNow & Aidworld are researching the infrastucture for a Global Human Referendum. They want to connect with individuals, groups, schools, institutions, organizations, administrations, countries and companies in every part of the world. They are especially interested in working with collaborators who want to participate in the GLOBAL E-VOTING SIMULATION. All that is required is a functioning internet connection and the desire to participate in the field test on May 15, 2006. To get involved with the World Vote Field Test, please contact the coordinating office in Madrid.

There has been a debate about the Chinese translation for "CC" -- now it's formally "zhishi gongxiang". China, welcome to the Creative Commons.

Jim Schuyler (blog) is CTO of the Dalai Lama Foundation and founder and CEO of Red7. Jim picked up on AFMP, (The Game of Non-Violent strategy) - not suprising, since he's been developing 'Serious Games' long before the buzz. Red7s Full-Immersion Technologies (FITs) for example,

make it possible to integrate a learning process, a game, or hands-on support for a complex technology, into your customer's real life. . . Create real-world games where participants find their clues in the cityscape, and interact by calling in for phone messages that take them to new places.. . . Each scenario may contain emails, video (presented online on the salesperson's computer), intranet and other web sites, phone messages, wireless text (SMS-to cellphones or PDAs), and simulated voicemail. These scenarios are implemented as sets of states and rules. A participant will always be in a single "state" within the scenario, and the FIT system is paying attention everything the participant does that's pertinent to that state. It may be sending an email from an in-game "character" to a participant, or waiting for the participant's response to that email. It may have several timers set - and when one expires it may send a reminder to the participant. It examines each incoming email from each participant, and analyzes it against the rules for the current state of the scenario.

The DLF hosts other blogs worth mentioning here. The One Village Foundation, which

Promote ecologically and socially responsible development in emerging markets through a comprehensive and synergistic set of programs called the oneVillage Foundation Initiatives (OVI).

The Study Circles blog - (you can download the Ethics for a New Millenium guide in English here, or in Chinese here). And for those of you who have been asking about this photo of a wifi antenna in the Himalayas have a look at Dharamsala Information Technology Group blog, and the Tibetan Technology Centre:

a charitable organization dedicated to harness modern technology for helping the Tibetan community in India. The center is located at the Tibetan Children's Villages School (TCV) which host and supports it. The center is managed by a board of directors who work closely and consult with a large group of local and International technology experts. The center aims to become financially self-sufficient and generate income to be re-invested in the center and donated to TCV schools.

Richard C. Morais, (Cover story for Forbes)

. . . with engineering help from half a dozen Western firms, the Chinese Communist Party has erected a huge apparatus to censor free speech. A ragtag crew of hacker dissidents may succeed in tearing it down.
In a windowless room in New York City a computer engineer with owlish glasses--call her “Jenny Chen”--peers at a color-coded bar graph on her PC screen. Her group is launching attacks on the Chinese wall of censorship that blocks access to sites discussing verboten topics like civil rights and democracy. The graph displays how many Chinese that month evaded the country’s censorship to condemn the Chinese Communist Party.

Chen, a Beijing-born woman of about 40, runs her own IT businesses. Her group, and like-minded “hacktivists” (as they call themselves) spread around the globe, are chipping away at the Golden Shield, the term that describes the filtering system that censors the Internet and e-mail of China’s 110 million Internet users. The invaders slip contraband words and ideas in and out of the country via such means as mass e-mails, proxy servers that aren’t yet blacked out and code words that aren’t yet on government blacklists.

EFF's Danny O'Brien has released a memo calling for A Code of Conduct for Internet Companies in Authoritarian Regimes that includes 'Support for Technologies that Innovate Around Censorship and Surveillance':

Censorship of foreign sites by oppressive regimes is a limitation of free trade and free expression. The Internet benefits from technology that lets communication pass unhindered from one end to end. And citizens everywhere deserve the right to privacy. Free governments benefit from sponsoring anti-censorship and anonymizing software, such as those supported by the United States' International Broadcasting Bureau. But companies, too, stand to gain from investing in development that might lead to an opening of previously closed societies. If U.S. companies find that oppressive governments block or impede their Internet services, they should not simply give in to the threat. By working together on ways to surmount Internet control they will not only be providing wanted new products to 1.3 billion new customers, they will help open trade and communications between all countries, and all citizens.

EFF's Cory Dotcorow commenting last year on Google's proxy accelerator in BoingBoing[links to post 'Harsh words for US tech firms from House at China 'net hearings']

It would be great to see Google setting up a Tor node with similar resources to this, though, and enabling some more robust anonymity.

