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July 18, 2017 BeijingUsers of WhatsApp in China and security researchers have reported widespread service disruptions amid fears that the popular messaging service may be at least partially blocked by authorities in the world's most populous country.

WhatsApp users in China reported Tuesday on other social media platforms that the app was partly inaccessible unless virtual private network software was used to circumvent China's censorship apparatus, known colloquially as The Great Firewall.

WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook and offers end-to-end encryption, has a relatively small but loyal following among users seeking a greater degree of privacy from government snooping than afforded by popular domestic app WeChat, which is ubiquitous but closely monitored and filtered.

Questions over WhatsApp's status come at a politically fraught time in China. The government is in the midst of preparing for a sensitive party congress while Chinese censors this week revved up a sprawling effort to scrub all mention of Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who died Thursday in government custody.

A report this week by the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab detailed how Chinese censors were able to intercept, in real time, images commemorating Liu in private one-on-one chats on WeChat, a feat that hinted at the government's image recognition capabilities.

It appeared that pictures were also the focus of the move to censor WhatsApp. Late Tuesday, users in China could send texts over WhatsApp without the use of VPNs, but not images.

Nadim Kobeissi, a cryptography researcher based in Paris who has been investigating the WhatsApp disruption, said he believed The Great Firewall was only blocking access to WhatsApp servers that route media between users, while leaving servers that handle text messages untouched. He said voice messages also appeared to be blocked.

But there was no evidence to suggest that Chinese authorities were decrypting WhatsApp messages, Mr. Kobeissi added.

A Chinese censorship researcher known by his pseudonym Charlie Smith said authorities appeared to be blocking non-text WhatsApp messages wholesale precisely because they have not been able to selectively block content on the platform like they have with WeChat, which is produced by Shenzhen-based internet giant Tencent and legally bound to cooperate with Chinese security agencies.

Because WhatsApp content is encrypted, "they have moved to brute censor all non-text content," Mr. Smith said in an email. "It would not be surprising to find that everything on WhatsApp gets blocked, forcing users in China to use unencrypted, monitored, and censored services like WeChat."

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said he had no information on the issue when asked by reporters on Tuesday.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. WhatsApp is one of the world's most widely used messaging services, with more than 1.2 billion users.

Signal, another encrypted messaging service, appeared to also have patchy service with significant delays.

China has long blocked Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, with officials arguing that foreign social media services operating beyond their control pose a threat to national security. But authorities in China, as with other governments, are paying increasing attention to encrypted messaging apps.

After Beijing waged its largest-ever crackdown on human rights lawyers and activists in 2015, the People's Daily newspaper, the ruling Communist Party's official mouthpiece, singled out Telegram as the platform where lawyers the coordinated their activities. And in closely orchestrated and televised trials, the arrested lawyers read scripted confessions explaining how they used the apps to communicate freely with collaborators overseas.

Telegram has since been blocked, with many Chinese dissidents switching in recent months to WhatsApp.

The progressive tightening of messaging apps forces Chinese users to resort to domestic apps such as WeChat "to simply function and have day-to-day communications," said Kobeissi, the security researcher. "Then they can be monitored en masse."

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Disruption of WhatsApp in China triggers censorship fears - Christian Science Monitor

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos poses on a lorry in Bangalore.

Manjunath Kiran/AFP/Getty Images

Among big American tech companies, the race for India is on. With 355 million internet users (and rapidly growing) up for grabs, its no surprise that firms like Facebook, Netflix, and Amazon are investing billions of dollars to make inroads in the worlds largest democracy.

But as they do, theyre running up against a particular conundrum: how to cater to the countrys cosmopolitan consumers without offending its more conservative classes, including the right-wing government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In a surprising number of cases, companies are erring on the side of censorshipfor instance, by blocking images of dead cows and ads for anti-nationalist home goods.

Indias approach to internet governance isnt in the same league as the heavy-handed censorship of neighbor and rival power China though, which has historically blocked popular websites including Google, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook through its Great Firewall. India represents a softer form of sanitization. By law, the nation offers a constitutional protection of free speech and limits the governments ability to crack down on online content. But that doesnt mean the internet has become a free-for-all. For example, India frequently leads the world in government requests to Facebook for account data and for content removal (mostly related to local laws against anti-religious or hate speech). Many companies also choose to pre-emptively clean up content to appease the government and avoid backlash from of Indias culturally conservative classes.

