Thankful to be an American

I read an eye-opening article on Forbes.com, "Broadband Big Brothers." It included a slide show, “The world’s most net-repressive countries.” It’s shocking to me that so many in the world are so forcefully sheltered. Information from Reporters Without Borders and the OpenNet Initiative (a consortium of universities that performs in-country testing on Internet filters), was used to compile a list of countries that exert tremendous control over on-line information.

Here are the highlights…er, make that lowlights:

1. Iran: They block more than 10 million "immoral" sites, including pornographic, homosexual-related and even most about dating in general. "Insults to religion" are said to carry the death penalty.
2. China. The "Great Firewall of China" blocks users from any site carrying political references that they consider taboo (i.e. independence for Taiwan or Tibet). Their 137 million web users don’t really have free speech.
3. Tunisia. All their cyber cafes are monitored by the government. They even employ administrators to police all browsing activity.
4. Myanmar. They keep a tight rein on the Internet, banning all political and social content they see as controversial. Screenshots of web activity are taken every few minutes in their cyber cafes. It is reported that the Internet is only available for a few hours each day, and a mere 1% of citizens have Internet access at home.
5. Saudi Arabia. Islamic values are strictly enforced. All sites dealing with gambling, nudity, drugs, or dating are a no-no. However, international media is often available, particularly on non-Arabic sites.
6. Syria. Banned are all extremist Muslim sites, political opposition sites, Kurdish minority sites, and all Israeli sites.
7. Uzbekistan. Although their law forbids censorship, they are adamant about controlling information around sensitive topics. One such topic is a massacre in Andijan in 2005 where Islamic extremists were said to have killed 173 civilians.
8. Unranked: North Korea and China. They are unranked because OpenNet Initiatives has not been able to perform testing there. North Korea basically prevents their network from connecting with the outside world. They have their own intranet with its own search engine and email program. Cuba has harsh laws around Internet usage. Illegal Internet and counter-revolutionary activity mean imprisonment. In addition, Internet connections are very costly. An hour of connectivity costs as much as half the average person’s monthly pay.



Erika Moskal