EFF's memo is clear on where to draw the line on relevant export controls:

Don't Do Direct Business with Forces of State Oppression Companies should be prohibited from providing intentional ongoing support and assistance to those who abuse human rights in foreign countries. While many products such as filtering software, Internet monitoring programs and programs to unlock protected data can have multiple uses, American companies should not be actively and knowingly providing services that facilitate censorship or repression.

HRIC's Sharon Hom at the congressional hearings this afternoon

Preparations for the 2008 Olympics have attracted the participation of foreign
companies across diverse sectors, including construction, advertising,
architecture, legal services, surveillance and communications. The
beneficiaries of the Olympic Games, and as such of the contracts agreed to
between foreign companies and Beijing as the host city, have always been
presented as the people of Beijing, and more broadly, of China. This is
documented not only in China's numerous promises to the International
Olympics Committee before being granted the right to host the Games, and
also in its 2002 Olympic Action Plan. During the Olympics, security
equipment and infrastructure will be operated by the government. How will
the hardware and technical know-how be used after the Olympics? The post-
Olympics use of this equipment and these technologies must be transparent
and monitored. Given China’s human rights record, what are the impacts on
privacy rights if these technologies are exported to other countries?
Any industry-wide code of conduct or specific legislation should move beyond
the narrow conception that technologies are used in isolation of one another.
The lines between online technologies and offline actions have been blurred.
Technologies such as Internet Web browsing, VoIP, e-mail, instant messaging,
SMS, podcasting, and more, work in interrelated spheres, impacting
journalists, students, activists, organizations, and individuals in their access
to and dissemination of knowledge.

Any recommendations and guidelines should not ignore the challenges and
opportunities that lie ahead in the expansion into the collateral uses of
surveillance or the restrictive uses of a particular technology. For example,
SMS messages will not only be increasingly filtered, but could also be
integrated into database systems used to store and track required pre-paid
cell phone user information, with serious implications for users who may send
and receive politically-sensitive messages.

Harry Wu:

A friend of mine recently tried to access some politically sensitive websites while
at an Internet café in a remote, small city in Xinjiang Province. The police quickly
showed up to arrest him. I don’t know who supplied the technology enabling the police to
track my friend’s Internet surfing, but I am pretty sure that U.S. technology was involved.
The PRC’s Ministry of Public Security has been continually upgrading and expanding its
$800 million “Golden Shield” project- a government-sponsored surveillance system that
was begun in 1998. The Golden Shield’s advanced communication network was
supposedly aimed at improving police effectiveness and efficiency. However, China has
also used the “Golden Shield” as a way of monitoring Chinese civilians. The project will
help prolong Communist rule by denying China’s people the right to information. In
order to develop the “Golden Shield,” China has utilized the technologies of a number of
foreign companies, such as Intel, Yahoo, Nortel, Cisco Systems, Motorola, and Sun
Microsystems. The “Golden Shield Project” would not have been possible without the
technology and equipment from these companies.

Xiao Qiang, China Internet Project at the Graduate
School of Journalism, University of California at Berkeley:

The challenge in front of us, Mr. Chairman, is to find a way to help these information
technology companies work in concert, perhaps with some of the world’s great research
universities, to establish a set of guiding principles for the entire information and
communication technology industry. These principles, or standards and practices, should
transcend individual companies’ own relationship to any given market. In other words,
to seek collective ways to find the ability to resist demands for information or technology
that violate fundamental human rights .

Press release for the hearing in U.S. congress tomorrow. References State department's launch of GIFTF:

Rep. Chris Smith -- chairman of the House panel that oversees Global Human Rights -- is preparing questions for representatives of four major US internet companies that operate in China, State Department officials and representatives of human rights NGO's. The hearing will mark the first time in the House of Representatives that live bloggers will be permitted to report on the hearing in real time.

Earlier today, Secretary Condoleezza Rice announced a Global Internet Freedom Task Force in order to ensure "a robust US foreign policy response" to the international issues and fundamental human rights concerns inherent in the expansion of the Internet including: "the use of technology to restrict access to political content and the impact of censorship efforts on US companies; the use of technology to track and repress dissidents; and efforts to modify Internet governance structures in order to restrict the free flow of information."

"The establishment of the Global Internet Freedom Task Force by Dr. Rice is a welcomed step and is a provision already included in legislation that I am currently drafting to address the issue of internet freedom," said Smith. "I am looking forward to an honest and straightforward dialogue about the operating processes and procedures of internet companies in China, the demands put forth by this communist regime and the continuing human rights abuses by the PRC."

