Recent growth in places like China, Vietnam, India and Russia brought astounding economic and technological successes that also yielded some of the largest networks of censorship in history. The Great Firewall of China, DPI and SORM in Russia, and SmartFilter in Iran and Saudi Arabia are just a few of the tools used to block the free expression of millions of people.
For this talk, we’ll discuss how WordPress can empower users while still understanding the pitfalls and considerations required to reach those affected by censorship.
Other topics will cover how WordPress sites and plugins get blocked, issues designing and maintaining sites, and how the OpenNet Initiative affects WordPress. John will also give insight into his own experiences working with censorship and the Web from his time working in China.
2. @jgamboa
• Enterprise Support Team, WP Engine
• Four plus years of Web experience abroad
• Founding Member - Shanghai Beer Week
3. What you’ll learn from me
• Why and how WordPress and
non-WordPress sites get
blocked
• Which plugins are blocked and
how they affect performance
• What to do when your site is
blocked
• How to work around the
censored Web
5. What is Web Censorship
• Domain and IP-level
timeout, connection resets,
removed content
• Man-in-the-middle attacks,
State sponsored DDOS
• ISP directives
• Trolls and hackers for hire
• Judicial retaliation
7. How is WordPress Affected?
• WordPress is now quarter of the entire Internet
• More non-English Downloads than English Downloads
• “Internet Sovereignty”, Segmentation and the Wuzhen Declaration
• Democratization of the web
9. Turkey
• WordPress.com Blocked
Because of a Single Blogpost
• 77,000 Known Blocked
domains (Ataturk, Armenian
Genocide, Erdogan)
• 2012 Government Decree
• Trolls for hire - New York Times
“The Agency”
• SORM, DPI - Blocking and
Surveillance
10. Russia
• 2012 Government Decree
• Trolls for hire - New York Times
“The Agency”
• SORM, DPI - Blocking and
Surveillance
11. India
• Fluctuating censorship
protocols
• Public discourse & discussion
of the web
• Targeted WordPress sites
Vietnam
• Communist state
• Targeted blogs
• Social media sites
• Savviest users
12. Middle East
• SmartFilter by Secure
Computing of San Jose, CA,
USA
• Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman,
UAE
• Lots of individual blogs
• Facebook, Twitter, etc.
13.
14.
15. China
• Most pervasive form of
Internet censorship
• Great Firewall of China
promotes harmony
• Causes the most trouble with
WordPress
16. China, cont.
• 96% all traffic within
Mainland
• The Three “T’s”
• River Crabs, 50 Centers &
Big Mamas
河蟹,五毛 & 大妈
17.
18. Blocked Plugins & Functionality
• API/External WordPress calls
• Politically-sensitive discussions
• Blocked IPs and domains on
shared hosts
• Jetpack, WordPress.com,
Gravatar
• Google (Plus, Fonts, Photos)
• Be Mindful: BBPress, Yoast SEO,
Social Media
19. Developing Around Censorship
• Know your blocked plugins
• Limiting reliance on outside
sources
• Reconsider SSL
• Government hosting
“registration”
• Avoid sensitive discussion
• You are responsible for your
users
• Hong Kong hosting
20. If you get blocked
• Relax
• Confirm (BlockedinIran.com,
Greatfire.org)
• Ask you host for help
• Check for Noisy Neighbors
• Consider changing
domains/moving servers
21. What Can The Community Do?
• Continue to Support Non-English WordPress
• Follow and Understand OpenNet Initiative
• Polyglots: Contribute to Core and Plugin Translations
• Talk About it
• Publish, Publish, Publish
22. What Did We Learn?
• Why and How of Censorship:
Government directive
ISPs, DNS, Social Media
• Blocked Sites & Plugins:
Jetpack, Social Sign On &
Discussion
Free discourse, large databases
• If you’re blocked:
Greafire.org, Blocked in Iran
Talk to your host, change
domain/IP
• Working with Censorship
Know the limitations
Know your audience
Hey Everyone. I’m John P. Gamboa. I’m a Enterprise Support Specialist at WP Engine’s HQ in Austin, TX, USA
Prior to being in TX I spent four years living and working overseas. One year in S. Korea and nearly three years in Shanghai, China
I got my start in WordPress doing a few small beer-oriented websites for Shanghai’s burgeoning craft beer scene. And yes, there’s craft beer in China.
Government:
Most obvious and well-known type of censorship. This is information that a government doesn’t want you to know or so. Or information they can’t control.
Religious censorship is a form of censorship where freedom of expression is controlled or limited using religious authority or on the basis of the teachings of the religion. This has been seen in all corners of the world.
Moral censorship is the suppression of materials that the public considers obscene or offensive. Think snuff films and child pornography. This is most culturally-accepted type of censorship. Chief Justice Potter of the US Supreme Court once famously said about obscenity, IE, moral censorship “I know it when I see it.” This is the most dubious form of censorship, that has the most risks for free expression
Self-censorship: This is the most commonly seen in our web 2.0 era. This is one of the most damaging for the posterity of the web, and its been seen in many different places. For example, buzzfeed deleting thousands of posts online.
There are lots of countries, including my own native United States, that make numerous organization’s lists of enemies of the Web. However, for the sake of our discussion, we’re going to talk mostly about emerging or growing markets and how their censorship affect WordPress and its viability of a growing Web