Russian Govenrment Cracking Down on the Internet

First the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs established the Россвязьохранкультура, or Rossvyazkhrankultura, which roughly translates as the Russian Online Culture Protection Service. Among other things, the Rosokhrankultura will eventually use data mining (now it is still done manually) to identify sites which carry “extremist” material (which is already illegal in Russia).

Note: in Russia, the definition of what is extremist is somewhat open to interpretation. The news and human rights site Ingushetia.ru is currently fighting the Moscow courts to avoid being declared extremist and closed. In November 2007 the site was closed more directly, when local ISPs blocked access and redirected visitors to a p*rn*graphic site). Their court case, which is was set for April 11 in a Moscow court (the government appealed after the Supreme Court of Ingushetia refused a request by the Ingushetian Public Prosecutor's Office to close the site), but that court refused to hear it on the grounds that the case was not within its juridiction and instead directed it to the Kuntsevo District Court, where Magomed Evloev the owner of the site in question, is registered. That it in the courts at all instead of just closed is because of timing; the case predates the creation of the Rosokhrankultura, which can simply declare sites “extremist” without any court involvement. The entire investigation is reported to have been initiatead by the FSB. The English news articles I could found about this have since been taken down, but here is a cached version of one. The same applies to coverage of the hearing itself.

The role Rosokhrankultura is not purely cultural of course (otherwise it would have bee formed as part of the Ministry of Culture, as opposed to the security-minded Ministry of Internal Affairs), but technically it has no power beyond identifying the sites. Enter the General Prosecutors Office; they were just given the power to close “extremist” sites. This is not the most important part, however. They were also given the power to suspend operations of Internet Service providers (ISPs) that host such sites. The option to shut entire businesses if they do not cooperate is a strong incentive for cooperation, as well as for ISPs to self-police.

Within days (on April 8) of gaining those powers, the General Prosecutor’s division of St. Petersburg temporarily suspended the operations of ten Internet Service Providers (ISPs) operating in that city, although the exact sites for which they were being punished for hosting is unclear. Even the exact companies are unknown. The police stated that they closed the ISPs only very briefly, which looks more like they did it as a warning to ISPs across Russia that their operations could and would be damaged should they choose to host such sites.

Should ISPs not police themselves as well as the state would like, there is a back-up plan: Deputy General Director of the Russian general Prosecutor Alexei Zhafiarov also called for legislation mandating such involvement if self-policing is not instituted. According to his reasoning, it is not always possible to determine who posted extremist materials, but it is possible to determine who is hosting it, and as such they should be held responsible.

UAE Community Blog Temporarily(?) Blocked by Google

The UAE Community Blog, is blocked for being a spam blog. How Google's automated tools got that idea, I have no idea, especially given the age of the blog and type of traffic it attracts. I review of the block was requested last week, so hopefully the Powers That Be will remove the block soon. Bizarre.

UAE Internet to Be Liberalized, Sort-Of

Business 24-7 recently ran a story on plans to "liberalize" the Internet within the UAE, specifically the system of blocks which restrict residents' access to websites which are "inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values United Arab Emirates" or compete with the two state-dominated Internet Service Providers (ISPs), which coincidentally also provide all land and mobile phone service in the country as well (which is why VOIP is banned). Sensitive political sites are also blocked, particularly those which highlight problems within the UAE itself.

Some of these are criminal (phishing sites, for example), or truly objectionable by any measure (I am 100% for blocking child pornography sites, for example, and although I disagree I see their point about regular pornographic sites or pages that are both untrue and nasty), but a lot of it is frustrating and overly controlling. An art site (with no pornography, but with the very occasional nude) is among the blocked, as is the photo sharing site Flickr, which means that I can't email my father a link to my latest vacation pictures (he's not the sort to VPN). Which is just as well because if he saw me and the Dear Sister feeding the elephants apples all sorts of mayhem would break out. Facebook was out too until public outcry forced it back on the .ae net.

