Search This Blog
Powered by Blogger.

Blog Archive

Labels

Load More
Trendy Right Now

Popular Posts

Showing posts with label Censorship. Show all posts
Vulnerabilities and Exploits
Censorship Digital Communication Instagram Meta Social Media Turkey Vulnerabilities and Exploits

Why Did Turkey Suddenly Ban Instagram? The Shocking Reason Revealed


 

On Friday, Turkey's Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) unexpectedly blocked Instagram access across the country. The ICTA, responsible for overseeing internet regulations, did not provide any specific reason for the ban. However, according to reports from Yeni Safak, a newspaper supportive of the government, the ban was likely a response to Instagram removing posts by Turkish users that expressed condolences for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's death.

Many Turkish users faced difficulties accessing Instagram following the ban. Fahrettin Altun, the communications director for the Turkish presidency, publicly condemned Instagram, accusing it of censoring messages of sympathy for Haniyeh, whom he called a martyr. This incident has sparked significant controversy within Turkey.

Haniyeh’s Death and Its Aftermath

Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas and a close associate of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was killed in an attack in Tehran on Wednesday, an act allegedly carried out by Israel. His death prompted widespread reactions in Turkey, with many taking to social media to express their condolences and solidarity, leading to the conflict with Instagram.

A History of Social Media Restrictions in Turkey

This is not the first instance of social media restrictions in Turkey. The country, with a population of 85 million, includes over 50 million Instagram users, making such bans highly impactful. From April 2017 to January 2020, Turkey blocked access to Wikipedia due to articles that linked the Turkish government to extremism, tellingly limiting the flow of information.

This recent action against Instagram is part of a broader pattern of conflicts between the Turkish government and social media companies. In April, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, had to suspend its Threads network in Turkey after authorities blocked its information sharing with Instagram. This surfaces ongoing tensions between Turkey and major social media firms.

The blockage of Instagram illustrates the persistent struggle between the Turkish government and social media platforms over content regulation and freedom of expression. These restrictions pose crucial challenges to the dissemination of information and public discourse, affecting millions who rely on these platforms for news and communication. 

Turkey's decision to block Instagram is a testament to the complex dynamics between the government and digital platforms. As the situation pertains, it will be essential to observe the responses from both Turkish authorities and the affected social media companies to grasp the broader implications for digital communication and freedom of speech in Turkey.


Read more »
Technology
Censorship Internet censorship Technology

Roskomnadzor accused Google of blackmail and pressure on the court

Representatives of Roskomnadzor accused the American corporation Google of blackmail after its statement about possible risks for Russia associated with the requirement to unblock the YouTube channel Tsargrad or pay a court penalty. The organization had previously threatened to refuse to remove information banned in the country from search results.

"By threatening the Russian state with stopping the removal of prohibited content from search results, the company seeks to manipulate public opinion and put pressure on the judicial authorities. Google is ready to endanger the lives and health of Internet users in Russia, including children and teenagers, for the sake of its commercial interests," the agency said.

Ekaterina Mizulina, director of Safe Internet League, also called Google's behavior unacceptable. In her opinion, the American corporation would never dare to put pressure on the courts of major European countries, such as Germany and France, because then it would face fines of several billion euros. "These companies work in our market and make huge profits, so they should comply with the current Russian legislation and respect the interests of Russian users and business representatives," she stressed.

Earlier it was reported that Google filed an appeal to the Russian court. The company said that the court penalty, which it faces if it does not unblock the channel Tsargrad entails "significant risks to its ability to operate in Russia" as well as "putting at risk" the implementation of the federal law "On Information": Google may stop removing links to materials blocked in Russia from its search results.

Tsargrad is the first Russian conservative information and analytical TV channel on YouTube. It was blocked in the summer of 2020. Its owner Konstantin Malofeev has been under sanctions by the United States, Canada and the European Union since 2014. In April 2021, a Russian court declared the blocking of the YouTube channel illegal and demanded that access to it be returned.

Read more »
Cyber Law
Censorship Cyber Law

Putin signed the law on the isolation of the Russian Internet (Runet)


On May 1, Putin signed a law on the isolation of the Runet. Thus, Russia will have its own Internet. And it will happen this year. Roskomnadzor (The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media) and other agencies are currently preparing relevant regulatory documents and technical means that will make the Internet in Russia autonomous and controllable.

Since 2014, relations between Russia and Western countries began to deteriorate rapidly. It became obvious that in the event of further escalation of the conflict, the Western partners of the Russian Federation can extend the policy of sanctions on any sphere of public life, including IT.

