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Riyadh Government's SmartFilter
Posted by Paul Szynol on Wednesday, October 23 @ 13:54:55 EDT Governance
According to a study conducted by Jonathan Zittrain and Benjamin Edelman from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Saudi Arabia uses a program called SmartFilter (whose home is San Jose, CA) to block citizens' access to a range of web sites.

The Saudi government blocks not only porn and drug related sites, however, but sites operated by human rights watch groups, like Amnesty International and the Saudi Institute.

Out of over 60,000 requests, the program blocked 2,038 pages.

The report is here.

World Tribune's coverage (the headline reads "Harvard study cites Saudis as leading Internet censor"), is here.

(Original post modified in response to Ben Edelman's post; see below).

 
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Didn't say (Score: 2, Insighful)
by BenEdelman on Wednesday, October 23 @ 15:48:34 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/edelman.html
Not sure I'd use the title "World's Leading Internet Censor" to describe Saudi Arabia. That's certainly not a phrase we used in the report. I suspect we have the Druge Report to thank for this phrase. (As of mid-day today, this story is linked from Drudge's front page.) Ben Edelman
Berkman Center for Internet & Society
Harvard Law School


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SmartFilter censorware investigations (Score: 2, Informative)
by Seth_Finkelstein on Wednesday, October 23 @ 16:53:11 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) http://sethf.com/
Readers might be interested in SmartFilter material in my Anticensorware Investigations: SmartFilter - I've Got A Little List - Why SmartFilter's blacklist cannot be human-reviewed, and the legal risks of anticensorware investigations SmartFilter blacklisted as Sex, a computer science library , an anti-censorship site , and Christian and school and book sites Seth Finkelstein


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