Syria shuts down the Internet

Like Mubarak of Egypt, the ISPs in Syria shut down Internet access and an airport in Damascus as rebel troops continue to gain more ground and move towards the capital.

Syria blames terrorists for the outage, while many see this as an attempt to keep rebels in the country from mounting attacks.

Source: The Guardian

Google responds to UN closed meeting about future of Internet with petition

Recently, Google started a petition on United Nation’s closed door meeting on the future of the Internet. The Internet giant and others are concerned that the meeting will invite more control over the Internet rather than promoting Internet freedom around the world, thanks to countries like Russia and China who want to manipulate the Internet to their own advantage.

This UN meeting is set to take place in December, so time is limited.

Sign the petition here if you want a free and open Internet, and tell the UN that you want Internet freedom, privacy, and Net neutrality.

Iran sanctioned by U.S. on “Iron Curtain” internet censorship

The U.S. State Department has announced sanctions on Iran over its national Internet plans and countless censorship of dissidents in the country, including Iran’s Communications and Tech ministry.

Iran recently announced that they have blocked email and search providers, including Facebook and YouTube, probably to test its national Internet, or Intranet (closed network).

This is possibly one of the first sanctions by the U.S. over Iran’s censoring of the web on political opponents and dissidents.

Source: Huffington Post

Can the FBI and CIA read emails?

The fallout about Gen. David Petraeus continues, but the CIA and FBI seems to have access to Petraeus’s emails about his affair with his mistress. He may have resigned, but he’s not off scot-free yet.

But could this mean both the FBI and the CIA have the ability to read and impound emails from anyone with and without warrants? Imagine the CIA having the ability to tap into your computer and collecting data about your Internet activities, such as email, sites visited, keystrokes, etc., and perhaps erasing stuff that are critical to the government.

But in the digital technology age, cyberspace is perhaps still the limit.

Read more at ZDNet.com

Google inaccessible in China

Google has reported that its search engine and services were blocked off, right around the time that China chooses its new party leaders.

Perhaps a way to prevent the Chinese people to use Google to research about the candidates? Then perhaps the choosing of new leaders may not change the country very much.

Source: USA Today