Some apprehension communicated to me relating to this brief post the other day - Cybersatyagraha ... Gandhi needs to be reinvented in India today. ..er, no - not a call for "cyberterrorism" or "eJihad". Just what Nagarjunawould make of DDoS I'm entirely unsure, but even the most basic reading of Gandhian thought highlights an overriding commitment to communication - and to keeping channels of communication open: Basic Concepts of Satyagraha: Gandhian Nonviolence: (from the APT Nonviolence Trainer's Manual).

II. "Ahimsa" --- refusal to inflict injury on others.
A) Ahimsa is dictated by our commitment to communication and to sharing of our pieces of the truth. Violence shuts off channels of communication.

You'll find that same commitment in discussions around hacktivism: Hacktivism and Human Rights: Using Technology to Raise the Bar (July 14, 2001, DEF CON 9, Las Vegas).

. . I think it's important to make that clear right from the start. That we're not talking about cyberterrorism, we're not talking about information warfare, we're not talking about taking down the Chinese backbone. We're talking about more constructive, positive ways of dealing with human rights abusers. I think that's something we all agreed on, straight away.

der Derian's concept of Infopeace describes it beautifully:

Information peace (infopeace) is the production, application, and analysis of information by peaceful means for peaceful ends. Starting with Gregory Bateson's definition of information as 'any difference that makes a difference', infopeace seeks to make a difference in the quality of thinking about the global contest of will, goods, and might. Measuring information in terms of quality rather than quantity, and assessing quality by the difference it makes in the reduction of personal and structural violence, infopeace opens up possibilities of alternative thought and action in global politics. Unabashedly utopian and pragmatic, it counters a 'natural' state of war with a mindful state of peace.

A mindful state of peace posits the eventual abolition of violence as a global political option. Peace-mindedness ranges from the prevention, admonition and mediation of violence, to the outright disavowal of violence as a political option for the resolution of problems in the international arena. It draws on a long tradition of peace-thinking, exemplified in early Christian pacifism and Eastern philosophies, in which the need for peace begins internally and proceeds outwardly. It starts by embracing a wholeness of the individual, and expands to families, communities, countries, and beyond. The notion of Gaia, as a self-regulating biosphere, contributes to the rhetoric of peace thinking; but it is the networked reality of an expanding infosphere which makes peace an attainable and evermore vital necessity.

Infopeace seeks to prevent, mediate, and resolve states of war by the actualization of a mindful state of peace. Following Gilles Deleuze's insights about the virtual possessing a reality that is not yet actual, infopeace stresses the actualization of peace through the creative application of information and technology. Critical imagination is the best antidote to the kinds of technological determinism that increasingly circumscribe human choices.

Infopeace integrates a strategy in which difference, conflict, and antagonism are recognized as essential aspects of human relations. It aims to develop an awareness of how these aspects can be addressed by non-violent means. Infopeace accepts the Augustinian paradox that the actualization of peace might entail (limited) violence, yet seeks to apply alternatives means of securing the self, the group, or the state. In short, infopeace is utopian in intention, pragmatic in application.

Beijing blogger Anti (安替) is known as one of China's most prominent and influential investigative bloggers. Widely read both domestically and abroad, Anti's blog at MSN Spaces was abruptly shut down by Microsoft on December 31, 2005. Visitors were greeted with a "Space not available" error message.

Anti has since re-opened his blog at the US-hosted Blog City—although his domestic readers will no longer be able to visit it as access to Blog City is blocked for mainland Chinese Internet users. On January 14, 2006, Anti issued an open statement regarding his views on the unexpected closure of his MSN Spaces blog and the recent congressional briefings and hearings concerning human rights and the Internet in China.

HRIC has provided an unofficial translation of Anti's statement on a new website, IR2008. The original Chinese-language post can be found on Anti's blog:

. . . In addition, with globalization and politics increasingly bound together, I don't think treating the issue as a black-and-white matter will necessarily help expand the rights of Chinese people. On the one hand, Microsoft's shutting down of blogs impedes Chinese people's freedom of expression; on the other hand, in the past year MSN Spaces has expanded the ability and desire of Chinese to use blogs, and MSN Messenger also facilitates disseminating information through the Internet. These are the two-sided effects created by the blind pursuit of profit. How Americans judge and penalize this problem is really their own issue, but I myself believe that if companies compromise all of the principles for the sake of an opportunity to enter the Chinese market, at least in the short term, Chinese netizens will not have more freedom. Moreover, we must recognize that Yahoo's betrayal and Microsoft's compromise are completely different matters.

