(Mis)Uses of Technology

(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick




US Censoring Anti-Censoring System They Set Up For China And Iran

from the mixed-messages dept

While the US government has actively been funding a variety of projects to help web surfers in Iran and China (where web surfing is severely restricted) reach banned sites, a new study has found that the system the US offers, via Anonymizer.com, blocks plenty of sites itself. Even worse, the filtering is incredibly clumsy, utilizing the practice that most filters gave up on years ago of blocking entirely based on the use of certain keywords. Among the keywords "blocked" are things like "ass" (which blocks usembassy.state.gov), "hot" (blocks Hotmail.com and hotels.com), "sex" (can't get to sussex.police.uk), and "gay" (meaning no one can visit the Roman Catholic site of DioceseOfGaylord.org). Seems like a bit of a mixed message to say that they want to route around censorship - just not the kind of censorship preferred by our government.

1 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments

(Flattened / Threaded)

    May 4th, 2004 @ 1:08am
  • That Sucks.. But Not Suprised..

    I think that sucks. Although, I am not suprised.
    Since the ~1978 Terrorist Act the U.S. Government can arrest anyone by claiming they are a terrorist. Now with the Patriot Act they can hold people without trial and tap phones without a warrant.
    We don't have freedom of speech in the U.S. so how could we expect to enlighten others around the world when we don't have it.
    Its a Fascist Police State either live with it or get out, but please don't pretend it's not occuring.
    I'm leaving this police state for another is the current world situation.
    I can only dream of a rebel Moon or Mars not that they would be anymore free in the end.
    I expect freedom won't come again until God/Allah/Jehovah comes back and whips up on some police state thugs.
    So let us pray for freedom from a world police state that I eventually die fighting.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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