The State Department and Net Freedom: A year of great challenges & opportunities

1. The State Department and Net Freedom:
All Talk and Little Action …?
A year of great challenges & opportunities
Heritage Foundation
Washington, DC
January 19, 2011

2. Net Freedom @ Freedom House
– Freedom on the Net (FOTN)
• 2009 (15), 2011 (37)
– Technology Support
• Support, Training, Monitoring, Research
– Advocacy / Policy
• Internet Governance (IGF)
• Freedom of Expression
• Engaging NGO Networks
– Strategic Partnerships

3. What is Net Freedom?
• What techniques are used to
control and censor online content?
• What are the main threats to
internet and digital media freedom?
• What are the positive trends and
uses of these technologies?

4. HOW DO WE MEASURE NET FREEDOM
• Obstacles to Access
• Limits on Content
• Violations of User Rights

6. WHAT WE FOUND:

7. GROWING CIVIC ACTIVISM
Bloggers and other internet
users are using digital media
in creative ways to mobilize:
• Facebook activists in
Colombia, Iran, Egypt,
Tunisia
• Use of Twitter for political
change in Moldova & Tunisia
• Text messages report
election violence in Kenya
• “Sneakernets” in Cuba

8. TUNISIA – JASMINE REVOLUTION

9. LEGAL REPERCUSSIONS AND VIOLENCE
• Legal repercussions:
– Use of general media legislation
against online activities as well
as development of internet-
specific legislation
• Extra-legal harassment and
violence:
– Detentions, intimidation, torture
– Technical violence: Hacking,
DDoS attacks, Cyber espionage
• Surveillance and infringements on
privacy in a wide range of
environments

10. RESTRICTING ACCESS
• Seven of the 15 countries studied had blocked
„Web 2.0‟ applications such as:
– Facebook
– YouTube
– Twitter
• Iran restricts broadband and Mobile SMS
• “Just in Time” blocking (elections, key events)
• Flag for removal: Social Media

11. CENSORSHIP
• Some censorship in
every country studied,
though not always
political/social content.
• Wide range of techniques for removing content:
– Technical filtering
– Manual removal because of government directives, judicial
orders, intimidation
• China‟s apparatus is the most sophisticated, multi-layered, and
includes censored SMS.
• Significant lack of transparency in censorship procedures,
including in some democracies.

12. GOING THE DISTANCE FOR ACCESS
Would you travel over 600 miles just to check your email?
Residents in the Xinjiang province of China faced crippling
restrictions of email, SMS, and the Internet after the
government clamped down on civil unrest in the area.
Business owners and residents of Xinjiang were forced to
travel 24 hours by car and hundreds of miles by train and
airplane to reach the nearest internet café.

13. Censorship : New Threats
• Just in Time Blocking
– Key website and/or services blocked ahead of significant
events (protest, election, strike)
• Communications infrastructure turned off (Iran)
• Servers seized
• Targeted Censorship: Block key sites at critical time.
• Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack
• Flag for removal:
– Use “abuse reporting” mechanisms to suspend accounts

14. Censorship : Just in time blocking

15. Technology Support
• Training
– Surveillance (Mobile, Internet, etc..)
• Threats & Vulnerabilities are complex
• Need to explain in common, simple to understand language
– Information Security:
• Secure communications, Circumvention tools
• Human Factors:
– Don‟t underestimate what damage one person can do

16. Discussion (I)
• Understanding the vulnerabilities
– Need to explain vulnerabilities, threats and solutions in
simple to use language
• High Risk Environments / Pervasive Surveillance
– Sending messages via insecure networks
• Internet
• Mobile Networks (location tracking, remote access of phone, etc..)

17. Discussion (II)
– Privacy should be maximized
• Don‟t leak key information (credentials: username & passwords)
• HTTPS Everywhere
– Importance of Persistent HTTPS & minimizing history/logs
• Web 2.0 (Facebook, Twitter)
– Privacy / Account Security settings
– Two-Factor Authentication
– Secure Email
• Which webmail service is most/least secure
• Gmail (Review of Settings - Best Practices)
• Hushmail
• Vaultletsoft (Install / Account creation / Features / Best Practices)

18. Discussion (III)
– Chat
• Skype: Vulnerabilities (What happens if it is blocked or compromised?)
• Alternatives : Open Standards Based (Jabber, Guardian Project)
– Website Hosting
• Not just about servers : Domain name registration, bandwidth, etc
• Hosting : Pick a jurisdiction that provides protection (US, Amazon EC2..)
– Anti-censorship / Anonymity
• Global Internet Freedom Consortium (GIFT) suite of tools
• Psiphon (Proxy), Hotspot Shield (VPN), TOR (Anonymity)

19. Freedom House is an independent watchdog organization that supports the
expansion of freedom around the world. Freedom House supports democratic
change, monitors freedom, and advocates for democracy and human rights.
For more information contact:
Robert Guerra
Freedom House
Email: guerra@freedomhouse.org
Web: freedomhouse.org
Twitter: netfreedom
Support the right of every individual to be free.