We are in a very complicated situation, just as with the problem of whether economic sanctions can improve democracy in a country, having seen that in the 1990s this kind of action had both positive and negative impact on China and Iraq. These types of awkward and complex circumstances are the shame of the Chinese, and something I hesitate to discuss outside of China. I can only quietly repeat this dream to friends: I hope that one day, on Chinese land, fairness will surge like water, justice like a torrential river. Even though our voice is weak, inside we remain steadfast as a rock.

Following revelations concerning evolving U.S. Information operations doctrine, Andrew Koch Contributing Strategic Editor for Jane's forsees computer network attacks as tomorrow's WMD (subscription required).

Biogenetically engineered super viruses, deadly chemical agents specially designed to hang in the air for hours and armies of autonomously operated malicious software programmes called 'Cyber Bots', represent only a handful of potential threats that will be technologically possible within a decade, say US intelligence and defence officials.

While attacks by every type of tomorrow's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) may not kill hundreds of thousands of people, each has the ability to cause catastrophic damage and disruption, whether through the destruction of economies, infrastructure or human life.

Hacking

Cyber attacks are far from what has traditionally been considered a WMD, yet with both civilian and military infrastructures increasingly reliant on computer networks to perform even basic functions, defence experts warn that terrorist and enemy states alike will have the ability to cause massive disruption if they can hack these networks.

"I worry we are creating an Achilles heel in our military structure. As we move toward the Global Information Grid and network-centric combat, what vulnerabilities are we creating that we are not protected against?" one defence official asked.

By some accounts, the development of cyber warrior tools is already well under way, with government-sponsored hackers in countries like China and North Korea preparing for a 'digital Pearl Harbor' if push ever came to shove in a conflict with the US military.

Hackers, who many US officials believe work for the Chinese government, have launched numerous cyber attacks against US military, defence contractor and other sensitive facilities in the past few years, with the aim of pilfering information.

These attacks, called 'Titan Rain' by US investigators, are likely the product of cyber spying by the Chinese military, Alan Paller, the director of the SANS Institute, an information security research and education organisation in the US, said in December. He noted that "we have a problem that our computer networks have been terribly and deeply penetrated throughout the US ... and we've been keeping it secret".

"In the rush of information technology, the human mind has lost its inner peace, which cannot be attained without spiritual growth," the Dalai Lama said in Himachel Pradesh on the occasion of 57th anniversary of Gandhi's assassination.

Mahatma Gandhi is more relevant today as people around the globe are finding his gospels of truth and non-violence more conducive to harmony and peaceful co-existence... There is a need to re-invent Gandhi at home in India in the present context," the Nobel Peace laureate said here on the occasion of the father of the nation's 57th death anniversary.

He said combined with its spiritual tradition, modern India could look forward to unprecedented development as it was the largest democracy "where a rule of law is in place".

Turning to Sino-Indian relations, he said "India and China are emerging as two of the most powerful economic powers in the world. Whereas India can take a cue from China in producing cheap goods of use becoming popular globally, China can learn from India to emerge as a strife-free society".

The Dalai Lama asked the country not to deviate from its ancient spiritual tradition despite materialistic progress and development, which also had its fallout.

Students for a Free Tibet, an advocacy network based in New York are currently engaged in a campaign against Google's decision to move into China with a self-censored search platform

Tibetans, their supporters, and Google users worldwide are outraged by Google's decision to join hands with the Chinese Government in its propaganda efforts. Google has launched a web search platform custom-built to the Chinese authorities' specifications that blocks access to information about Tibet, human rights, and other topics sensitive to Beijing. In doing so, Google isn't just helping the Chinese Government by censoring "sensitive topics." What Google is in fact doing is enabling the Chinese government's propaganda by returning search results tailored to Beijing's repressive policies. Searching for "Tibet" will bring up only official Communist Chinese disinformation on Tibet. Searching for "Dalai Lama" will only bring up sites portraying him as a "splittist."

With playful speculation bubbling around Google's next moves (Goobuntu or Napster etc.) I thought I might add some ludicrous suggestions of my own.

Google is one of the most powerful supercomputing platforms in the world. Tor is a distributed network that anonymizes web browsing and any other applications that use the TCP protocol. Tor's security is improved as it grows and as more organisations volunteer the time and bandwidth to run servers. Google has alot of bandwidth and servers. (The Googlesphere, as presented in the company's public announcements, comrises more than 100,000 servers ranging from 533 MHz Intel Celeron to dual 1.4 GHz Intel Pentium III - that's 126–316 teraflops, one third the speed of the Blue Gene supercomputer, the most powerful unclassified computing machine available to humanity. There's a significant difference between Google and Bluegene - Google is interwoven with the internet. Physical infrastructure - Google's four U.S.-based datacentres - two in Silicon Valley and two in Virginia - each with an OC 48 (2488 Mbit/s) internet connection. Data - a constantly updated fascimile of the internet itself).

Suppose Google were to install Tor's Onion Routers throughout its serverfarms. Global internet users communications would bounce around anonymously in a massive distributed network of virtual tunnels. It would be unprecendented in scale, a network that would open up the internet to people in censored regimes all around the world. It would enable a generation of software developers to create new communication tools with privacy built-in. The Google platform running onion routers would provide an ecosystem for a range of applications that allow organizations and individuals to share information over public networks without compromising their identity. By donating - say, 20kb/s of bandwidth per server(!) - Google would be in a position to - inadvertently - overwhelm, the 'Great Firewall' - a striking way to differentiate itself from competitors - particularly those invited to testify in congress todayand in two weeks time: Cisco Systems, (Google), Microsoft, Yahoo.

. . . I doubt Google can even afford to have people sitting around thinking about providing a free privacy service to the planet. For a (not-so-)small - but vocal - proportion of its users? Perhaps, - or is it that Google's business model is now inextricably linked into a downward spiral of content/user aware advertising and anti-democratic emerging markets - increasingly at the expense of its more mature markets?

Irene Khan writing in the Times from Davos.

At a dinner here on Wednesday night about business and human rights (which was attended, unsurprising, by only a minority of business leaders, and a majority of NGOs!), the discussion returned to Google and China. While acknowledging that Google has taken some steps to be transparent about self-censorship, I said that it is being short-sighted and has gone against the core values of the IT industry to promote access to information. As I see business leaders defer to the Chinese government’s restrictive policies, I remember Chris Patten’s strategy: don’t give in, stare them down. Treat China like you would treat any other country, and the Chinese will then respect you more.

According to John Stith U.S. Congressional Representative, Chris Smith (R-NJ), chairman of the International Operations and Human Rights Subcommittee, plans to convene hearings on February 13th as part of an investigation into Chinese business dealings, and he has some interesting questions for the companies,

then there's always the national security issue. As charges of the Chinese government hacking into defense department computers and British parliament computers continue to surface where do these companies like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and all the others place their loyalties. If it becomes a matter of national security, would these companies get out? Would they assist their own country over China? I may be throwing a little gas on the fire, but this is certainly something to consider in today's environment.

Google's Answer to the China Question suggests T-Salon? I suggested this exact solution to Google PR people from my 'office' in Berkeley, Ca. in 2002 (old doors for office furniture, not included).

I'm sure I've been on about this for a while -- the more precise timekeeping system planned for Galileo could prove to be a major competitive advantage for the system over GPS:

the US must now recognize that it is in a “chronographical arms race” with the EU, and it cannot be passive.

SHEN ZHEN, China, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Golden Group Corporation (Shen
Zhen) Limited ("Golden"), the major subsidiary of China Security and
Surveillance Technology Inc. ("China Security"), has recently entered into 3
long-term contracts with police departments and major railways in the People's
Republic of China.

In 2006, a major milestone of Golden is going to begin the collaboration
with Police Departments in China. Golden has recently entered into 3 contracts
with police departments to share the traffic penalty on a pro-rata basis. The
contracts are on a long term basis with an average life of 10 years. The
company expects that the revenue from this segment will reach USD $12.2
million in 2006.

In addition, in 2005, Golden signed contracts with South Railway and Xi'an
Railway, the two major railways in China. These projects are expected to
generate a USD $1.3 million income for the company in 2006.

While RSF is calling for an ethical code for American Hi-tech companies doing business in China the EU is trying unsucessfully to engage China in a dialogue about its online censorship practices. This hasn't prevented China and the European Union signing a joint agreement to develop a high-speed, next-generation network. The project comes as both sides are working closely on the Galileo Project, an European alternative to the global positioning system developed by the United States. Nicholas Bequelin of Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong explains how it all works, and he says U.S. companies need to take a stand against Beijing. Declan McCullagh notes new congresional intrest in the issue, Corporate America should not be "hand-in-glove with a dictatorship", while the Economist reports that there are signs that the concept of privacy is gaining currency in China...echoing the debates now common in western societies, many in China are beginning to bristle at the intrusiveness of nosy employers, data-mining marketers and ubiquitous security cameras.

