In the News

By Desmond Ang for Radio Australia Posted Thu Jul 2, 2009 1:28pm AEST

Computer software invented to beat China's stringent internet controls is being used by pro-democracy activists in Iran to manoeuvre around authorities there.
Developed and managed by a team of volunteers from the Falun Gong spiritual group, Freegate was created to allow net users to bypass Beijing government censorship.

By Joel Schectman, BusinessWeek June 3, 2009, 8:48PM EST

As the Chinese government restricts access to controversial Web sites in the runup to the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, the country's Web surfers are finding creative ways around the censors. Companies that offer technologies for viewing blocked sites and hiding online communications say they have seen a spike in demand over the past month.

Owen Fletcher, Computerworld > IDG News Service 29.05.2009

The Internet has brought new hope to reformists in China since the country crushed pro-democracy protests in the capital 20 years ago. But as dissidents have gone high-tech, the government in turn has worked to restrict free speech on the Internet, stifling threats to its rule that could grow online.

By NTDTV 2009-6-19 12:39

And for more on Green Dam—and how anti-censorship groups are working to stop it—we go to Matt Gnaizda in the studio.
A new program created by a group of Chinese Americans will permanently uninstall the Chinese regime’s controversial “Green Dam Youth Escort” censorship software—which is set to be installed on all computers sold in China starting in July.
This new anti-Green Dam software is called Green Tsunami. It was developed by the Global Internet Freedom Consortium, and they’re making it available for free.
We have on Skype with us Bill Xia. His company is one of the Consortium’s members. He’s asked us not to record video of him for safety reasons.

By Anita Dufalla/Post-Gazette Sunday, June 07, 2009

"Expansion of Internet freedom technology lacks only the support and will of free societies to protect freedom against those who would deny it. With an extremely modest investment, the global Internet protocols created by such "Davids" as Shiyu Zhou, Peter Li and Bill Xia could be scaled up to achieve a "tipping point" capacity able to serve 100 million unique users per day. Such firewall-smashing protocols as Freegate, DynaWeb and UltraSurf, which are now available to a few million, would be in the hands of so many residents of closed societies as to make futile any attempt by their governments to block free expression."

By James O'Toole, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Thursday, June 04, 2009

As the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square upheaval approached, Internet users in China found new restrictions on access to Web sites offering accounts or commentary on the June 4, 1989, crackdown that brought the deaths of hundreds of demonstrators.

The New York Times and The Guardian reported that even social networking sites such as Twitter were blocked throughout China this week. Reuters reported that Hotmail similarly went dark across the country. The cyber censorship is nothing new, in China or elsewhere. One research and advocacy group, the OpenNet Initiative, reports that more than 25 countries have some kind of political or governmental censorship of the Web.

ATLANTA--(Business Wire) Tue Jun 16, 2009 9:33am EDT

A few days after China announced the mandatory installation of a piece of
censorship software on every PC sold in China, a leading anti-censorship
organization releases software to defeat it.

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: June 17, 2009 NEW YORK TIMES

"Originally, Freegate was available only in Chinese and English, but a growing number of people have been using it in other countries, such as Myanmar. Responding to the growing use of Freegate in Iran, the consortium introduced a Farsi-language version last July — and usage there skyrocketed."

By JOHN MARKOFF Published: April 30, 2009 NEW YORK TIMES

"The creators of the software seized upon by Iranians are members of the Global Internet Freedom Consortium, based largely in the United States and closely affiliated with Falun Gong. The consortium is one of many small groups developing systems to make it possible for anyone to reach the open Internet. It is the modern equivalent of efforts by organizations like the Voice of America to reach the citizens of closed countries."

By Epoch Times Jun 14, 2009
New software, expected to be released Monday, will disable or remove China's latest computer controlling software, “Green Dam-Youth Escort,” from users' computers.

The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has ordered that all computers purchased in China after July 1 have Green Dam pre-installed.