[iwar] [fc:Saudi.Censorship.of.Web.Ranges.Far.Beyond.Tenets.of.Islam,.Study.Finds]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-08-29 07:19:25
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Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2002 07:19:25 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:Saudi.Censorship.of.Web.Ranges.Far.Beyond.Tenets.of.Islam,.Study.Finds]
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NYT August 29, 2002

Saudi Censorship of Web Ranges Far Beyond Tenets of Islam, Study Finds

By JENNIFER 8. LEE

 T &lt;<a
href="http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/dropcap/t.gif">http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/dropcap/t.gif>
HE Saudi government is censoring public Internet access to a degree that
goes significantly but haphazardly beyond its stated central goal of
blocking sexually explicit content that violates the values of Islam,
according to a recent study by Harvard Law School researchers. 

The study's detailed list of blocked sites offers a glimpse into the
areas that the Saudi government has deemed most troubling.  Among them
are sites related to pornography, women's rights, gays and lesbians,
non-Islamic religions and criticism of political restrictions.  Many
humor and entertainment sites have also been blocked. 

The report, by the law school's Berkman Center for Internet and Society,
was completed with the cooperation of the Saudi government.  It is the
first in a series by the center on Internet filtering by governments
around the world. 

"When the cost of the censoring is just flipping a switch, it's a lot
easier to enforce," said Jonathan Zittrain, a director of the Berkman
Center and an author of the report.  "That makes it more appealing to a
number of regimes."

Saudi Arabia, with China, is widely considered to have one of the most
restrictive Internet-access policies.  Before granting the public access
to the Internet in 1999, the Saudi government spent two years building a
controlled infrastructure so that all Internet traffic would pass
through government-controlled servers. 

The Internet Service Unit, which controls Saudi Arabia's Web access,
says that blocking pornography is its main focus, accounting for 95
percent of the pages it blocks.  But its Web site says Web pages subject
to blocking include those "related to drugs, bombs, alcohol, gambling
and pages insulting the Islamic religion or the Saudi laws" - a policy
that is largely an extension of the country's censorship regulations for
the news media and entertainment. 

The government does not provide a public list of offending sites.  But
the Internet Service Unit gave Harvard researchers access to the
computer servers for several days in May.  They requested 64,557
distinct Web pages and found 2,038 blocked. 

Saudi citizens with a bit of knowledge about the Internet have found
some ways to get around the government firewall.  Some dial up to
Internet service providers in other countries.  Others get around the
firewall at no extra cost by using intermediary computers on the
Internet, known as proxies, to disguise the source of the traffic. 

The Harvard report tries to piece together the criteria under which Web
sites are censored.  "Ordinarily, when censors declare something to be
bad, they have to file it," said Benjamin Edelman, the other author of
the report.  "Here the software allows blacklists to be secret."

The Saudi government uses software called SmartFilter, created by Secure
&lt;<a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=SCUR">http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html
-companyprofile.asp&symb=SCUR</a> Computing in San Jose, Calif., to
block most of the pornographic, gambling and drug-related sites.  But
the SmartFilter software is also customized with blacklists provided by
Saudi security agencies, the Saudi Internet administrators said.  Among
the pages selected by security agencies are some that are critical of
Saudi Arabia's political situation, like the Web sites of Amnesty
International and the Saudi Institute, another human rights watchdog
group. 

The Saudi government, which does not allow women to drive, has also
restricted access to information about women's advances elsewhere.  The
"Women in American History" section of Encyclopaedia Britannica Online
(www.women.eb.com), which summarizes the women's rights movement from
1600 to the present, is blocked.  IVillage (ivillage.com), a popular
American advice and support site for women, is also blacklisted. 

"Clearly there are sensitivities about women's rights," Professor
Zittrain said. 

The report also ticks off a broad range of blocked religion-oriented
sites, from Christian to Jewish to Buddhist to Hindu ones.  Yet even
sites that are not overtly political or sexual in nature are filtered,
like the magazine site rollingstone.com; Warner Brothers Records, at
wbr.com; and www .ifrance.com, a French-language entertainment and
information site. 

The Harvard report is available at cyber
.law.harvard.edu/filtering/saudiarabia. 


Copyright &lt;<a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html">http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html>
2002 The New York Times

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