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China Likely Blocks Flickr

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:36:47 GMT

clipped by: tonya-yvonne
clipper's remarks: sounds like something Bush would do

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Flickr.com, one of the world's most popular online photo-sharing sites and owned by Yahoo Inc. , is likely being blocked by the Chinese government, Yahoo's Hong Kong unit said on Tuesday.

Flickr -- popular among a growing class of digital photo enthusiasts in the world's second-largest Internet market -- has not shown photos to users in mainland China since last week, amid rumors Beijing took action after images of the Tiananmen massacre in early June 1989 were posted.

"It appears that the Chinese government is restricting access to Flickr, although we have not received confirmation from them," the spokeswoman said in the email.

"It is our understanding that Flickr users in China are not able to see images on Flickr, and we have confirmed that this is not a technical issue on our end," a spokeswoman for Yahoo Hong Kong said in an email in response to a Reuters inquiry.

Officials from China's Ministry of Information Industry could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Tags: bush, flickr, camera, banned, censorship, internet, ministry

Study finds 25 countries block Web sites

Fri, 18 May 2007 12:26:44 GMT

clipped by: dorine
clipper's remarks: No filtering in Russia, Israel, and Palestinian territories.

Clip Source: seattlepi.nwsource.com

NEW YORK -- At least 25 countries around the world block Web sites for political, social or other reasons as governments seek to assert authority over a network meant to be borderless, according to a study out Friday.

The actual number may be higher, but the OpenNet Initiative had the time and capabilities to study only 40 countries and the Palestinian territories. Even so, researchers said they found more censorship than they had initially expected, a sign that the Internet has matured to the point that governments are taking notice.

China, Iran, Myanmar, Syria, Tunisia and Vietnam had the most extensive filters for political sites. Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen had the strictest social-filtering practices, blocking pornography, gambling and gay and lesbian sites.

In some countries, censorship was narrow. South Korea, for instance, tends to block only information about its neighboring rival, North Korea.

Tags: websites, censorship, internet