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Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering
A study of Internet blocking and filtering around the world: analyses by leading researchers and survey results that document filtering practices in dozens of countries.
Many countries around the world block or filter Internet content, denying access to information that they deem too sensitive for ordinary citizens—most often about politics, but sometimes relating to sexuality, culture, or religion. Access Denied documents and analyzes Internet filtering practices in more than three dozen countries, offering the first rigorously conducted study of an accelerating trend.
Internet filtering takes place in more than three dozen states worldwide, including many countries in Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. Related Internet content-control mechanisms are also in place in Canada, the United States and a cluster of countries in Europe. Drawing on a just-completed survey of global Internet filtering undertaken by the OpenNet Initiative (a collaboration of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, and the University of Cambridge) and relying on work by regional experts and an extensive network of researchers, Access Denied examines the political, legal, social, and cultural contexts of Internet filtering in these states from a variety of perspectives. Chapters discuss the mechanisms and politics of Internet filtering, the strengths and limitations of the technology that powers it, the relevance of international law, ethical considerations for corporations that supply states with the tools for blocking and filtering, and the implications of Internet filtering for activist communities that increasingly rely on Internet technologies for communicating their missions. Reports on Internet content regulation in forty different countries follow, with each two-page country profile outlining the types of content blocked by category and documenting key findings.
Contributors: Ross Anderson, Malcolm Birdling, Ronald Deibert, Robert Faris, Vesselina Haralampieva [as per Rob Faris], Steven Murdoch, Helmi Noman, John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, Mary Rundle, Nart Villeneuve, Stephanie Wang, Jonathan Zittrain
Many countries around the world block or filter Internet content, denying access to information that they deem too sensitive for ordinary citizens—most often about politics, but sometimes relating to sexuality, culture, or religion. Access Denied documents and analyzes Internet filtering practices in more than three dozen countries, offering the first rigorously conducted study of an accelerating trend.
Internet filtering takes place in more than three dozen states worldwide, including many countries in Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. Related Internet content-control mechanisms are also in place in Canada, the United States and a cluster of countries in Europe. Drawing on a just-completed survey of global Internet filtering undertaken by the OpenNet Initiative (a collaboration of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, and the University of Cambridge) and relying on work by regional experts and an extensive network of researchers, Access Denied examines the political, legal, social, and cultural contexts of Internet filtering in these states from a variety of perspectives. Chapters discuss the mechanisms and politics of Internet filtering, the strengths and limitations of the technology that powers it, the relevance of international law, ethical considerations for corporations that supply states with the tools for blocking and filtering, and the implications of Internet filtering for activist communities that increasingly rely on Internet technologies for communicating their missions. Reports on Internet content regulation in forty different countries follow, with each two-page country profile outlining the types of content blocked by category and documenting key findings.
Contributors: Ross Anderson, Malcolm Birdling, Ronald Deibert, Robert Faris, Vesselina Haralampieva [as per Rob Faris], Steven Murdoch, Helmi Noman, John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, Mary Rundle, Nart Villeneuve, Stephanie Wang, Jonathan Zittrain
449 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
6 people are currently reading
205 people want to read
About the author
Ronald J. Deibert
13 books45 followersRonald J. Deibert is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Citizen Lab and Canada Centre for Global Security Studies, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 12, 2014
The first of the three 'Access * Denied(2008)/Controlled(2010)/Contested(2011)' books written by Deibert and others. Each of these books are broken into an essay/theory section and a country profiles section which provides a nation by nation review of internet controls.
If you are interested in a reference on internet controls broken out by nations, you should read the more recent 'Access Controlled' for a global overview or 'Access Contested' for an Asian focused view instead of this book. Because of this I will not be reviewing the "country profiles" section of 'Access Denied'.
The essay theory section does not appear to be out of date. The book provides an excellent overview of:
1. the techniques of internet control/filtering,
2. the companies that operate in this space (there have been some new entries since this book was published),
3. the international legal regime,
4. internal national goals of internet filtering. (Three goals presented: social, security, politics are reminiscent of Clausewitz's trinity: people, military, political.
5. corporate incentives for following national censorship regimes.
One would have difficulty finding a better book for those familiarizing themselves with the subject of internet filtering.
