BLOGGING

DANGEROUSLY

The next generation of censorship is in full force. Ron

Deibert reports on new tactics and argues that only a
global movement can protect free speech online

In no other time during the internet’s history has it been as dangerous

to publish on the web as it is now. How recent it seems that dissidents,
scholars, and activists were trumpeting the power of blogs to break free
of traditional media. New tools of anonymity would ensure a safety net for
those for whom it is too risky to speak openly. Free blog services, offered in
an increasing variety of local languages, would provide a cheap platform to
reach global audiences. RSS feeds would link communities of bloggers in a
web of mutual support. A distributed army of ants would outflank heavy-
handed and slow-moving repressive regimes. But what was once considered
to be an unstoppable force for the democratisation of publication is quickly
turning into a jeopardy trap. What has happened?
To understand the growing threats to bloggers, one must understand
a major sea change that has occurred around cyberspace in the last several
years. Whereas once governments were either incapable of, or chose not to,
regulate the internet, today they are reasserting themselves dramatically
and forcefully. More than 30 countries engage in internet filtering world-
wide, including filtering access to many blog-hosting services. Although

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filtering can be bypassed with circumvention technologies, the new road-

blocks erected by governments and internet service providers (ISPs) make
it inconvenient and potentially dangerous to do so. Using circumvention
technologies is now explicitly illegal in Vietnam, Burma and Iran.
But governments are not just blocking access to information through
filtering. In our research, we have documented a burgeoning number of what
we call ‘next generation’ controls that go beyond denial of access. These
next generation controls are more subtle and offensive, aimed at shaping
cyberspace and creating a climate of self-censorship and fear. They include
the implementation of new and more rigid laws around slander, libel, and
copyright protection, denial of service and malware attacks against adversar-
ies and arrests, threats and intimidation of bloggers.
No longer is it possible for bloggers to write in the relative sanctuary
of cyberspace as if it were a world apart. State authorities have brought the
activities that happen in cyberspace under increasingly rigid and very tan-
gible police and intelligence control.
The tactics of governments are being complemented by the increas-
ingly stifling policies of ISPs’ online hosting companies. It is important to
remember that cyberspace is owned and operated by the private sector.
Decisions taken for market reasons can end up having major political conse-
quences, though often without public accountability or transparency. There
have been a growing number of cases where blogging and other social net-
working accounts have been terminated because of supposed violation of
terms of service. More nefariously, complaints issued to companies have
become a favourite tactic to silence opposition and human rights groups.
Fearing liabilities, companies are either ill-equipped or afraid to resist these
complaints and take the easy road of compliance. Some companies rou-
tinely share information with authorities without public accountability or
oversight; others, like Research in Motion (the maker of BlackBerry mobile
phones), are being increasingly pressured to do so.
More generally, though, the environment for bloggers is changing
because of the ways in which we communicate. Ironically, the great inno-
vations in social networking and information sharing that have led to a
proliferation of voices have also produced a much deeper exposure of person-
ally incriminating information. No longer is it easy to hide from slow-moving
and inept bureaucracies in the vast pools of information flows. New technolo-
gies of data mining, analysis, and deep packet inspection that erupted out of
the cyber security sector have given authorities unprecedented capabilities
to monitor the digital traces that individuals leave behind. We are entering

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a new dot com boom in the market for digital repression techniques and
services.
What can be done about all of this? Unfortunately, the forces described
above are not easily contained because they are not isolated instances but
components of an epochal shift involving powerful social forces on a global
scale. Cyberspace has become an object of intense geopolitical contestation,
characterised by cyber crime, espionage, and warfare. Such a massive shift
will make it much less propitious for the flourishing of blogging as we have
seen to date. Much like a change in sea temperature affects the vitality of
certain marine species, the changes to the cyberspace ecosystem are stran-
gling free expression, access to information and privacy.
The first step in rectifying these matters is to recognise the scope of the
challenge. No internet freedom technology, policy, or programme will solve
these problems alone. Awareness raising and lobbying efforts on behalf of
imprisoned arrested bloggers is essential, but incomplete. New transpar-
ency initiatives among internet companies is welcome, but only a first step.
One way to think about it is to extend the ecological analogies and draw
lessons from the environmental movement. Cyberspace is an environment
that we have created, albeit an artificial one. It is under intense degradation,
much like the natural environment, from a multiplicity of interactive and
mutually-supportive causes. What is required is no less than a broad global
movement, involving like-minded citizens, governments and private sector
actors, to protect the net in the same way that we think about protection of
the global environment or the movement to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
The job is not easy and will not happen in the short term. Until such time,
activists and others are going to be facing a growing number of years of
blogging dangerously.  

©Ron Deibert
39(4): 88/90
DOI: 10.1177/0306422010389889
www.indexoncensorship.org

Ron Deibert is the director of the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies and the Citizen Lab at the
Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto. He is a co-founder and principal investigator of the
OpenNet Initiative and Information Warfare Monitor projects, and was a founder and former vice president
of Psiphon Inc. He was one of the authors of the Tracking Ghostnet and Shadows in the Cloud reports,
documenting global cyber-espionage networks, and is co-editor of Access Controlled (MIT Press)

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Bloggers in jeopardy: recent arrests

Bahrain: Ali Abdulemam. Status: Arrested on 5 September 2010.

Leading Bahraini blogger and Global Voices Advocacy author, he was
accused of spreading ‘false news’ on the BahrainOnline.org portal, one
of the most popular pro-democracy outlets in Bahrain
China: Liu Xiaobo. Status: Arrested on 8 December 2008 for co-
authoring Charter 08, a manifesto calling for greater freedoms and
democracy in China, which was signed by hundreds of citizens.
Awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize
Iran: Hossein Derakhshan. Status: Arrested in 2008. Influential
Iranian-Canadian blogger arrested after returning to Iran. Convicted
of collaborating with enemy states, propaganda against the Islamic
Republic, propaganda in support of counter-revolutionary groups,
‘insulting what is holy’ and creating immoral websites
Russia: Irek Murtazin. Status: Arrested in November 2009. He was
accused of spreading false rumours about the death of the president
of the republic of Tatarstan, Mintimir Shaimiev, and sent to a penal
colony
Saudi Arabia: Hamoud Bin Saleh. Status: Arrested in 2008. He
was arrested after he criticised the kingdom’s judiciary and made
an announcement on his blog that he had converted from Islam to
Christianity
Syria: Tal al Molouh. Status: Arrested in December 2009. Arrested by
Syrian state security agents for posting poems about Palestine on her
blog. Currently detained with no charges and no trial; her whereabouts
are unknown
Thailand: Suwicha Thakor. Status: Arrested in 2009. Serving a
10-year jail sentence, handed down on 3 April 2010, for criticism of
the monarchy

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Thailand: Chiranuch Premchaiporn. Status: Arrested on 24 September

2010. Webmaster of the independent online journal Prachatai, he was
arrested on charges of insulting the monarchy
Tunisia: Zouhaïer Makhlouf. Status: Released in 2010. On 20 October
2009, the human rights activist and writer for Assabil Online was
arrested for publishing an online video investigating the social, eco-
nomic, and environmental problems in Nabeul (Dar Chaabane el Fehri),
a coastal town in northeastern Tunisia
Yemen: Mohammed al Maqaleh. Status: Arrested in 2009. The editor of
the opposition Socialist Party’s website, al Eshteraki, was apprehended
by security forces
Sources:
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, Global Voices, the
New York Times, Reporters sans frontières

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