Internet censorship continued its growth in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkey.
The Afghan Ministry of Communications mandated last Thursday that all of Afghanistan’s Internet Service Providers (ISPs) filter websites which include alcohol, social networking, gambling, and others.
According to the Electronic Frontier Federation (EFF), there are “countrywide blockages of Facebook, Gmail, YouTube, and Twitter.” The EFF adds that questions are being referred to the Ministry of Communications by one of Afghanistan’s two largest telecommunication companies, the Afghan Wireless Communication Company.
The new round of censorship came soon after similar actions in Pakistan and Turkey.
Pakistan announced last week that it will block links to content on Yahoo, Google, MSN, YouTube, Bing, and Amazon, with plans to completely bock 17 other sites deemed anti-Islamic, according to the EFF.
In Turkey, YouTube is now completely blocked.
“Thousands of other sites, including proxy servers that Turkish citizens were using to circumvent the bans,” have been blocked, said the EFF, adding that Turkey has banned more websites than any other European country.
Internet censorship is becoming a larger concern globally, as countries continue to lock down the Web and block or filter content.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in January that in 2009, “we’ve seen a spike in threats to the free flow of information. China, Tunisia, and Uzbekistan have stepped up their censorship of the Internet. In Vietnam, access to popular social networking sites has suddenly disappeared.”
Her speech came just after 30 bloggers and activists were detained in Egypt. “One member of this group, Bassem Samir, who is thankfully no longer in prison, is with us today,” she said.
“So while it is clear that the spread of these technologies is transforming our world, it is still unclear how that transformation will affect the human rights and the human welfare of the world’s population.”
The Afghan Ministry of Communications mandated last Thursday that all of Afghanistan’s Internet Service Providers (ISPs) filter websites which include alcohol, social networking, gambling, and others.
According to the Electronic Frontier Federation (EFF), there are “countrywide blockages of Facebook, Gmail, YouTube, and Twitter.” The EFF adds that questions are being referred to the Ministry of Communications by one of Afghanistan’s two largest telecommunication companies, the Afghan Wireless Communication Company.
The new round of censorship came soon after similar actions in Pakistan and Turkey.
Pakistan announced last week that it will block links to content on Yahoo, Google, MSN, YouTube, Bing, and Amazon, with plans to completely bock 17 other sites deemed anti-Islamic, according to the EFF.
In Turkey, YouTube is now completely blocked.
“Thousands of other sites, including proxy servers that Turkish citizens were using to circumvent the bans,” have been blocked, said the EFF, adding that Turkey has banned more websites than any other European country.
Internet censorship is becoming a larger concern globally, as countries continue to lock down the Web and block or filter content.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in January that in 2009, “we’ve seen a spike in threats to the free flow of information. China, Tunisia, and Uzbekistan have stepped up their censorship of the Internet. In Vietnam, access to popular social networking sites has suddenly disappeared.”
Her speech came just after 30 bloggers and activists were detained in Egypt. “One member of this group, Bassem Samir, who is thankfully no longer in prison, is with us today,” she said.
“So while it is clear that the spread of these technologies is transforming our world, it is still unclear how that transformation will affect the human rights and the human welfare of the world’s population.”