Skype now filter phrases such as 'Falun Gong' and 'Dalai Lama' from the text instant messaging service bundled with their popular Video+VoIP service in China. Ben Elgin and Bruce Einhorn report in an article for Business Week (The Great Firewall of China) that despite a vast security appartus, technology may yet defeat the censors:

Despite the power and sophistication of China's censors, the march of technology may yet foil them. As more sites add podcasts and user-generated video, China's monitoring efforts will become far more complicated because it's harder to examine such material than it is to check text files.

"How do you filter when everybody has the capability to be their own video blogger?" asks Ross O'Brien, managing director at Intercedent Hong Kong, an IT consulting and research firm. But don't underestimate China's ability to control the Net, just as it has done in the past. Although the battle is far from over, the formula of getting companies to do much of the fighting may keep on serving China well

Prof.Tom Plate for the Korea Times:

As powerful as economics is in American decision-making, even more powerful is the role of public opinion. The Times may not be what it used to be in this area, but it is still a key player, it is very influential, and it helps set the tone for the U.S. news media's “national narratives” about foreign countries. Beijing should not expect “peaceful rise” journalism from America’s most prestigious newspaper if it is going to arrest and harass its people.

Does the current leadership in China wish the States to still view it in light of the gravely unfortunate image of the tank and lone dissenter at Tiananmen? Or does it wish to be viewed as a modernizing, increasingly responsible global player that wishes well to all and harm to none?

If the later is the goal, then arresting journalists and co-opting American corporations to unplug websites and blogs is not going to work in China’s best overall interest. Beijing is not stupid, of course, but it probably doesn’t realize what is at stake: Because of the kind of media system China still has, there is nothing in China remotely as independently influential as The New York Times. Beijing of course can do what it wants and more or less when it wants it, but we know in the States that it is a big mistake to mess with this newspaper.

The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG or 'upholdjustice' / zhuichaguoji ) has conducted an investigation into Microsoft's role in the Golden Shield project. This article is one part of a systematic exposure of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners via Golden Shield System and Internet monitoring:

Investigation on Microsoft’s Involvement in the Chinese Communist Party’s Human Rights Abuses

MailSieve

According to the web site of Microsoft (China), HTMMS (Hi Team Mail Monitor and Management System), which was developed based on Microsoft platforms, is designed to monitor and manage all email communication on network in various enterprises and organizations,…including Outlook Web Access and major free WebMail. “The professional edition of HTMMS is used in the Public Security, the National Security, the military and other important information security departments…from one computer, one or a multitude of 1000Mbps can be monitored simultaneously”, and it is mainly installed at the gateway of MANs (Metropolitan Area Network) to “monitor email transmission” and “to automatically intercept emails”. “The professional edition of HTMMS is called MailSieve, which has currently been installed in the communication departments of many large cities.”

ISA + EIM

Heguang Software group says on its website introduction that “Microsoft (China) Ltd. and Haitian Software Co. jointly released an Internet regulation system based on Microsoft ISA Server 2000 to monitor the behavior of enterprise staff members who access the Internet. This system can effectively monitor Internet activities such as browsing the Web, downloading through FTP and the receiving and sending of e-mails, which demonstrates the “double-effect” Internet security solution by Microsoft and Haitian. Heguang is the sole certified national retailer for this “new package”.

Microsoft developed monitoring and filtering software for the Chinese education system

Excerpt from Document No. 49: “the CCP central committee and the provincial committee are very concerned with the battle on the Internet. In order to continue and deepen the battle against ‘Falun Gong’ evil cult organization; aside from achieving the three “zero” targets, the battle on the Internet is the criterion by which the performance of the local work units and schools is judged…To better conduct the battle over the Internet and especially block information on the Internet is an important part of the battle against Falun Gong evil cult organization. The Party committees of schools must solidly intensify the leadership over the Internet struggle, organize forces and increase input…school leaders, especially the leaders in charge should periodically check on the situation and listen to reports, analyze the situation of the battle, make work arrangements; “610 Offices” of the schools should fully cooperate with the school Internet control units…actively organize and block information online; the school network center should strengthen their awareness of the battle on the Internet,… effectively implement the work to block information from the Internet.” The Document No. 49 [8] requires the monitoring of online information on campus network must be “round the clock, …strictly forbid people in schools and especially ‘Falun Gong’ members to visit ‘Falun Gong’ websites through the campus network and schools’ computer system, search, read, download or upload ‘Falun Gong’ materials.” The same document also states the fundamental method to ensure the information blockade online is to “pay great attention to the technology of web blockade, increase financial and technological input, and upgrade and renew with the latest technology in a timely manner.”