The threat of disconnecting Russia from the global Internet became real in 2018 when the US developed and approved a cybersecurity strategy. According to it, Russia and Russian hackers declared one of the main threats to US cybersecurity. The text of the strategy states that the United States intends to punish those who represent a threat to US cybersecurity.

In addition to Russia, North Korea, China and Iran are enemies in the new US cybersecurity strategy. Two of these countries have already created their own sovereign Internet.

According to the Russian authorities, the main goal of the new law is to ensure the functioning of the Internet, even if someone decides to disconnect the Russian Federation from the relevant servers.

In accordance with the new law, all operators will be required to install additional equipment that should ensure the operation of the Internet throughout Russia without problems. Many experts already believe that, the cost of the Internet for Russian citizens will grow by 10-20% because of this decision.

The new law determines that Roskomnadzor assumes all the authority for managing networks in case of threats to the Russian Internet. In addition, Roskomnadzor has the right to directly block websites with prohibited information.

Recently it turned out that one law on the isolation of the Russian Internet was not enough. Now the Government is developing a new bill. All networks in Russia want to be divided into three levels: local, regional and all-Russian. The connection to foreign networks will be only at the all-Russian level and connection to the global Internet will be prohibited at the local and regional level.

The law on the isolation of the Runet will come into force in November 2019. The State financed about 30 billion rubles ($ 460 000 000) for its execution. Critics of the law believe that it will introduce total censorship in Russia, and most importantly is that the Internet in Russia will become slower and more expensive.


Read more »
Security News
Censorship hacker news IT Security News Security News

Encrypted Chat service website "Cryptocat" blocked in Iran

Cryptocat, a website that provides secure and encrypted messaging service has been blocked in the Iran. 


Despite the Iranian officials claims to offer more internet freedom, the top social networks like Facebook, twitter have been blocked in Iran, reports Mashable. Now, they have also blocked the Cryptocat service.

The cryptocat official website reports that cryptocat is appeared to be the first and only encrypted chat application to be censored in Iran.

Though the main website and service page is redirected to censorship page, their blog is accessible for Iranian users.  The app is still available in Chrome web store and Firefox add on.

In the blog post, cryptocat explained how to access their cryptocat service in Iran -  Users can still access the website using the TOR browser, a software that enables online anonymity and helps users to bypass internet censorship.
Read more »
PirateBrowser
Censorship Featured PirateBrowser

Download "Pirate Browser", released by The Pirate Bay to evade censorship


The Pirate Bay, one of the famous websites that provides torrent files, has released "PirateBrowser" which is described as a browser that allows users to access the Pirate Bay and other blocked sites.

The browser is based on Firefox 23 bundled with a Tor client and some proxy configurations to speed up loading.
Despite the inclusion of TOR, Torrentfreak notes that it doesn't actually provide any anonymity for its users, it is simply designed to evade the censorship.
"No bundled ad-ware, toolbars or other crap, just a Pre-configured Firefox browser.  A nice present to TPB and our users on this day, out 10yr birthday!" Official blog post reads.

The Pirate Bay team told TorrentFreak that "they are also working on a special BitTorrent-powered browser, which lets users store and distribute The Pirate Bay and other websites on their own."

"In theory, this will allow sites to exist and update even without having a public facing website. As a result, it will be virtually impossible to block or shut them down."

Report says the browser is available at "piratebrowser.com". However, i'm not able to access that website.
Read more »
Wikileaks
Breaking News Censorship IT Security News Security News Wikileaks

Searches for 'WikiLeaks' blocked in public search engine for the US National Archives


Users are searching for 'WikiLeaks' in the public search engine for the U.S National archives end up with an error message that says the requested page has been blocked.

When we try to search the 'Wikileaks' keyword in the archives.gov, we got the following error page:

Wikileaks keyword blocked in Us national archives


Even though they blocked the 'wikileaks' keyword, we can still get few documents that has the words 'wiki' and 'leak' (separated by space.)

But i have found another way to to list the all documents related to wikileaks by searching for the keyword '*ikileaks'. Now it displays the documents with a keyword 'wikileaks' ;)  Also searching for the '?ikileaks' list the same result.

still able to search


“The US National Archives has literally turned into Orwell’s Ministry of Truth.” In another more vivid message, “The US state is literally eating its own brain by censoring its own collective memories about WikiLeaks.” WikiLeaks reacted on Twitter.

“The US National Archives censoring searches for its records containing the word ‘WikiLeaks’ is absolutely absurd.”
Read more »
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)