As noted in a post by the Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University, Delhi on Legally India, the practice of self-censorship is particularly widespread among international video streaming services. The authors suggest that the platforms may be trying to find their place in the Indian market without drawing attention for the wrong reasons.

This May, Netflix released a censored form of the Hindi dramedy Angry Indian Goddessesfor viewers in India, even though it made an uncensored cut available for foreign audiences in April. According to Indian digital news site MediaNama, it seems that the streaming service released the version of the filmwhich covers stigmatized issues like homosexuality, rape, and castethat had been approved for theatrical release by the Indias Central Board of Film Certification. But that body doesnt have jurisdiction over online content from platforms like Netflix and recently implied it has no intention of regulating online content in the foreseeable future.

Instead, it appears Netflixs decision was a case of self-censorship. According to the films production company and director, the American company requested the edited version of the movie first, apparently preferring to stream the version that cut references to the Indian government, blurred an image of an Indian goddess, and cut out dialogue referring to an Indian figure, the holy Hindu bovine cow, and, for unknown reasons, the words guitar and lunch.

Business is Business. They would rather censor stuff and stay on the good graces of the government of India than appease users and risk controversy, wrote one Reddit user in a discussion about the streaming services seemingly arbitrary censorship decisions in the country.

After getting complaints from confused India-based viewers, Netflix released an uncut version of the movie in June.

Amazon Prime Video also routinely eliminates nudity and other inappropriate content from its vast streaming catalog. Since its 2016 launch in India, many TV shows and films available in the region have been edited to the point where plots elude human comprehension. Among others, Amazon heavily cut an episode of Jeremy Clarksons car show The Grand Tourthat featured the host driving a car out of animal carcasses. Despite complaints, Amazon defended the move to Mashable India, saying it wanted to "keep Indian cultural sensitivities in mind. Considering the recent episodes of violence allegedly tied to beef consumption, Amazon may have thought it incendiary to show the dead body of an animal so highly revered in Hindu circles.

Amazon has also had to mind its online merchandise. The everything store came under fire in January for selling doormats with the Indian national flag design. (In India and other South Asian countries, feet on such a symbol would be considered an insult.) Upon learning of the product, Indias Foreign Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted, Amazon must tender unconditional apology. They must withdraw all products insulting our national flag immediately. In a subsequent tweet, she threatened to withhold and rescind visas from Amazon employees if action was not taken quickly. The company swiftly complied.

Tinder, too, hasnt been immune. The hookup app took criticism earlier this year after releasing a seemingly tone-deaf video ad for potential Indian users, which featured a conservative mother surprisingly approve of her daughters date, saying, From my side, there is a right swipe for this."

Some criticized what they saw as a regressive message at odds with the apps reputation for facilitating casual sex. Others pointed out how not OK their parents would be with them meeting up with strangers in a culture where open dating has traditionally been taboo.

If ma knew her daughter is on a hang-and-maybe-bang app, shed kick me outta the house, not sweetly send me off to drunk-make out with a rando, one user told BuzzFeed India.

When Tinder India CEO Taru Kapoor was asked about the video by Huffington Post India, she admitted the ad might not have been perfectly executed. But, she said, it was part of a larger effort the company would continue to make to show that online dating could appeal to a broad range of Indian users. Although differing from Amazon Prime Video and Netflixs self-censorship, the advertisement tied into a broader trend of appealing to more conservative audiences.

As huge profit margins and success in the Indian markets are already demonstrating, that may not be an unwise business decision.

Link:
As American Tech Firms Move to India, Many Choose to Self-Censor - Slate Magazine (blog)

Thousands of anti-government demonstrators gathered in front of the supreme court in Warsaw on Sunday in protest against the governments plans. Photograph: Czarek Sokolowski/AP

The Polish government has brought forward its attempts to assert political control over the countrys judicial system, after thousands of Poles took to the streets in cities across the country.

Demonstrations took place at the weekend to protest against a series of moves by the ruling rightwing Law and Justice party (PiS) to assume power over the appointments of judges and members of the countrys supreme court.

On Sunday, protesters held a rally outside the Polish parliament, followed by a candlelight vigil outside the supreme court. Gathered on Krasiski Square, at the same spot where the US president, Donald Trump, gave a controversial speech to pro-government crowds earlier this month, protesters projected This is our court on to the court building as the music of Polish composer Frdric Chopin played in the background.

The government describes the moves as a necessary means to speed up the process of issuing judgments and to break what it describes as the grip of a privileged caste of lawyers and judges.