The Third Research Institute of the Ministry of Public Security of China and Microsoft's “united laboratory”

On July 7, 2003, Microsoft China and the Third Research Institute of the Ministry of Public Security formed “The third Research Institute of the Ministry of Public Security of China-Microsoft China Limited Information Security Technology United Laboratory.” [11] Zhang Xinfeng, an assistant to Minister of Public Security, deputy head and director of National Golden Shield Project Leadership Group; Li Runsen, the head for the Golden Shield Project Leadership Group and Head of the Commission of Science and Technology of the Ministry of Public Security; officials from Bureau 11 and Science and Technology Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security; and Huang Cunyi, President of Microsoft Greater China attended the opening ceremony held on the same day. Yan Ming, the head of the Third Research Institute said, “The founding of the information Security United Laboratory indicates that the Third Research Institute has taken another step forward in the cooperation of information security research.

China's Golden Shield

In his presentation at the Fourth Plenary Conference of the Science and Technology Committee of the Ministry of Public Security, Li Runsen, the Director of Science and Technology Committee said, “The goals of the ‘Golden Shield Project’ include six major aspects. They are the construction of the information network, the construction of applied system, the construction of Internet standards, the construction of security system, the construction of management system and the construction of monitoring system for public network information security. In addition, the ‘Golden Shield Project’ has one more major task, which is, to construct the ‘national information network security monitoring center.’ Upon completion, the project would be independently managed and run by Bureau 11, which would be in charge of the work on information network security nationwide.

WOIPFG finds a direct link between western telecom corporations' complicity in the construction of Golden Shield and the imprisonment, torture - and in three cases - the death of Falun Gong practicioners:

According to incomplete statistics, WOIPFG has found that as of the end of April 2004, as a result of Internet-related activities, 108 Falun Gong practitioners have been incarcerated, illegally sent to labor camps, and tortured. Three identified Falun Gong practitioners arrested for Internet-related activities were tortured to death. Among the Falun Gong practitioners who have been arrested and persecuted as a result of Internet surveillance, those with advanced degrees constitute a relatively high percentage.

It has been confirmed that among these 108 practitioners, at least eight are university professors and teachers from Qinghua University, Southwest University, Southwest College of Petroleum, Shenyang University of University Industry, Beijing University of Chemical Engineering, and the China Academy of Science.

In addition, more than 20 other victims of Internet surveillance have bachelor’s degrees or more advanced degrees. More than 12 have master’s degrees and Ph.D. degrees. Around 90% of these 108 Falun Gong practitioners are under 40 years old. The majority had good and stable jobs such as bank employees, company professionals, and governmental staff. Some of them were college students. These statistics are provided to show that the people who are being persecuted, vilified, and tortured by China’s suppression of freedom of information and belief are exemplary and law-abiding citizens.

For more information, please take note of WOIPFG's latest report at www.upholdjustice.org. If you would like to supply WOIPFG with more information, please email it to media@upholdjustice.org.

"… it’s a little strange to tie free trade to human rights issues, it is basically getting down to interference in internal affairs."

Bill Gates, then CEO of Microsoft, standing shoulder to shoulder with Jiang Zemin during a photo-op in Beijing, 1994.


Microsoft Corp. has acquiesed to a request of the Chinese government and shut down the internet journal of a blogger and NYT researcher who discussed 'politically sensitive' issues.

"When we operate in markets around the world, we have to ensure that our service complies with global laws as well as local laws and norms," said Brooke Richardson, of Microsoft's MSN online division.

Investigative journalist and blogger, Rebecca MacKinnon broke the story:

On New Years Eve, MSN Spaces took down the popular blog written by Zhao Jing, aka Michael Anti. Now all you get when you attempt to visit his blog at: http://spaces.msn.com/members/mranti/ is the error message pictured above. (You can see the Google cache of his blog up until Dec.22nd here.)

Note, his blog was TAKEN DOWN by MSN people. Not blocked by the Chinese government.

