In The News

Iran's Web Spying Aided By Western Technology

Christopher Rhoads, Loretta Chao June 25, 2009
The Iranian government, with the help of equipment developed by Siemens and Nokia, is operating an advanced internet monitoring system capable of spreading disinformation, blocking communications, and mining internet data for personal information. The government’s internet monitoring capability, supported by a national telecommunications monopoly, is believed to rival China’s “Great Firewall” for...

Can Governments Till The Fields Of Innovation?

Steve Lohr June 24, 2009
Innovation has long been seen as the product of hard work, luck, belonging to the private sector. But governments around the world are now trying to accelerate and influence domestic innovation. Several countries now have governmental leaders or even whole departments designed to spur growth through innovation. Much of the governments’ presence in the field of innovation deals with attempting to...

Coping With Digital Revolution: China Offers Green Dam, Iran Faces Neda

Guobin Yang June 23, 2009
The global response to China’s filtering software Green Dam Youth Escort and the Iranian election are not only proof of the power of the internet as a democratic form of communication, but also as a lever for democracy itself. Columbia Professor Guobin Yang shows how. The Green Dam software program that the Chinese government is requiring all computers to carry starting July 1 is facing intense...

Tear Down This Cyberwall!

Nicholas D. Kristof June 23, 2009
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...

Iran Cracks Down on Internet Use, Foreign Media

Christopher Rhoads, Geoffrey A. Fowler, Chip Cummins June 17, 2009
The disputed Iranian election has revealed Iran’s unique approach to internet censorship: controlling bandwidth and centralized blocking of sites. Compared with other countries that have used blanket censoring, either by shutting down access to the Internet or by disallowing certain websites, Iran’s approach is technically more complex and nuanced. Controlling bandwidth allows the internet to run...

China Backs Down Over Controversial Censorship Software

Jonathan Watts June 17, 2009
China’s announcement that the Green Dam software would now be optional could become a parable of the power of the internet. From blogs to newspapers to internet sites, there has been a groundswell of criticism with individuals and organizations revealing glitches and weaknesses with the program as well as its more suspicious intent to limit free political discourse. For example, the computer code...

China Squeezes PC Makers

Loretta Chao June 8, 2009
China will require all new personal computers to have software that blocks internet content by July 1. While the software need not be pre-installed – a separate disc is acceptable – this regulation creates substantial logistical and civil liberty hurdles. This exclusive Wall Street Journal story reports that personal computer manufacturers are scrambling to comply on such short notice as well as...