Parliament is considering legislation that if enacted would instantly terminate the appointments of all 83 judges sitting on the countrys supreme court, except for those kept on by the minister of justice.

It follows the passage of legislation last week that gives parliament control over a hitherto autonomous body charged with the appointment of Polish judges. The legislation also gives the minister of justice the power to dismiss and appoint court presidents, who decide which judges sit on which cases.

The judiciary branch, according to these three laws, would become subjugated to the executive, said Ewa towska, a professor at Polands Institute of Legal Sciences and a former judge who served on the countrys constitutional tribunal and the supreme administrative court.

The government appears to have been emboldened by the visit of President Trump earlier this month, whose speech in Warsaw was considered by many in Poland to have given the United States blessing to the governments brand of so-called illiberal democracy.

Trumps visit proved to the domestic audience that the PiS government isnt alienated abroad, further strengthening its claim to reform the country, said Wawrzyniec Smoczyski, managing director of Polityka Insight.

State media, controlled by the government since the passage of a controversial media law in 2015, has portrayed the ongoing protests against the changes as a violent coup against the democratically elected government by a militant liberal elite that has benefited from the countrys transition from Communism to liberal democracy.

Courts in our opinion are the stronghold of post-communists in Poland, said the Law and Justice leader, Jarosaw Kaczyski, adding that the supreme court was protecting people who had served the old [Communist] regime, and that the countrys judicial system was controlled by lefties and subordinated to foreign forces.

But critics say that bringing the judicial system under political control will do nothing to improve its efficiency, and instead will leave judges dependent on political patronage and subject to political pressure.

The courts are sometimes too slow, some of the fees payable by citizens are too high, the system of legal aid is inadequate and under-financed we can see the problems, said Mikoaj Pietrzak, chair of the Warsaw Bar Association. But this is like going to the doctor with the flu and he treats you by amputating your leg.

Widely regarded as the last remaining check on the governments power, the supreme court is the highest court of appeal for all criminal and civil cases in Poland, and is also charged with ruling on the validity of elections, as well as approving the annual financial reports of political parties and adjudicating upon disciplinary proceedings against judges.

Because the draft legislation presently under consideration was introduced as a private members bill, there is no obligation for public consultation. It had been due to be debated on Wednesday this week, but the debate was moved forward at short notice to Tuesday, with some analysts saying it could be passed as early as this week.

It would obligate supreme court judges to consider Christian values when making rulings. In social life, apart from legal norms there also operates a system of norms and values, undefined in law but equally established, derived from morality and Christian values ... The supreme court should take this duality into account in its rulings.

When Magorzata Gersdorf, the president of the supreme court who earlier this year wrote an open letter to the judicial profession urging them to fight every inch for their independence, addressed parliament on Tuesday morning, she was met with cries of: Get lost! and, Youre lying! from the government benches.

The ruling party has already taken effective control of the countrys constitutional tribunal, which rules on the constitutionality of legislation and the actions of the government and other state bodies, amongst other responsibilities.

After the expiration in December of the term of Andrzej Rzepliski , the former president of the tribunal, three PiS-appointees all called in sick on the day that the courts judges were due to vote on Rzepliskis replacement. Their absence denied the meeting a quorum, and a new president of the tribunal was appointed by the president, Andrzej Duda, instead. The tribunals new president promptly sent Rzepliskis deputy on indefinite leave, giving PiS-appointees a majority.

The supreme court is due to rule on the legality of the government takeover of the constitutional tribunal in mid-September, a deadline that some analysts say may have forced the ruling partys hand to act before the August recess.

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Polish government brings forward plans to assert control over judges - The Guardian

A tweet was posted on the account of state-run Alalam news agency on Sunday in Arabic, claiming that Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani had asked Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to establish an Iranian military base in Qatar. The tweet -- which is still visible -- did not link to any story on the Alalam website.

The tweet, if it were true, would likely inflame tensions in the region between Qatar and a quartet of countries led by Saudi Arabia, which has frozen trade and diplomatic ties with Qatar, claiming it supports terror organizations. Qatar has vehemently denied those claims.

The boycott followed news stories published online on Qatari state media that quoted Al-Thani, Qatar's emir, calling Iran a regional Islamic power and describing Qatari relations with Israel as good. Saudi Arabia has no diplomatic ties with Iran or Israel, and it sees Iran as a key rival.

It said the story about the military base was fake, and the decision by Saudi media to republish them showed they were colluding with the hackers.