Anti is one of China’s edgiest journalistic bloggers, often pushing at the boundaries of what is acceptable. (See a recent profile of him here, and an interview with Anti here.) His old blog at the U.S.-hosted Blog-city is believed to have caused the Chinese authorities to block all Blog-city blogs. In the final days of December, Anti became a vocal supporter of journalists at the Beijing Daily News who walked off the job after the top editors were fired for their increasingly daring investigative coverage, including some recent reporting on the recent police shootings of village protestors in the Southern China.

MacKinnon picks up on Article 19's latest position paper (produced with UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, the OSCE Representative on
Freedom of the Media and the OAS Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression
) : Joint Declaration: International Mechanisms for Freedom of Expression. The declaration calls for companies and governments to adhere to the following global standards:

· No one should be required to register with or obtain permission from any public body to operate an Internet service provider, website, blog or other online information dissemination system, including Internet broadcasting. This does not apply to registration with a domain name authority for purely technical reasons or rules of general application which apply without distinction to any kind of commercial operation.

· The Internet, at both the global and national levels, should be overseen only by bodies which are protected against government, political and commercial interference, just as freedom from such interference is already universally acknowledged in the area of the print and broadcast media. National regulation of Internet domain names should never be used as a means to control content.

· The right to freedom of expression imposes an obligation on all States to devote adequate resources to promote universal access to the Internet, including via public access points. The international community should make it a priority within assistance programmes to assist poorer States in fulfilling this obligation.

· Filtering systems which are not end-user controlled – whether imposed by a government or commercial service provider – are a form of prior-censorship and cannot be justified. The distribution of filtering system products designed for end-users should be allowed only where these products provide clear information to end-users about how they work and their potential pitfalls in terms of over-inclusive filtering.

· No one should be liable for content on the Internet of which they are not the author, unless they have either adopted that content as their own or refused to obey a court order to remove that content. Jurisdiction in legal cases relating to Internet content should be restricted to States in which the author is established or to which the content is specifically directed; jurisdiction should not be established simply because the content has been downloaded in a certain State.

· Restrictions on Internet content, whether they apply to the dissemination or to the receipt of information, should only be imposed in strict conformity with the guarantee of freedom of expression, taking into account the special nature of the Internet.

· Corporations which provide Internet searching, chat, publishing or other services should make an effort to ensure that they respect the rights of their clients to use the Internet without interference. While this may pose difficulties in relation to operations in certain countries, these corporations are encouraged to work together, with the support of other stakeholders, to resist official attempts to control or restrict use of the Internet, contrary to the principles set out herein.

The Go lounge at CCC   more »

The 22nd Chaos Communication Congress (22C3) in Berlin, a four-day conference on technology, society and utopia.   more »

Security experts have revealed tantalising details about a group of Chinese hackers who are suspected of launching intelligence gathering attacks against the US government.   more »

At the initiative of Reporters Without Borders, 25 US, Canadian, Australian and European investment funds managing around 21 billion dollars in assets said they are committed to online freedom of expression in a joint statement issued a news conference today in New York. As part of their commitment, they are undertaking to monitor the activities of Internet sector companies in repressive countries. The statement is above all targeted at companies such as Yahoo !, Cisco Systems and Microsoft that help the Chinese authorities censor the Internet or operate online surveillance systems.

The text of the statement and list of signatories

Paul Mason reports on Flock on Newsnight at 10.30pm on BBC Two   more »

Tom Zeller Jr. writes in The New York Times about the backlash against Yahoo over the Shi Tao case.   more »

For the first time in its history, the Internet is running a real risk of fracturing into multiple and perhaps even incompatible networks. That's why the next few weeks before the final meeting in Tunisia will be crucial.   more »

"It is now 2:33am. I can hear gunshots. Put, put, put. I hear them every year at this time."

Why do you blog? A question that's asked both in a ...   more »

Tom Wright in Geneva for the International Herald Tribune

GENEVA An effort by the European Union to break a deadlock in talks here on changing the way the Internet is governed drew an angry reply on Thursday from the U.S. delegation, underlining how far apart nations remain on the issue.

...

Without consensus, some experts say countries may move ahead with setting up their own domain name system, or DNS, as a way of bypassing Icann. The United States, however, says a single addressing system is what makes the Internet so powerful, and moves to set up multiple Internets would be in no one's interest.

"The EU position seems to be a compromise solution between two extreme factions," said Robert Shaw, a policy adviser at the International Telecommunication Union, a UN body based in Geneva.