From Frost: ----- [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- 2008.01.14 - 13:09:09GMT ----- (Crossposted here because news is DOSed)
Does anyone have any idea which projects receive these $15 million ? Can freenet also have a share of this ;) ? http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=3286113&C=america The U.S. Congress is funding a modest assault on the great firewall of China. The newly approved budget for the U.S. State Department includes $15 million for developing “anti-censorship tools and services” which could help Internet users breach electronic firewalls set up by China, Iran and other “closed societies.” The money is part of the 2008 budget for the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. It is to be awarded competitively to software developers to produce “internet technology programs and protocols” that enable “widespread and secure internet use” in countries where the Internet is now heavily censored. The funding bill says the anti-censorship effort is intended “for the advancement of information freedom in closed societies, including the Middle East and Asia.” In a report that accompanies the bill, the House Appropriations Committee singles out China as a particular target. It cites recent efforts by Chinese President Hu Jintao “to ‘purify’ the Internet via further monitoring and censorship,” and through punishing Internet users who engage in uncensored communications. The report also decries recent Internet crackdowns by the Cuban and Russian governments. The $15 million for anti-censorship technology is a small part of a $164 million “Democracy Fund” that the State Department receives to promote democracy around the globe, but is a 30-fold increase over the half-million dollars provided for that purpose in 2007. A spokeswoman said the State Department “is engaged globally promoting freedom of expression and the free flow of information on the Internet.” Lawmakers said programs they are funding”should be able to support large numbers of users simultaneously in a hostile Internet environment.” The Internet in China fits the “hostile” description. The free-press organization Reporters Without Borders labels China “the world’s most advanced country in Internet filtering.” Chinese authorities monitor Web sites, chat forums, blogs and video exchange sites, and have imprisoned more than 50 Internet users for postings deemed to be anti-government, subversive and otherwise objectionable, Reporters Without Borders reports. The Chinese government has required companies like Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft to censor their search engines as a condition for operating in China. As a result, Internet searches for terms such as “human rights” and “Taiwan independence” have been blocked. According to some reports, a Chinese Internet search on Google for “Tiananmen Square” produces images of buildings and smiling tourists, while the same search in the United States generates pictures of the Chinese tanks used to crush pro-democracy protestors in 1989. Internet censorship in North Korea is worse. Government control makes North Korea “the world’s worst Internet black hole,” Reporters Without Borders says. “Only a few officials are able to access the Web, using connections rented from China.” Cuba is repressive as well. Virtually all Internet connections are government-controlled, and “you can get five years just for connecting to the Internet illegally,” the organization says. The Iranian government boasts that it blocks access to 10 million “immoral” Web sites, including political and religious sites. Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt also make the Reporters Without Borders list of “Internet enemies.” The new funding for State Department efforts to defeat Internet censorship “is a welcome arrow” in a modest arsenal of weapons for defending Internet freedom, said Leslie Harris, president of the Center for Democracy and Technology. Protecting the Internet from abusive governments is important to supporting democracy, she said. But accomplishing that “will require the free world to take much harder positions” against abuses such as censorship. Ultimately, the odds may favor technology. “No matter how many restrictions are written in China, the Internet is a very hard technology to control,” Harris said. “The number of users is growing exponentially — blogs, e-mail accounts, the magnitude is extraordinary. At the end of the day, governments trying to control the Internet are going to have a very difficult time.” å
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