"Saudi news agencies and websites, though fully aware of the fact that Alalam's Twitter account has been hacked, publish these false news stories immediately, designating their collusion with the hackers," the statement said.

Saudi officials did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment and have not publicly responded to Alalam's accusations.

Alalam said in its statement that it had been under a series of cyber-attacks for days.

Last week, it published a story accusing Saudi hackers of breaking into its Twitter account. Alalam said Monday it had control of the account on and off in the past week and was currently locked out.

The news agency has said that it believes Saudi hackers were behind the earlier breaches as a Saudi flag appeared as a banner image on its Twitter account last week while it was compromised.

Alalam has offered no other evidence that Saudi Arabia was behind the hacks or was responsible for Sunday's tweet on the military base.

The Twitter account is still under the control of hackers, the news agency has said. On July 14, during a window when Alalam said it had control of the account, the news agency pinned a tweet explaining that it had lost its blue tick -- a mark used by Twitter to show an account has been verified -- since being hacked.

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash said Monday that a story reported by the Washington Post accusing the UAE of that attack was false. That story, the Washington Post said, was based on information by unnamed US officials.

"The Washington Post story is not true, purely not true," he said responding to a question after a speech at Chatham House in London. He said that the story "will die" in the next few days.

But Qatar said that the Washington Post report proved its version of events, that its websites were hacked and that quotes were fabricated and published.

CNN's Sarah Sirgany contributed to this report.

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Iran state media accuses Saudis of planting false news story - CNN

India should get ready for an all-out confrontation along the entire stretch of the disputed boundary with China, the countrys state media said on Tuesday, threatening to open up new fronts of conflict on the 3,488 km non-demarcated border between the two countries.

China isnt afraid to go to war with India and will be ready for a long-term confrontation, the Global Times comment piece said.

The threat of new geographical points of conflict being opened up along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) comes amid the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) recently carrying out live-fire drills in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) close to Arunachal Pradesh, claimed by China as part of south Tibet.

Read more: India rejects malicious Pakistani media report of soldier deaths in Chinese attack

The continuing hostile posturing by Chinas state-controlled media is a crucial aspect of Beijings overall aggressive stand taken on the ongoing military impasse at Donglang across the Sikkim border.

China can take further countermeasures along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). If India stirs up conflicts in several spots, it must face the consequence of an all-out confrontation with China along the entire LAC, the nationalistic tabloid, Global Times, said in a comment piece on Tuesday. China doesnt advocate and tries hard to avoid a military clash with India, but China doesnt fear going to war to safeguard sovereignty either, and will make itself ready for a long-term confrontation, it added.

Affiliated to the Communist Party of China (CPC) mouthpiece, Peoples Daily, the Global Times has been on the forefront of Chinese medias editorial attack on India. Its battle-plan is short and simple obfuscate New Delhis points of view on the current impasse and peddle Chinas deliberately one-sided view of the situation.

For one, the GT article claimed that since the 1962 war, it is only India that has provoked China along the border, conveniently not mentioning the incursions made by the PLAs border troops over the decades.

The 3,500-kilometer border has never been short of disputes. Since the 1962 border war, the Indian side has repeatedly made provocations. China must be prepared for future conflicts and confrontation. China can take further countermeasures along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), wrote GTs Duo Mu in the newspaper.

If India plans to devote more resources in the border area, then so be it. China can engage in a competition with India over economic and military resources deployment in the border area, the newspaper wrote.

The article mentioned Chinas superior military and economic infrastructure in the Sino-India border region, and how thats an advantage.

With growing national strength, China is capable of deploying resources in remote border areas. It is conducive to the economic growth of these regions, as well as to safeguarding integration of Chinas territory. Road and rail in the Tibetan area have been extended close to the border area with India, Nepal and Bhutan. Its a competition of military strength, as well as a competition of overall economic strength, it said.

The author said in China there are voices calling for the Indian troops to be expelled immediately to safeguard the countrys sovereignty, while Indian public opinion is clamoring for war with China. However, the two sides need to exercise restraint and avoid the current conflict spiraling out of control.

China has blamed India for the ongoing Donglang (Doklam) impasse, accusing Indian soldiers of trespass and preventing Chinese soldiers from building a road in the region, which is also claimed by Bhutan.

Beijing wants India to withdraw its troops from Donglang before the two sides can open talks. New Delhi says the road, if built, will have serious security implications for India.

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Doklam standoff | India should be ready for all-out confrontation: Chinese media - Hindustan Times