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The 13 Enemies of the Internet 203

Posted by Zonk from the we-get-to-pick dept.
Hennell writes "Reporters without borders has just released its annual list of internet enemies, a list of countries 'that systematically violate online free expression.' A couple of countries have been removed, but Egypt has been added. A detailed summary can be read on the BBC Website." From that article: "The blacklist is published annually but it is the first time RSF has organized an online protest to accompany the list. 'We wanted to mobilize net users so that when we lobby certain countries we can say that the concerns are not just ours but those of thousands of internet users around the world,' said a spokesman for RSF. Many of those on the internet blacklist are countries that are regularly criticized by human rights groups, such as China and Burma."
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The 13 Enemies of the Internet More

The 13 Enemies of the Internet

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  • the enemy to all of t3h interwebs!!!

    Oh crap......
  • And where is RIAAstate and MPIAcountry?

  • I am not surprised... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Ingolfke ( 515826 ) on Tuesday November 07, 2006 @10:00AM (#16751349) Journal
    that those Uzbek assholes are on the list. Their potassium is vastly inferior to the potassium in the great nation of Khazakistan.

  • Why only countries? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MECC ( 8478 ) * on Tuesday November 07, 2006 @10:01AM (#16751361)
    Why only include countries? Why not include companies as well? Some of them are gunning for 'the Internet' either intentionally, or just as a side-effect of unethical practices.

    • Re:Why only countries? (Score:4, Funny)

      by massivefoot ( 922746 ) on Tuesday November 07, 2006 @10:10AM (#16751489)
      One would hope that large companies would consider close collaroration with the government of a country on the list something of a blemish on their character. However, I doubt this will be the case. What is needed is for consumers to start considering the ethics of those they purchase from. We need to give companies a choice - you may act unethically, however doing so will cause a large number of people or organisations with more moral fiber to cease doing business with you.

      • Re:Why only countries? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Qzukk ( 229616 ) on Tuesday November 07, 2006 @10:40AM (#16751883) Journal
        you may act unethically, however doing so will cause a large number of people or organisations with more moral fiber to cease doing business with you.

        Moral fiber and psychic powers. There simply isn't enough transparency in corporations to figure out whether they are acting ethically or not in most cases, unless they do something really reprehensible and a government gets involved and compels transparency, or someone on the inside finally decides that having a job is no longer worth it.

      • Avoid the veal. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Kadin2048 ( 468275 ) <slashdot...kadin@@@xoxy...net> on Tuesday November 07, 2006 @11:05AM (#16752291) Homepage Journal
        you may act unethically, however doing so will cause a large number of people or organisations with more moral fiber to cease doing business with you.

        Hello! May I be the first to welcome you to our planet. You may find things here a little unsettling, coming from your obviously very advanced civilization and culture; in the meantime I recommend you don't try to make sense of anything.

        Oh, and be sure to try the pastrami, it's excellent here.
    • really! I can think of two companies I want to add to that list...

  • What about the Vatican? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by krell ( 896769 )
    I spent a day there earlier this year, and could not find a single cybercafe in the place.
  • For the DeCSS code censorship ?
    What is the status of that ?
    I hope it's not applied anymore, or this smells hypocritical.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ajs ( 35943 )

      For the DeCSS code censorship?

      You can hardly compare the civil attacks on one piece of software that was designed to allow copying of content which the seller had restricted (no matter how right you might think that is, and I'm not arguing the point) with the systematic censorship of any political or otherwise controversial electronic communication. The fact that you would even bring that up in this context demonstrates that you MUST live in a country which is shockingly low in censorship when compared to t

  • I thought journalists thought the US was the root of all evil and Cuba was a paradise with wonderful medical care whose only problems were caused by US oppression? Something's wrong here.
    • You're just trolling by asking about the US, but Cuba is a valid one that I was going to question myself. At the recent UN summit on internet access, it was alleged that "Zero percent of Cubans are connected to the Internet [com.com] because of the censorship hold that the authorities there have over their people.

  • Vile! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    These countries are so vile...you might just say they are the Axis of e-Vile!
  • TFA says

    Visitors to the RSF website are also invited to leave a voice message for Yahoo's co-founder Jerry Yang, expressing their views on the firm's involvement in China

    Interestingly enough, you don't have to be a Chinese reporter [bbc.co.uk] for Yahoo to give away your private info. For every email you send from Yahoo mail, the IP address from where you sent is is disclosed to the receiver.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ant P. ( 974313 )
      Funny you should say that, because I tested it with someone last week. Hotmail also does it.
    • For every email you send from Yahoo mail, the IP address from where you sent is is disclosed to the receiver.

      Now, I am not in any way defending Yahoo's reprehensible conduct in China, but the behavior that you describe regarding IP addresses in mail headers is the way things are supposed to work. The address of the originating machine should be listed as the first of the 'Received' headers. This just makes sense -- it's not "Yahoo" that's sending you the message, they're just passing it on behalf of some ot
  • ...Presidential... right now. Just think, ME, Karl Cocknozzle, with my own enemies list! And on Election Day to boot!

    I feel very Nixonian right now. ...Not sure if that's a word or not but there it is.
  • that makes my moving list just a little smaller

  • enemies? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by darkwhite ( 139802 ) on Tuesday November 07, 2006 @10:16AM (#16751559)
    Countries which censor or curtail Internet usage (with the obvious exception of China, with its staggering size and mobility) are hardly "enemies" of the Internet - they can't attack it and expect any degree of success. Instead they're foolishly short-sighted, unable to comprehend the massive technological disadvantage any such action entails in the long run. The problem is, this usually correlates with general incompetence, which means many of these countries will become (or already are) failed states which require outside assistance.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by honkycat ( 249849 )
      A great many of the small countries on the list have detained citizens for expressing themselves freely online. Even if the country is small, that is another part of the world where people are not free to share ideas. That is the basic freedom that made the Internet what it is.

      Individually, it would be difficult for these nations to have an impact on the Internet as a whole. However, it sure puts a damper on it for its own citizens. Many of these people are not free to leave their country to find an unf

  • Article Text (Score:3, Informative)

    by loimprevisto ( 910035 ) on Tuesday November 07, 2006 @10:16AM (#16751561)
    Already slashdotted, here's the mirrordot link (http://www.mirrordot.com/stories/037ac2605c402c45 d6ddcfb790b9ead6/index.html [mirrordot.com])

    The list of 13 Internet enemies

    Three countries - Nepal, Maldives and Libya - have been removed from the annual list of Internet enemies, which Reporters Without Borders publishes today. But many bloggers were harassed and imprisoned this year in Egypt, so it has been added to the roll of shame reserved for countries that systematically violate online free expression.

    Countries in alphabetical order :

    - Belarus

    The government has a monopoly of telecommunications and does not hesitate to block access to opposition websites if it feels the need, especially at election time. Independent online publications are also often hacked. In March 2006, for example, several websites critical of President Alexandre Lukashenko mysteriously disappeared from the Internet for several days.

    Burma

    The Burmese governments Internet policies are even more repressive than those of its Chinese and Vietnamese neighbours. The military junta clearly filters opposition websites. It keeps a very close eye on Internet cafes, in which the computers automatically execute screen captures every five minutes, in order to monitor user activity. The authorities targeted Internet telephony and chat services in June, blocking Googles Gtalk, for example. The aim was two-fold: to defend the profitable long-distance telecommunications market, which is controlled by state companies, as well as to stop cyber-dissidents from using a means of communication that is hard to monitor.

    China

    China unquestionably continues to be the worlds most advanced country in Internet filtering. The authorities carefully monitor technological progress to ensure that no new window of free expression opens up, After initially targeting websites and chat forums, they nowadays concentrate on blogs and video exchange sites. China now has nearly 17 million bloggers. This is an enormous number, but very few of them dare to tackle sensitive issues, still less criticise government policy. Firstly, because Chinas blog tools all include filters that block subversive word strings. Secondly, because the companies operating these services, both Chinese and foreign, are pressured by the authorities to control content. They employ armies of moderators to clean up the content produced by the bloggers. Finally, in a country in which 52 people are currently in prison for expressing themselves too freely online, self-censorship is obviously in full force. Just five years ago, many people thought Chinese society and politics would be revolutionised by the Internet, a supposedly uncontrollable medium. Now, with China enjoying increasing geopolitical influence, people are wondering the opposite, whether perhaps Chinas Internet model, based on censorship and surveillance, may one day be imposed on the rest of the world.

    Cuba

    With less than 2 per cent of its population online, Cuba is one of the most backward Internet countries. An investigation carried out by Reporters Without Borders in October revealed that the Cuban government uses several levers to ensure that this medium is not used in a counter-revolutionary way. Firstly, it has more or less banned private Internet connections. To surf the Internet or check their e-mail, Cubans have to go to public access points such as Internet cafes, universities and youth computer clubs where their activity is more easily monitored. Secondly, the computers in all the Internet cafes and leading hotels contain software installed by the Cuban police that triggers an alert message whenever subversive key-words are spotted. The regime also ensures that there is no Internet access for dissidents and independent journalists, for whom communicating with people abroad is an ordeal. Fina

  • The 13 REAL enemies of the Internet (Score:5, Funny)

    by krell ( 896769 ) on Tuesday November 07, 2006 @10:16AM (#16751567) Journal
    1. Microsoft Internet Explorer 7
    2. The MPAA
    3. The RIAA
    4. Flash
    5. Javascript
    6. Pointless registration screens [nytimes.com].
    7. Content blocked for certain regions.
    8. Spammers
    9. Phishers
    10. Senator Orrin Hatch
    11. Nigeria (I mean, come on, how many millionaire spam scams emails have you ever gotten from Belarus or Burma?)
    12. Senator Ted. "Tubey" Stevens
    13. Bears (Not sure on this one, but Colbert insisted it belonged here)
    • No 13 is a vicious lie! There's no truth in it whatsoever
      • >No 13 is a vicious lie! There's no truth in it whatsoever

        Of course. Bears are always the threat number one.

    • Re:The 13 REAL enemies of the Internet (Score:5, Funny)

      by karlfr ( 897006 ) on Tuesday November 07, 2006 @10:49AM (#16752005)
      You forgot "backhoes".
    • What's so wrong with Javascript? Overused, yes, but not bad. Otherwise I'd shuffle it around a bit, put spammers at the top, and add virus writers in general, Microsoft Windows (particularly pre-Windows XP SP2), IE6, Netscape 4, and ISPs that block port 25 and 80. Oh, and that Fark "HA HA" guy, 'cause I've seen him say "HA HA! I broke the internets!!!!11!eleventy!"
    • You forgot "non-text e-mail". That includes UUE, MIME and HTML. They should be totally disallowed.

      If we hadn't strayed from the path of plain text, practically all of its problems wouldn't exist today. Somehow, I think that not being able to make your text pink is a small price to pay for that. We can scan text for spam, but we sure as hell can't scan images.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Wah ( 30840 )
      4. Flash

      Without flash, there would be no Youtube. Without youtube, the internets would be quite a bit more boring.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by krell ( 896769 )
        "Without flash, there would be no Youtube. Without youtube, the internets would be quite a bit more boring."

        Without Flash, Youtube content could easily be as MOV or other formats.

  • Re: (Score:1, Troll)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • If anyone here knows the UK's Channel 4 series 'Fr Ted', then lemme say this: this list reminds me of fr Noel Furlong priest when he goes to put Tony on his little 'list of enemies'. I guess you had to be there at the time,

    Funny funny show [youtube.com]
  • With the exception of Burma (which has long been a pariah military dictatorship), all the countries are either ruled by a communist party (or direct sucessor) or they are from an islamic culture.
  • The United Nations, because censorship will be world-wide if it does get control of the Internet.
    • Nice troll moderation, except when you think that all of those countries listed here are in the UN, and some of them have a lot of power and a history of getting on commissions where the don't belong. China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia (all on this list) are currently sitting on the UN Human Rights Council despite rules meant to keep countries with a policy of human rights abuses from being members. You can bet that China and one or more of the others will be on any Internet Governance Council in the fut
  • Dude, China says they don't censor the Internet. This list is bogus! Down with the Man!
  • Do the pyramids' get broadband, or is their wiring too old?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rlp ( 11898 )
      Do the pyramids' get broadband, or is their wiring too old?

      Only the Ha'tak class pyramids get broadband.
  • I thought for sure we would be.
  • "We wanted to mobilise net users so that when we lobby certain countries we can say that the concerns are not just ours but those of thousands of internet users around the world," ... Many of those on the internet blacklist are countries that are regularly criticised by human rights groups, such as China and Burma.

    Hmm. Let's see what the tradeoffs for China are in this situation.

    On one hand, they have total control of 1 billion human beings if they control what they read, hear, and say.

    On the other hand, th

  • Duh! (Score:2)

    by ke4roh ( 590577 )
    Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam; spam bacon sausage and spam; spam egg spam spam bacon and spam; spam sausage spam spam bacon spam tomato and spam; spam spam spam egg and spam; spam spam spam spam spam spam baked beans spam spam spam; or Lobster Thermidor a Crevette with a mornay sauce served in a Provencale manner with shallots and aubergines garnished with truffle pate, brandy and with a fried egg on top and spam.

  • Enemys or censors? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by kinglink ( 195330 ) on Tuesday November 07, 2006 @12:33PM (#16753749)
    An enemy means you oppose the device. Reading this list I don't see many that are "we will destroy the internet" (though I'm sure that's they don't love it) This appears more to be enemy of free speech or radical thinking, which winds up with censorship of the internet.

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