Which is why I found it so interesting when the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), which oversees these blocks, announced that they are in the process of developing a plan to "liberalize" Internet access. In a way they are right; the new plan will permit them to block only sub-sites, for example those pages on Flickr showing "objectionable" images or the Facebook pages related to dating services. This could open up the rest of Flickr and other such sites, which I like. It will however bring in new controls to popular sites which are currently entirely open, including Facebook.

It also makes me wonder what exactly will be blocked? Any profile listing the member as interested in dating for example? Random play? I think that latter option is stupid (are you really looking for "random play" on Facebook?) but a lot of people list those. What about people who just list themselves as "single" or give each other virtual alcoholic drinks?

Even more concerning are plans to institute these new blocks on the services provided by Du. Right now Etisalat provides all coverage in the UAE except in some free zones, where Du provides unblocked access to the foreign companies and their employees which operate therein. These new restrictions will apply there as well, thereby closing the last avenue to free information available to those who lack the technical understanding to circumvent the blocks.

The TRA also promises that the plan will include measures to improve Internet service and lower prices in the country. Neither is that great right now, and real improvements are sure to be welcome, which is why I'm sure this topic, unrelated to the issue of censorship in terms of applicable regulations or economic measures, was included in the "liberalization" plan.

Photoshop madness

After writing my last entry about real estate companies Photoshopping out neighboring buildings and Photoshopping in plants, greenery and waterfront, I cam across a new blog (or at least new to me), appropriately titled Photoshop Disasters, which showcases Photoshop errors in major publications. Whereas this blends my two interests of graphics design and advertising/PR/media agenda, I thought it might be fun to show a few as well as two videos showing how it is done.

Decapitated Observer

I know moving her waist in makes her look thinner, but either someone was lazy with their distortions or Ann Coulter is part scary monster. Which would explain a few things.

I am sure that the two photos were taken at least a few months apart, but still, the difference is less than natural.

And two videos on how it is done (body and face). Warning: the body video (the second video) includes the image of half of a woman's naked derriére, and so may not be suitable for playing in some areas, such as that big conference or your three year old's birthday party.

The Face


The Body

UN Watchdog Censures Google, Gets Censored

I really don't want to become one of those preachy, over-exaggerating bloggers writing for effect or out of bias, but I keep coming across these stories. The next one will be different I promise. An entry about why Russian women are hot or something (a surprisingly popular topic lately, and I have my own theory). But for now, the facts..

You know its a real story when even Fox News, that "fair and balanced" bastion of right-wing fuss TV-watchers* picks it up.

The short version: Inner City Press, a small but successful UN watchdog, is dropped from Google News after the Inner City Press publicly questioned Google's refusal to sign the UN compact on human rights and anti-censorship principles. Google responded by delisting Inner City Press from its Google News Service. On February 8, 2008, Google News sent Inner City press an email which began:

We periodically review news sources, particularly following user complaints, to ensure Google News offers a high quality experience for our users. When we reviewed your site we've found that we can no longer include it in Google News.

"Don't be evil" indeed. The Global Accountability Project has further details here.

I would like to stress that although the Inner City Press clearly has an agenda, that is to monitor the doings of the United Nations and point out wrong-doing when they see it, they do it from a straightforward journalistic approach; they aren't a political group of permanently seeking to paint the UN in a bad light. Having spent time in Afghanistan, where UN malfeasance and mismanagement played role in killing much of the naiveté I had left, I can say the Inner City Press is a model of restraint, if not too restrained. The problem with such truly bad things is that others tend to thing you are exaggerating or operating on too extreme of a bias when you say them. I used to think such people were foolish too, until I became one of them. The same thing applies to some of my more outlandish adventures; I generally don't tell most people because they just don't believe it (one of the reasons I have over 4,000 pictures on my personal flickr page. Having a photo of myself flying a helicopter over the Pakistani mountains or playing snow polo is a lot easier, and faster).

* To be fair, most TV news channels are mostly fluff. I stopped watching any of them when I saw a pieces titled "Bush Girls Good Girls - Where Did They Go Right?" Not only is this not true, it is not news, and therefore a waste of airtime.