Wikipedia, Australia and Censorship

I've previously discussed censorship of Wikipedia by Great Britain. It appears that Australia may be the next democracy to attempt to censor Wikipedia. Australia currently has a secret blacklist of websites which are censored. Nominally the list is to deal primarily with child pornography but no one can tell what precisely is one the list since it is secret. As with the websites censored by Great Britian, there is no clear system of oversight of what gets added to the list. Activists have attempted to show that additions to the list are arbitrary and poorly thought out. Recently, they succeeded in getting an anti-abortion website with graphic pictures of aborted fetuses added to the list. Moving on, the activists then added links to the website in various online fora, using it as an example of a how the list was running rampshod over peoples free speech rights. The Australian Communications and Media Authority responded by sending one of the online fora a nasty note telling them to take out the link or be subject to large fines and risk having their forum added to the list. Wikipedia in reporting on this ongoing controversy has linked to the blacklisted abortion website. The activists understand what this means:

"If ACMA blacklists their own Wikipedia page, well that says it all doesn't it? If they don't, that is a very, very strong reason to call them hypocrites for making vastly different responses to two sites linking to the very same material."

It should be interesting to see over the next few days how ACMA responds.

A Short Rant Concerning His Royal Majesty Bhumibol Adulyadej

I've talked before about problems of internet censorship, and I've mentioned in passing Thailand's rules against insulting the king. Australian journalist Harry Nicolaides was just sentenced for three years in jail in Thailand for insulting King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Nicolaides was living in Thailand, and his apparent offense occurred in a book he wrote three years ago.

This sort of censorship is par for the course in Thailand. But what makes this case noteworthy is that CNN and other news sources are unwilling to even report what Nicolaides said. According to CNN, "CNN has chosen not to repeat the allegations made by Nicolaides because it could result in CNN staff being prosecuted in Thailand."

So now Thailand's idiocy is ruining news coverage in other countries. As long as King Bhumibol Adulyadej continues to condone this sort of nonsense , he deserves the same level of respect accorded anyone else who jails those who speak their minds.

So let me make this as clear as I can. In the spirit of Cohen v. California: Fuck Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Note: This post has gone through substantial editing.

Wikipedia, Great Britain and Censorship

ISPs in Great Britain are censoring Wikipedia. From the Wikinews article:

Wikinews has learned that at least six of the United Kingdom's main Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have implemented monitoring and filtering mechanisms that are causing major problems for UK contributors on websites operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, amongst up to 1200 other websites. The filters appear to be applied because Wikimedia sites are hosting a Scorpions album cover which some call child pornography. The Scorpions are a German rock band who have used several controversial album covers and are perhaps best known for their song, "Rock You Like a Hurricane".

The evil wiki witch Durova already has an entry on this topic which I recommend reading. My own analysis follows.

While there has already been a large amount of reaction against this perceived censorship accompanied by cries that of course this image is not child porn, I can see how a reasonable individual might consider the image to be over the line. The image in question consists of a nude girl of about 11 years of age with an apparent lens crack over her genitalia. Moreover, the pose the girl is in is a pose which would arguably be sexual if that pose were done by an adult even if she were fully clothed. However, it is clear that the image is legal in the United States and the State of Florida where the Wikipedia servers reside.

The censorship has been done in a very hamfisted fashion. Among other consequences it forces the majority of people accessing Wikipedia in Great Britain to do so only through a handful of IP addresses. This is making it difficult for Wikipedia admins to deal with vandalism from anywhere in Great Britain and is making it difficult for people in Britain to edit Wikipedia in general.

There are two issues which I find particularly disturbing.

First, the ISPs made the decision after the Internet Watch Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to stoping child pornography on the internet, decided that the image was close enough to child porn to be included in their list. There's thus nothing even resembling an appeal process or any form of transparency about these decisions. Indeed, even now the IWF has not clarified whether any other pages on Wikipedia are being similarly censored.

Second, many of the people in Great Britain who have attempted to access the page have received a 404 error rather than be told that the content is being censored. If this occurs in less prominent cases people might not even realize there is censorship occurring and simply assume that the server in question is down or has some other problem. This is thus a subtle form of censorship which can be hard to detect.

