What happen to websites and blogs after they get blocked? Do arrested and threatened bloggers and digital activists stop their online activities once they face a governmental threat? my keynote for re:publica 10 conference, Berlin, April 15, 2010

1. do censorship & repression kill content online?
sami ben gharbia, re:publica10, Berlin, April 15, 2010

2. silencing online speech, how-to do it?
 
censorship hacking &
DDOS
@
DPI ❺
atmosphere punishing &
of fear persecuting
 

3. e-journalists & bloggers represent 45% of all media workers in prison (CPJ)

4. threatened voices: country profile page
103 124

5. threatened voices: blogger profile
103 124

6. threatened voices, who, where, when, what and why?
103 124

7. threatened voices: data visualization per country
103 124

8. 227 threatened bloggers worldwide - April 2010 (most repressive region)
Arab World Rest Of the World
Arab World
41%
Rest Of the World
59%
135 92

9. 227 threatened bloggers worldwide - April 2010 (most repressive region)
Middle East Rest Of the World
Rest Of the World
45% Middle East
55%
103 124

10. voices threatened vs. years in power :)
103 124
credit: anasqtiesh.com

11. blogs of threatened bloggers, before & after (exp. from Saudi Arabia and Iran)
before after
103 124

12. digital activists networks and censorship (Tunisia)
credit: Fieke Jansen

13. is censorship killing content? (Tunisia)
dead websites/blogs

14. 34% of those 67 blocked websites are dead (Tunisia)
Dead Websites Alive
44 23
Dead Websites
34%
Alive
66%

15. blocked websites, before & after (exp. from Tunisia)
http://www.ltdh.org/ website of the Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH) becoming a chinese website!!!

16. blocked websites, before & after (exp. from Tunisia)
http://www.cnlt98.org/ website the National Council for Liberties in Tunisia (CNLT) becoming a website with sponsored links!!!

17. blocked websites, before & after (exp. from Tunisia)
http://tounes.naros.info/ website of another Tunisian NGO, DNS reserved but empty!!!

18. keyword filtering killing content (images non-visible for users in Tunisia)

19. deep packet inspection (DPI) killing content inside emails
email as seen from
outside Tunisia
same email as seen
from Tunisia

20. general consequences of online censorship for bloggers & webmasters
short-term: some publicity & support (tiny % of bloggers)
long-term: blogger will be left alone
isolating the blogger from his/her environment
significant decrease in readership
significant decrease in interactivity and conversation
shift from blogging to protest
doubting the values of blogging
scaring out and discouraging others bloggers
killing content

21. website/blog blocked, what next?
creating a new blog/website (easy)
losing page ranking + loosing referring links + confusing
readership
migrating (advanced/impossible)
redirecting to a new DNS (advanced/costly/impossible)
setting up mirror blog (advanced/costly/impossible)
setting up a secure website -https- (advanced/costly/
temporarily/impossible)
become an “exiled blogger” (temporarily)
relying on facebook and other web 2.0 platforms as “safe”
haven (temporarily)
self-censorship
stop blogging (RIP ?%)

22. micro-pipeline as unblockable infrastructure?

23. cross-posting & mirroring, not always working!

24. playing with platforms: from youtube to google earth, maps, etc.

25. sponsored links as unblockable information!

26. an endless cat-and-mouse game...
thank you
sami ben gharbia
work
advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org
threatened.globalvoicesonline.org
blog & projects
samibengharbia.com
nawaat.org
babtounes.com
cybversion.org
twitter.com/ifikra
email
advocacy@globalvoicesonline.org