Latest posts by sami ben gharbia from September, 2007
Polish computer programmer arrested for Google Bombing
The 23-years old Polish computer programmer Marek W. might face up to three years in prison for having created a Googlebombing software linking Polish President Lech Kaczynski’s website to the word “kutas” meaning penis in Polish.
Turkey: access WordPress blog with WordPrexy
Great Firewall of Turkey activists launched WordPrexy.com project to make Turkish blogs hosted on WordPress.com accessible.
Free Speech Roundup: Turkey, Russia, Pakistan, India
For the second time in a year, a Turkish court ordered, on Tuesday September 18, to block access to YouTube.com over videos deemed insulting to the country's leaders. In Russia, the 23-year old LiveJournal blogger, who wrote a fictional story on his blog inspired by the Virginia Tech shooting, could face up to three years in prison for "falsely warning of a terror threat." In Pakistan, access to the popular blogging platform blogspot.com has been blocked again. And Mumbai's police are planning to install keystroke loggers in cyber cafes.
Egyptian blogger arrested and prevented from covering a taxi drivers strike
Mahmoud Chachtawi, Egyptian blogger and reporter of abna2masr.com website, has been arrested during a taxi drivers strike he was covering. After detaining him for four hours, the police released him and confiscated his camera, mobile phone and ID card. According to a twitter message left on the blog, it seems...
Russian LiveJournal blogger could face three-year sentence
The 23-year old Russian blogger, Dmitry Shirinkin, who wrote a fiction story on his blog inspired by the Virginia Tech shooting, could face up to three years in prison. In an interview with Russia Today (watch the video on GV Advocacy), Shirinkin said “I didn’t expect that a short writing...
Iran blocks access to Google and Gmail
Iran has blocked access to Google search engine and Gmail Google's free webmail service, Mehr news agency reported today. “I can confirm these sites have been filtered,” said Hamid Shahriari, the secretary of Iran's National Council of Information.
Mumbai police to monitor cyber-cafes
In its war against terrorism, Mumbai’s police is planning to install keystroke loggers in Mumbai’s cyber cafes. This new monitoring software, CARMS (Cyber Access Remote Monitoring System), that Mumbai’s police are requiring the city’s 500 Internet cafes to install, “will capture every keystroke by users and turn that information over...
Thailand: the first victim of the Computer Crime Act
It seems that the Thai authorities have used the recently passed Computer Crime Act to arrest two Thais for alleged offensive comments posted on the Internet about the country’s revered monarch. “At least one person being detained in Bangkok Remand Prison for crimes against the new Computer Crime Act which...
Free Speech Roundup: Tunisia, Egypt, China, Thailand
France-based video sharing site Dailymotion has been blocked, again, in Tunisia. Egyptian blogger Abdel Monem Mahmoud, who has been released in June 2007 is facing detention threats. In China people who are using China Telecom are unable to access FeedBurner feeds. And Thailand lifted its ban on YouTube but Veoh and MetaCafe still blocked.
Dailymotion in Tunisia blocked-unblocked-blocked again
Dailymotion, France’s YouTube-like video sharing site has been blocked, again, in Tunisia. Still unclear if the government-controlled body, ATI (Agence Tunisienne d’Internet), throw whom all Tunisia’s ISPs are operating, has imposed the ban (read more on Global Voices Advocacy blog…)
Egyptian blogger Monem threatened again
Egyptian blogger and journalist Abdel Monem Mahmoud, who has been released in June 2007 after 46 days imprisonment in Southern Cairo Torah prison, is “facing detention threats [again]. Both as part of the State’s clensing of political activists from the Egyptian scene and also for reporting on torture,” Nora Younis...
ThinkProgress blog banned from the U.S. military network in Baghdad
The liberal ThinkProgress blog has been banned from the U.S. military network in Baghdad. “The ban began sometime shortly after Aug. 22, when Ret. Maj. Gen. John Batiste was our guest blogger on ThinkProgress. He posted an op-ed that was strongly critical of the President’s policies and advocated a “responsible...
China Telecom blocks FeedBurner RSS feeds
It has been reported that people who are using China Telecom are unable to access FeedBurner feeds. FeedBurner, which has been acquired by Google Inc since June, 2007, is the leading provider of RSS feeds, powering hundreds of thousands of blog, podcast and news feeds (August 27, 2007: Feedburner is...