What follows are my notes from 'Access Denied':
p.9 Trinity of internet filtering politic, security, society, compare with Clausewitz trinity.
p.34 Censorship happens at IXP.
p.37 Harvard cowed by threat of Chinese censorship.
p.41 "Democratically challenged" countries.
p.42 instream filtering.
p.45 For/Against rights of state censorship.
p.70 Tactical vs. strategic censorship defined. Polish resistance tactical radios used freqs the Soviets were jamming (soviets were jamming Western Broadcasts). The soviets couldn't use DF (direction finding) techniques to hunt down the resistance cells without turning off jammers.
p.85 A madlips guides to filtering legally.
p.88 Fighting censorship through the WTO.
p.98 Tunis draft agenda law of internet ethics.
p.109 MSN blog service in China treats the word "democracy" as a profane term.
p.110 Taxonomy of firms which can be asked to engage in censorship.
p.116 A code of conduct for engaging in censorship.
p.119 Codifying industry self regulation as laws to prevent defectors from gaining an unfair advantage.
p.129 Three cateogories of Dark Nets: 1.Armed social movements, 2. TCN transnational criminal networks, 3. private internet (hawala, IFVT)
p.131 .tj tld for tajik used exclusively for CP.
p.145 prediction that censorship through attack (DDoS) will become more important, frequent.
If you are interested in a reference on internet controls broken out by nations, you should read the more recent 'Access Controlled' for a global overview or 'Access Contested' for an Asian focused view instead of this book. Because of this I will not be reviewing the "country profiles" section of 'Access Denied'.
The essay theory section does not appear to be out of date. The book provides an excellent overview of:
1. the techniques of internet control/filtering,
2. the companies that operate in this space (there have been some new entries since this book was published),
3. the international legal regime,
4. internal national goals of internet filtering. (Three goals presented: social, security, politics are reminiscent of Clausewitz's trinity: people, military, political.
5. corporate incentives for following national censorship regimes.
One would have difficulty finding a better book for those familiarizing themselves with the subject of internet filtering.
What follows are my notes from 'Access Denied':
p.9 Trinity of internet filtering politic, security, society, compare with Clausewitz trinity.
p.34 Censorship happens at IXP.
p.37 Harvard cowed by threat of Chinese censorship.
p.41 "Democratically challenged" countries.
p.42 instream filtering.
p.45 For/Against rights of state censorship.
p.70 Tactical vs. strategic censorship defined. Polish resistance tactical radios used freqs the Soviets were jamming (soviets were jamming Western Broadcasts). The soviets couldn't use DF (direction finding) techniques to hunt down the resistance cells without turning off jammers.
p.85 A madlips guides to filtering legally.
p.88 Fighting censorship through the WTO.
p.98 Tunis draft agenda law of internet ethics.
p.109 MSN blog service in China treats the word "democracy" as a profane term.
p.110 Taxonomy of firms which can be asked to engage in censorship.
p.116 A code of conduct for engaging in censorship.
p.119 Codifying industry self regulation as laws to prevent defectors from gaining an unfair advantage.
p.129 Three cateogories of Dark Nets: 1.Armed social movements, 2. TCN transnational criminal networks, 3. private internet (hawala, IFVT)
p.131 .tj tld for tajik used exclusively for CP.
p.145 prediction that censorship through attack (DDoS) will become more important, frequent.
Read
June 18, 2008In the preface, a person dies under dubious circumstances. The book does not exactly read like a mystery, being non-fiction, but if you are interested in how ideas are transmitted & limited by regional politics this is a good read.
July 29, 2008
Buku bagus yg layak jd referensi bagi yg suka sama yg namanya internet filtering, apalagi buku ini membahas kebijakan2 filtering konten di dunia maya pada negara2 seperti afghanistan, india, malaysia smp zimbabwe dan masih banyak lagi - cuma sayangnya Indonesia koq tidak ada ya?
Want to read
August 31, 2008ILL--Neither Luzerne nor Lackawanna has this. :(
Author: Zittrain, Jonathan
Publisher: MIT Press February 29, 2008
ISBN: 0262541963
Author: Zittrain, Jonathan
Publisher: MIT Press February 29, 2008
ISBN: 0262541963
Read
January 2, 2015I co-wrote / edited it so should not rate!
June 1, 2016
a good read. a bit out of date, but that's the nature of printed media about the internet
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews