Censor Content Research Articles

Blockchain Based Decentralized Web Hosting System

Abstract: In today’s digital era, the internet heavily depends on a centralized framework where powerful servers support content on well-known platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Although this centralization is proficient in content delivery, it comes with significant drawbacks, including a single point of failure and vulnerability to censorship. The need for a decentralized web hosting structure is growing due to its promise of content accessibility regardless of a user’s geographical location, while still maintaining the speed and reliability of conventional web services. Currently, the internet’s structure is defined by centralization, introducing risks related to cyber-attacks and service disturbances. For example, even a brief disruption to a large platform like Facebook can leave millions without internet access. Additionally, large corporations and government bodies possess significant control over the internet, enabling them to alter and censor content. To confront these problems, it becomes essential to develop a decentralized web structure that is publicly owned. This study delves into the issues arising from the centralized internet and investigates potential solutions by utilizing blockchain technology to decentralize web structure, subsequently improving traditional web services and fortifying the internet’s robustness and accessibility

Silenced voices: unravelling India’s dissent crisis through historical and contemporary analysis of free speech and suppression

ABSTRACT In India, the world’s largest democracy, the right to express dissenting opinions has come under increasing pressure due to governmental reactions to violent and non-violent activities and opposition. As well as direct suppression, a concerning trend has arisen whereby individuals and groups may choose to self-censor rather than risk the consequences of speaking out. These outcomes are related in this paper to the treatment of social media, where official policies and laws regulate and censor content on social media on the dubious basis that it is ‘offensive’ or ‘objectionable’. These restraints often lack clear guidelines and are applied arbitrarily, leading to a chilling effect on free speech and the expression of dissenting views. Furthermore, India lacks a comprehensive legal framework to address hate speech, resulting in a patchwork of provisions within the Indian Penal Code that inadequately define and circumscribe hate speech. This article contends that the ‘freedom to criticise’ should be legally better protected to ensure that diverse opinions can be safely held and expressed in order to maintain and reflect the pluralistic nature of Indian democracy.

Strategies for the Growth of Radio and Television in China amid Media Convergence

Chinese radio and television have evolved as a consequence of the government's efforts to censor content and tighten its grip on the media industry. Independent media company expansion has been constrained as a result, strengthening governmental control over the media industry. The growth of Chinese radio and television has also been influenced by media convergence and the blending of new media technologies with established media platforms. However, attempts by the government to censor information have stunted the expansion of independent media outlets and strengthened the government's hold on the media industry. Through this integration, established media businesses like SMG have been able to reach a wider and more varied audience and develop new income streams from internet services and e-commerce. Additionally, by minimizing duplication of effort and facilitating resource sharing, media convergence has increased the effectiveness of traditional media firms. This article explained the principles of the Chinese government has implemented strict regulations and policies to control and shape the media landscape, which has resulted in a high degree of consolidation and centralization. For instance, the government has limited the number of licenses issued to television and radio stations, with many stations being owned or controlled by state-owned enterprises. This has led to a high degree of control over the content that is broadcast, with the government heavily censoring programming that is deemed to be politically sensitive or that contradicts the official narrative.

Hot topics: Denial-of-Service attacks on news websites in autocracies

AbstractMost authoritarian countries censor the press. As a response, many opposition and independent news outlets have found refuge on the Internet. Despite the global character of the Internet, news outlets are vulnerable to censorship in cyberspace. This study investigates Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks on news websites in Venezuela and details how news reporting is related to DoS attacks in an attempt to censor content. For this empirical test, I monitored 19 Venezuelan news websites from November 2017 until June 2018 and continuously retrieved their content and status codes to infer DoS attacks. Statistical analyses show that news content correlates to DoS attacks. In the Venezuelan context, these news topics appear to be not only on protest and repression but also on opposition actors or other topics that question the legitimacy of the regime. By establishing these relationships, this study deepens our understanding of how modern technologies are used as censorship tools.

De-Anonymisation Attacks on Tor: A Survey

Anonymity networks are becoming increasingly popular in today’s online world as more users attempt to safeguard their online privacy. Tor is currently the most popular anonymity network in use and provides anonymity to both users and services (hidden services). However, the anonymity provided by Tor is also being misused in various ways. Hosting illegal sites for selling drugs, hosting command and control servers for botnets, and distributing censored content are but a few such examples. As a result, various parties, including governments and law enforcement agencies, are interested in attacks that assist in de-anonymising the Tor network, disrupting its operations, and bypassing its censorship circumvention mechanisms. In this survey paper, we review known Tor attacks and identify current techniques for the de-anonymisation of Tor users and hidden services. We discuss these techniques and analyse the practicality of their execution method. We conclude by discussing improvements to the Tor framework that help prevent the surveyed de-anonymisation attacks.

Fighting for the Internet: Online Blackout Protests and Internet Legislation in the United States, 1996-2018

Fighting for the Internet: Online Blackout Protests and Internet Legislation in the United States, 1996-2018

IIm Still Dancing: The Continued Efficacy of First Amendment Precedent and Values for New-School Regulation

This response essay reflects on the meaning of two foundational First Amendment decisions: New York Times Co. v. Sullivan — characterized by Harry Kalven, Jr., as “an occasion for dancing in the streets”— which imposed limits on public officials’ recovery for defamation, and New York Times Co. v. United States, which reaffirmed the central First Amendment principle against prior restraints. Professor Jack Balkin characterizes these decisions as responses to “old-school speech regulation . . . [in which] the state had used penalties and injunctions directed at speakers and publishers in order to control and discipline their speech.” But, Balkin observes, changes in the infrastructure and technology of free expression and in the regulation of speech have significantly weakened the impact of these decisions. He claims that “new-school” speech regulation — government exercise of informal control over and co-optation of privately-owned digital infrastructure providers — is not meaningfully subject to these precedents. Balkin expresses particular concern about the inefficacy of the prior restraint doctrine in circumstances of collateral censorship, in which the government encourages private intermediaries like ISPs to censor the speech of others. Such instances of collateral censorship, he worries, will affect an end run around the traditional procedural safeguards imposed on prior restraints. Balkin also expresses concern about the government’s co-optation of private infrastructure providers, through which the government informally pressures these entities to restrict users’ privacy and freedom of expression. In this response essay, I contend first that the prior restraint doctrine reinforced by the Court in New York Times Co. v. United States is still effective in holding in check new-school regulation — at least outside the national security context — as evidenced by cases such as Center for Democracy and Technology v. Pappert. Second, I argue, Balkin’s concerns about government co-optation of private infrastructure providers should be partially allayed by steps these providers have taken to expose efforts by the government to co-opt them and to commit themselves to upholding First Amendment principles, and to transparency and visibility in responding to government requests to censor content or reveal user information. In sum, the prior restraint doctrine — at least outside of the national security context — is still effective in holding in check government efforts to restrict speech. And recent actions by the entities responsible for the Internet’s free speech infrastructure have trended toward transparency and against co-optation by the government. These developments give us reason to be optimistic about the continued relevance of First Amendment precedent and values in the era of new-school regulation.

Truth Replaced by Silence: A Field Experiment on Private Censorship in Russia

Through highly visible acts of repression, authoritarian regimes can send informative signals to private actors about what types of speech are off-limits and might draw the punitive attention of the state. These acts not only encourage private actors to censor themselves but also to censor other private actors, a behavior we refer to as regime-induced private censorship. Our paper is the first to provide systematic empirical evidence on the extent and targets of such censorship behavior. We use a field experiment conducted throughout the Russian Federation in September 2014 to investigate the private censorship behavior of private media firms. The results suggest that private actors censor the messages of other private actors when those messages include anti-regime language, calls for collective action, or both. These results are partially consistent with previous empirical findings in that they show that private actors censor content with a collective action appeal even when the message itself is non-political. Our results, however, build upon previous work by showing that anti-regime messages that do not contain a call for collective action are still censored under some authoritarian regimes. Our results highlight the importance of forms of censorship other than state censorship when discussing repression, dissent, and public opinion formation in authoritarian regimes.

Communication, technology, and political conflict

Modern communication technology is emerging rapidly, with tremendous social implications. The key innovations introduced by this technology include the increased pervasiveness and the rich nature of digitally transmitted information, and a new type of network structure over which it is disseminated. The articles in this special issue present theoretical and empirical research on the relationship between communication technology and political conflict and violence. There are different pathways through which this can happen: technology can facilitate collective action, but at the same time give governments the opportunity to censor content and gather intelligence about dissidents. Also, audience effects can be introduced by the rich and instant transmission of information from conflict regions. The contributions to this special issue can be divided into three groups. A first group of articles looks at the effects of ‘old’ communication technologies with state-of-the-art methods, which is necessary to see if the effects of modern technology really differ. A second category of articles focuses on ‘new’ communication technologies, and try to assess their effect on conflict both theoretically and empirically. The third and last category reverses this question, and looks at the reflection of war and violence in (traditional and new) media channels.

CYBERSPACE: A VENUE FOR TERRORISM

This paper discusses how cyberspace has become a venue for terrorists groups for recruiting and proliferating propaganda and terrorism. Moreover, this study explores how the low cost Internet infrastructure and social media sites (such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) have contributed to their networking and operations due to the convenience, in terms of availability, accessibility, message redundancy, ease of use, and the inability to censor content. Concepts such as cyber-weapons, cyber-attacks, cyber-war, and cyber-terrorism are presented and explored to assess how terrorist groups are exploiting cyberspace.

INTERNET CENSORSHIP BY LAW: A CHALLENGE TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN THAILAND

In Thailand, at present, content on the Internet is subject to a legal regulatory framework. The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) takes a leading role in enforcing the Computer-Related Crime Act 2007 to censor content on the Internet which is deemed ‘illegal’. In this article, it is contended that the legal regulation of Internet content which Thailand adopts is problematic in several aspects. This could pose a serious threat to the constitutional right to freedom of expression of Internet users in Thailand. Keywords: Internet censorship, freedom of expression, Thailand.

More Than Just Free Content

This study explores file sharers' reported motivations for downloading and uploading content on peer-to-peer networks, including ethical obligations guiding file sharing. Drawing on Lessig's classification of purposes of file sharing and Giesler's theoretical framework of gifting systems, 40 in-depth interviews were conducted with file sharers in Singapore using a standard protocol, then transcripts were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Downloading is perceived as an alternative through which users satisfy desires that existing markets do not meet. Respondents reported downloading to avoid long waits for content to arrive in Singapore; to access difficult-to-find and censored content; to sample content, including content outside their usual tastes; and because downloading is convenient and free. Respondents reported a norm of reciprocity and sense of community that motivated them to upload and an obligation to purchase content they liked. Implications for understanding and combating file sharing during the inevitable transition to other business models are discussed.

Search Monitor: Toward a Measure of Transparency

This report interrogates and compares the censorship practices of the search engines provided by Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! for the Chinese market along with the domestic Chinese search engine Baidu. This report finds that although Internet users in China are able to access more information due to the presence of foreign search engines the web sites that are censored are often the only sources of alternative information available for politically sensitive topics. In addition to censoring the web sites of Chinese dissidents and the Falun Gong movement, the web sites of major news organizations, such as the BBC, as well as international advocacy organizations, such as Human Rights Watch, are also censored. The data presented in this report indicates that there is not a comprehensive system - such as a list issued by the Chinese government - in place for determining censored content. In fact, the evidence suggests that search engine companies themselves are selecting the specific web sites to be censored raising the possibility of over blocking as well as indicating that there is significant flexibility in choosing how to implement China's censorship requirements. Finally, this report finds that search engine companies maintain an overall low level of transparency regarding their censorship practices and concludes that independent monitoring is required to evaluate their compliance with public pledges regarding commitments to transparency and human rights.

Television Violence and You

Television Violence and You