RSS
Mixed Messages: US Talks Of Cleaning Up 'Rogue' Internet... While Underwriting Censorship-Proof Shadow Internet
from the follow-along dept
It appears the US government is giving out mixed messages these days. On the one hand, we keep hearing about the need for laws to stop "rogue sites," to punish Wikileaks, and to shut down online black markets and alternative currencies like Bitcoin... but then you have President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton constantly praising the importance of internet freedom.
To make matters even more confusing, the NY Times now reports that the State Department has been funding the creation of various tools and services to help dissidents route around online censorship:
To make matters even more confusing, the NY Times now reports that the State Department has been funding the creation of various tools and services to help dissidents route around online censorship:
The effort includes secretive projects to create independent cellphone networks inside foreign countries, as well as one operation out of a spy novel in a fifth-floor shop on L Street in Washington, where a group of young entrepreneurs who look as if they could be in a garage band are fitting deceptively innocent-looking hardware into a prototype “Internet in a suitcase.”The article also discusses "stealth" networks being deployed in various other countries as well. It's a fascinating article, and while I'm not sure that these projects are really quite as interesting (or, in some cases, workable) as the article and the project cheerleaders suggest, it is certainly nice to see the US government supporting such projects. It just seems pretty odd that it's doing it at the same time as it's supporting efforts to censor other forms of internet communication at home. Of course, all that needs to happen then is for people to use the same "stealth" technology here at home as well...
Financed with a $2 million State Department grant, the suitcase could be secreted across a border and quickly set up to allow wireless communication over a wide area with a link to the global Internet.
I’m looking for research...
Who Are App Developers?
The Growing App Market
I have an app...
Developer Census: Be Counted. It takes less than two minutes.
App Developer Conversations: What Does The iPad Mini Mean For The App Economy?
I have an idea...
5 Things You Should Know About Crowdfunding For Startups
App Developer Conversations: Successful Fundraising Techniques
Reader Comments (rss)
(Flattened / Threaded)
Would You Trust a US Government version of TOR?
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
WE TOLD YOU WE WANT THIS [EXPLETIVE] INTERNET [EXPLETIVE] CENSORED!
SIGNED,
[250 corporation names]
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Freedom for all but ourselves...
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Would You Trust a US Government version of TOR?
It would only require one webpage:
"HTTP 404 Error: File not found.
Your Intellectual Property address [REDACTED] and login time [REDACTED]
have been recorded and your computer is now seized persuant to [REDACTED]
pending a full investigation. Thank you for using the United States TOR Network.
Next time just bend over."
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Freedom for all but ourselves...
Nuclear. Yes, just NIMBY
Wind Power. Yes, just NIMBY
Freedom. Yes, just NIMBY
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
The fight for human rights in places like China or Afghanistan doesn't mean that we cannot be civilized in our own world. Censorship of what should be free speech, such as the right to religion or freedom of political expression isn't in the same category as stopping pirate websites or shutting down scammers. Freedom isn't an absolute, it has it's limits as well, and those are solidly in US law (and the laws of most other "western" nations.
You don't have to support piracy to support freedom fighters in other countries. To try to make the connection is laughable, and seems more than a little desperate.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Freedom for all but ourselves...
Today, we use our tool to undermine a dictator we don't like. Tomorrow, we install our own dictator, and then the tool becomes obsolete.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Why do you think religious speech should be tolerated? Couldn't someone from China argue that the free expression of religion undermines society, just like you argue piracy does?
"But wait", you say, "My preferred speech is a right! It's speech that I don't like that should be criminalized!"
"Exactly!" says the Chinese official.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
No mixed message
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
Frankly, I wish it were.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Of course people are not going to use government sponsored technology, it will be full of backdoors.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
A message from the Administration
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
That was a semi rational argument. What is happening to you?
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Those insurgents (actually a minority of the population) are the ones that will allow the almighty US of A to remove Gaddafi, a greatly loved ruler that will NOT listen to the US, to simply put in a drone that will bow to US pressure.
cough*Iraq*cough*Afghanistan*cough*
If anyone with half a brain actually researched Libya, they would know he is loved, did lots more for his country and people and any predecessor, and is probably much more loved than Osaba, err Obama.
So yeah... with their propaganda campaign and their agenda to rule the world, this should not surprise anyone by a long shot.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Oh you mean terrorists? Yes let's support them.
The so-called Freedom Fighters (actually a Western Media term -- never used by them there) are people who defy the government. For any reason. Be it good or bad. In the latest cases, like Libya, Syria, etc... they are terrorists trying to create a government coup. They are not fighting for anyone's freedom. They are free. The population loves their rulers. So let's give the insurgents guns, US intelligence and let's replace those hardasses that won't bow down to political pressure.
Great mentality. Start thinking for yourselves. Read up on what's REALLY going on there and stop watching FOX and CNN you brainwashed drones.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
You must be referring to the fifteen year old who was tortured and mutilated ... or maybe the many women who are raped ... or the elderly who suffer beatings for no reason - all this perpetrated by the Syrian dictatorship and its thugs in uniform.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
It's almost like the figureheads don't really know what the real powers are doing.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Stealth modem...?
http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Stealth-Router%3A-How-to-fit-a-computer-inside-a/
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
Lol, yeah, re-reading my comment, that sounded a bit conspiracy theory-ish.
Either my blood sugar is running low or I need to re-tinfoil my hat, not quite sure.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Would You Trust a US Government version of TOR?
-https://www.torproject.org/about/overview.html.en
The US gov gave you TOR to begin with...
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
And unarmed civilians? Come on, you have to do better than that. How do you justify the exact same thing in Iran or Iraq or Afghanistan? You keep fighting your war even after multiple evidence of war crimes and atrocities; committed by your own forces. Then you try to use it as defense? A little hypocritical are we?
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
ICE vs Hillory Clinton
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
So, you don't believe that these efforts to ensure "freedom" for other countries internets is to encourage the people in those countries to go the route of Egypt, etc and over throw their governments, or at least start a civil war. At which point the US, acting as the worlds police force, steps in to "peacekeep" and "rebuild". They've realised, probably a while ago, that just assassinating a leader in a foreign country will results in far too much bad press for them, or if done very subtly an influx in conspiracy theories.
I don't know, maybe I'm a bit too conspiracy nut myself, but that seems to be the obvious reasoning behind wanting to "help freedom" in other countries, regardless of home policies.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Freedom for all but ourselves...
Tomorrow, we install our own dictator 2.0, and then use the tools of Internet censorship, or PROTECT IP, etc like we do at home.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
The same poison that kills rats also can be used to kill people.
When anyone points this out, you accuse them of being pro-piracy. Therefore it seems fitting to accuse you of being pro-oppression.
The irony is that the UN just said . . . Internet access . . . human rights . . . blah blah (fingers in ears) I can't hear you . . . la la la la.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re: No mixed message
They want many-to-many communication stopped. The essence of P2P. All computers are peers. Each has an IP address. Any computer can send packets to any other computer.
But computers that sell products are more equal than others.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Silly American
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
I think he was referring to the insurgents, just like he said, not those other people. Big difference. Is that too hard for you to understand, or are you just trying to put words into people's mouths?
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Poisoning the Well
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Would You Trust a US Government version of TOR?
"Given what we've seen in the last year, would you trust any new version of TOR created by the US government?"
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Add Your Comment