Update: David Gerard appeared on the Today show to talk about this. He has a transcript of that appearance as well as his thoughts on the matter.

Great Britain, Germany and Internet Censorship

There is a common belief that modern technology makes it harder to censor people. Unfortunately, recent events have shown otherwise. Great Britain is leading a charge that, if unchecked, will allow almost any government to censor almost anyone anywhere.

Great Britain recently extradited Gerald Toben, an Australian national, to Germany to face charges of Holocaust denial after Toben landed at Heathrow airport. Toben is no doubt an odious human being. However, laws such as Germany’s laws on H holocaust denial are infringement of free speech rights. More disturbingly, Toben did not commit his crime in Germany. However, since his blog was visible in Germany, Germany asserts that he has violated their laws. And Great Britain is going along with it.

In the past, Great Britain’s actions have been detrimental to free speech. Great Britain has been strongly criticized in the past for its libel laws under which the burden of proof to is placed automatically on the defendant. Together with a very low standard of what constitutes publication in Great Britain, Britain has become known for “libel tourism.” In one memorable case, an American author was successfully sued in Great Britain when 23 copies of her book were bought online by people in Great Britain. However, the British libel laws have at least one saving grace: they are civil penalties. The German law in question is criminal.



This is all the more disturbing because many countries are in the process of strengthening their laws restricting speech or are cracking down on offensive speech. Italy has recently attempted to prosecute an Italian comedian for insulting the Pope. The Netherlands recently decided to expand its anti-blasphemy laws to include speech offensive to any group. . If I insult the Pope and then land in Great Britain, would they send me to Italy or the Netherlands first?



Great Britain’s reaction to Toben is not productive. Great Britain should officially repudiate this stance and Germany should officially repudiate prosecution of people whose only crime is to have a website that can be accessed in Germany. These laws may be used now to imprison those whom we despise but the risk is too high.

Edit: The above contains some minor factual issues that don't detract from the central point. See the anonymous commentator's remark below for details.

Follow up edit: It looks like Toben will not be sent to Germany after all. See this article.

Censorship, guns, and Lone Star College Tomball

Lone Star College Tomball, a small college in Texas, is at the center of criticism by various right-wing groups for perceived censorship. The college's branch of Young Conservatives of Texas distributed a "satirical" "gun-safety flier" for which they are now in trouble. The branch may be put under probation at the school and the students may face disciplinary action. While this has received some attention in right-wing blogs, so far the go to source is from that bastion of fair and balanced news World Net Daily.

I am normally strongly against anything resembling censorship, but in this case the circumstances are not clear cut. The list of safety tips included "Always keep your gun pointed in a safe direction, such as at a Hippy or a Communist". Now, I'm not going to discuss the fact that this sounds like it was from 1965 other than to speculate that possibly Tomball is so isolated that the upheaval of the 60s is just starting to reach there. I'm not going to discuss that the Cold War is over. (And Emily, if you are reading this- as far as I'm concerned I still think that communism in most of its variations a threat to basic liberties and to humanity and all remarks about what to do when at war still apply. My views on this are absolutely unchanged. Don't think otherwise). I don't need to discuss the abject stupidity of the remark because it is far from what constitutes reasonable political discourse. You don't make jokes about how segments of society are ok to shoot. In this case, it amounts to a borderline threat. This line by itself is simply appalling.

Moreover, I'm disturbed that none of the right-wing groups commenting on this matter have had the good graces to say something like "well, we think this is within free-speech rights but we understand how you would be offended or threatened." These people are joking about how it is ok if students who they don't like get shot. If there is anything that pushes the bounds of acceptable speech, this is it. And I haven't even discussed how the list also included "Don't load your gun unless you are ready to shoot something or are just feeling generally angry." It doesn't take much effort to put these together.

Frankly, I hope that the college does not punish the Young Conservatives. The speech is arguably on the ok side of the border and we should be careful not to impinge on speech even when it is idiotic. But I also have a selfish reason for wanting the college to leave them alone. I really want to see what their next piece is that passes for "humor."