Tear Down This Cyberwall!

As the election-related violence in Iran continues, help for some opponents of the current regime has come from an unlikely source: China, or more accurately Chinese living abroad. “Censorship-evading” software that helped the Falun Gong movement to spread its message is being used by close to 400,000 Iranians wishing to inform the rest of the world about the crisis currently gripping their country. The Chinese software, originally created to evade Beijing’s internet restrictions, was recently translated into Farsi, allowing Iranians to access venues like Twitter during the ongoing crisis. And many Iranians took full advantage, sending millions of tweets, Facebook messages and e-mails about the post-election violence. But the Iran election is part of larger trend to promote free speech and end government-directed censorship. Human rights activists want President Obama to approve a $50 million Congressional initiative to sponsor censorship-evasion technologies. If the Congressional bill passes, it will be ironic as American technology companies have often provided China with the means of censorship. – YaleGlobal