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THE CHINA INTERNET FREEDOM PROJECT |
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Written by Dr. David Shi
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Friday, 25 April 2008 |
While Beijing was sending in troops to crack down on
protesters in Tibet, they also made sure to boot out the foreign journalists,
jam the short wave radios, and lock down the Internet. So, how did the Tibetans get the news out? By using DynaWeb and UltraReach - tiny
software tools that seek out cracks in the Chinese Great Firewall and connect
users' computers to the biggest anti-censorship network in the world.
These tools scramble the users' communications and shuttle
the data back and forth along an underground cyber network in a way that cannot
be detected by high-tech monitoring and jamming equipment. At this point, the
censors' firewalls virtually disappear to the users. They can now access blocked websites and also freely communicate
with the rest of the world.
The group that built this special network and tools like DynaWeb
and UltraReach and recent additions, GPass and FirePhoenix, is the Global Internet Freedom Consortium
or GIF.
You may have never heard of GIF, but it is easily the largest and most mature anti-censorship operation in
the world -- loved by users, loathed and
attacked by censors. The technology is
such a threat to censorship that the study of counter-measures against GIF's
technologies has even been published in the computer science journal of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Repressive regimes around the world are always trying to
shut down the network using censorship technology that is, shamefully, built by
certain Western high tech giants such as Google, Yahoo,
Cisco, and Microsoft.
Congressman Chris
Shays (R-NJ), for example has accused
Yahoo of "complicity with the (Chinese) secret police," while Google has
"created an exclusively Chinese search engine that only Joseph Goebbels would
love."
But GIF technology just keeps gaining
ground. People love the tools because
they're easy to use and they work. With
advanced security features, they also offer much-needed protection in the
fierce cat and mouse game that plays out in cyberspace.
Why should Americans care about Internet freedom? One reason is because closed societies have
a tendency to cover up news of public health threats and natural disasters in
order to save face. SARS is a case in
point. The cover up allowed the virus
to spread to South East Asia, Europe, and even San Francisco.
Another reason we should care about Internet freedom is
because the governments of closed societies use their closed Internet systems
to block out outside information and deliver propaganda that breeds hostility
toward the United States and other democratic nations. We have already seen how
dangerous that can be. Just think of
the millions of hot-blooded young Chinese and Iranian men who cheered when they
watched TV footage of the downing of the World Trade Center with thousands of
Americans dying.
When Chinese "patriotic hackers" break into computer systems
at the Pentagon or maliciously compromise US corporate data, it's usually the
result of Chinese government media demonizing the US and whipping up nationalistic
fervor. A battle being fought in
cyberspace can all too quickly spill over into daily reality. The threat to US
and global security is very, very real.
Dictatorships like the PRC and
Iran are spending billions on their Firewalls and cyber-attacks upon
America. How much is the US spending
combating this cyber threat? Not hardly
enough.
With limited funds and limited
manpower, the members of GIF are maintaining the network and struggling to keep
up with the demand in closed societies for access to a free Internet. After
the protests began on March 10, 2008 in Tibet, for example, the number of hits
to the DynaWeb and UltraReach anti-censorship portals from Tibet
skyrocketed from the daily average of 120,000 before March 10 to more than
800,000.
The cyber warriors at GIF, such as Bill
Xia and Peter Li,
who
develop anti-censorship tools offer their software products for free because
supporting freedom is their mission.
They don't think anyone should run into a brick wall trying to look something
up on Wikipedia or get a visit in the middle of the night by the secret
police just because they typed in some "sensitive term" in a web browser.
The service GIF provides is invaluable and the impact goes
far beyond the Internet. When the people in closed societies have gained a
taste of freedom and are given a way to share information, they will no longer
tolerate tyranny.
With the tools and smarts of those
at GIF backing them, these citizens finally have a way to tear down the walls,
both real and virtual, that conspire to keep them separated from the rest of
the world.
The Internet Freedom Project is
helping to bring real freedom to China and other closed societies. I am proud to be a part of it and hope that
you will become a part as well.
Dr. David Shi is a
Chinese-American expert of computer security and Internet privacy who is devoted to securing
freedom for all people of China, including the people of Tibet.
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