[n_america] 'Net ninjas' take on web censorship

[Robert Guerra]

FYI (see below) -

Their recent documentary - Hactivista 
<http://www.citizenlab.org/hacktivista/> (which i was involved as a 
consultant and translator) is one i'll be screening at the Computers, 
Freedom and Privacy conference next week in the bay area.

regards

Robert


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3632757.stm?headline=%2560Net~ninjas%2560~take~on~web~censorship

'Net ninjas' take on web censorship

A small group of 'net commandos' at the University of Toronto are 
looking to help people get around government controls on the 
internet, as technology correspondent Clark Boyd reports.

China has a sophisticated way of filtering the net
Ron Deibert's computer screensaver is a two-word message. It spins in 
those rare moments when the political science professor's machine is 
idle. It reads "Hack Off".

It is a fitting sentiment, given Prof Deibert's loyalty to the 
original idea of hacking.

"Traditionally, the term was associated with someone who is 
interested in opening up their technology, understanding how it 
works, not accepting something shrink-wrapped," he said.

"And to me, that's not just a hobby or something that geeks do, 
that's actually a skill that is fundamental to a liberal, democratic 
society.

"Citizens can't just accept technology at face value. They need to 
open the lid, so to speak, understand how it works, beneath the 
surface," he explained.

Prof Deibert's belief that computer science can aid civic activism 
led him to establish the Citizen Lab in 2001.

"What I wanted to do was create a hothouse environment, where I could 
bring together researchers, students, in different disciplines - 
computer science, political science - in one setting where they could 
feed off each other, complement each other's specialties.

"I like to think of this area as 'hacktivism', the combination of 
hacking in the traditional sense of the term, and social and 
political activism."

Code ninjas

Prof Deibert wanted to create an internet commando unit that could 
employ its technical skills toward activist ends.


 From China to Saudi Arabia to Iran to Cuba to Uzbekistan, it's a 
trend we're seeing grow worldwide
Nart Villeneuve, Citizen Lab
He secured non-profit funding, as well as a commitment from the 
University of Toronto and then scoured the political science 
department for student recruits.

He found Nart Villeneuve, a hacker with a degree in Peace and Conflict Studies.

Working out of the lab's basement bunker on the University of 
Toronto's campus, Mr Villeneuve explained how the work of the 
Citizen's Lab centres on a project called the OpenNet Initiative.

"We're attempting to technically confirm reports that we get in 
various countries that the reason why they can't access certain 
websites is because the government or the internet service provider 
is deliberately blocking access to those websites, as opposed to it 
being some network error or some other reason," he said.

Simply put, the Citizen Lab is trying to find out which websites a 
particular government or internet provider might be blocking, and how 
they are blocking it.

"From China to Saudi Arabia to Iran to Cuba to Uzbekistan, it's a 
trend we're seeing grow worldwide," said Mr Villeneuve.

"We've been studying internet filtering in Iran for the last six 
months, and they've actually shifted to a superior system of blocking.

"And this system is similar to systems being deployed in other Middle 
Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and 
Syria."

Cultural controls

The Citizen Lab employs all manner of hardware, software and 
code-writing skills to essentially tap into computer networks around 
the world, and expose their inner workings.

Saudi Arabia controls the online and offline media
Michelle Levesque, a computer science student who works for The 
Citizen Lab, says they also have to tap into human networks and 
knowledge to get their job done.

"If you have a website that's being blocked, and it's all in Persian, 
you've no idea why it's being blocked," she said. "It could be some 
political website, or a gay rights website," she said.

"So you need to get people in who can read these other languages and 
let you know what the content is, who can give us pointers to the 
kinds of things that might be blocked, so that we know what to check."

The Citizen Lab also actively develops circumvention technologies 
designed to help citizens in say, Saudi Arabia, get around government 
imposed blocks that restrict internet content.

"Saudi Arabia says explicitly that they censor the internet to 
preserve their Islamic culture and heritage, which is a pretty valid 
claim to make," explained the lab's Graeme Bunton.

"For us to start looking at ways to circumvent that is a difficult 
challenge for us. We do think that information should be free, but we 
do need to find a balance for respect for sovereign states to 
preserve their own culture."

But Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert says that nothing the group does 
is illegal, at least in North America.

"We probe networks, using methods I like to say that hackers, 
criminals and spies use all the time use all the time," he said.

"I think it's irresponsible for someone in my position as an academic 
not to use those tools to push the frontier of what's going on, in 
spite of the controversy that it raises with some law enforcement 
people.

"Some authoritarian regimes obviously don't like what we're doing. 
But we feel we're working in support of broader principles of human 
rights, so don't mind the controversy. Sometimes it helps."

Clark Boyd is technology correspondent for The World, a BBC World 
Service and WGBH-Boston co-production