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The O.N.E. Nov. 18th 2014 Bloomfield and Mykeru on Twitter censorship
On November 18th 2014 the O #39;Hara News and Editorial welcomed guests Janet Bloomfield and Mykeru from Mykeru Media to talk about their Twitter suspension and feminist censorship. Join us...
By: A Voice for Men News
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The O.N.E. Nov. 18th 2014 Bloomfield and Mykeru on Twitter censorship - Video
This fall, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced a new state-controlled internet filtering system. Ostensibly, the regimen is meant to help cut back on pirated material, but criticsand Abbott has manyhave been quick to point out that these controls can, through error, misjudgment, or subversion, easily blot out whole chunks of the internet. Australia is not the only country flirting with troubling internet regulations, either. Over the past year, online activists have noticed a slow creep of censorship by the UK, United States, and other nations not traditionally associated with a restricted web. And while intentions might be good, programs like these remain a dangerous tool for censorship. Blocks and filters on the Wests otherwise free internet might currently seem innocuous, but between Western bids for control of the net in the name of stability and the more traditional censorship baddies, the internet has been steadily getting narrower.
Those who feel they have nothing to hide may ignore, or even embrace, this narrowing. But censorship has already blocked millions who live under strict regimes from legitimate and free engagement with the outside world, limiting their lives and turning whole swathes of the globe into impenetrable dark zones beyond our access and understanding. So the need to circumvent web filtering isnt just about doing shady things; its about connecting the world again, and warding off the seemingly innocuous programs that continuously drift toward egregious restrictions. A narrow web means more and more of us will soon need to learn how to get around filtering, which seems like a daunting task. Netizens unused to navigating censorship can take heart, though, knowing that tools to circumvent online blocks are evolving just as fast, if not faster, than governments can wall up the net.
Map by Jeffrey Ogden/Wikimedia Commons
Dozens of nations live under some form of internet censorship, but the Open Net Initiative monitors more than 20 countries with either the worst record or (in the case of the United States) the most extant tools of censorship to abuse. Most of those on the lists are the usual suspects: China, Iran, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia. Some are less obvious but also not completely unexpected: Bahrain, Belarus, Burma, Cuba, Syria, Uzbekistan, Tunisia, and Turkmenistan. These nations engage in active filtering to block websites and e-mails, monitor internet traffic and content creation, and at worst arrest bloggerssometimes in staggering numbers. But over the past few years, more and more websites have been blacklisted in Dubai, Russia, Turkey, and Vietnam, in more egregious examples of the slow, steady, visible creep of censorship.
The apparent global acceptance of these restrictions is depressing to free speech and search advocates, but there is one handy thing about internet censorship: Its usually pretty much the same from nation-to-nation and derived from old hacker tactics, which are none too complex to identify and avoid. Most censorship boils down to three tactics: First, internet service providers can have their domain name servers redirect blocked websites to other sites or just block undesirable sites outright. Second, companies or governments can scan web addresses for keywords related to ideas they want to censor. Third, authorities use something called packet filtering to track and block the source and destination of internet signals. In the worst cases, that last approach can mutate into a monitoring regime like the U.S. PRISM program.
Banner warns Thai citizens that "sharing" or "liking" can get them jailed. Photo by Pratyeka/Wikimedia Commons
If a government really wants to spy on you, theres very little you can do to avoid that snooping, especially if theyve coerced or cajoled your service providers into giving the information you send over the internet. But avoiding the initial layer of censorshipblocking and monitoringis a lot easier than avoiding out-and-out spying. If a website has been deleted by censors, its usually just a matter of accessing copies of the site or reaching the site under a new URLa game of whack-a-mole. If a website is blocked or redirected, just use a different domain name server, like the free, public ones maintained by Google. And in the worst-case scenario, to prevent someone from seeing the origin or destination of your internet wanderings, simply download a virtual private network or TOR browser to reroute your traffic through remote, secure servers and networks (often better than proxy servers, which fail quickly and are often insecure). This will fudge your metadata, allowing your traffic to act as if it were originating in a non-blocked, uncensored country, free to move at will.
TOR and VPNs are essentially the golden standard of censorship evasion, as they allow one to entirely sidestep national blocks. But in turn, China is the golden standard of censorship, employing a mixture of blocking and direct content monitoring and deletion, tracking and eliminating keywords and keeping tabs on many of their 640 million internet users. Within the last two years officials have started to tamper with VPNs, blocking traffic to and from their servers and detecting when users are using a VPN even if they cant see the traffic. If censors eventually manage to knock out VPNs, it could be a major setback for the free web in certain countries.
Abbott and Putin, two internet censors with their koala friends. Photo by Ian Bremmer/Twitter
Fortunately, because so much censorship builds on simple, logical evolutions of existing technology, its just as easy for hackers and free net advocates to tweak their own positions, beefing up VPNs and continuing to outpace their pursuers. Beyond VPNs, some content providers have figured out in the past year how to avoid blocking and deletion outright by playing on the vested interests of censoring governments and creating mirror images of their sites on the servers of legitimate sites like Amazon. Tackling these sites would require governments to take down Amazon itself, which could amount to a business fiasco. Others looking to have a secure conversation without prying eyes have created wireless mesh networks, basically linking their routers together outside of the wider internet to form private, long-distance networks. Americas National Security Agency has been forced to admit it finds it finds it almost impossible to outrun the innovation of hackers like those at TOR.
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So, You Want to Evade Government Censorship and Spying ...
Another Prick In The Dil
Keep it peaceful. 🙂 Lyrics below We don #39;t need no patronizing We don #39;t need no media control Enda you #39;re a prevaricator Taoiseach leave our kids alone Hey! Taoiseach! Leave our kids...
By: Anuderpric Indadol
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Another Prick In The Dil - Video
Media release
7 November 2014
Battle for our Birds protecting Catlins mhua
The Department of Conservation tomorrow (Saturday 8 November) begins its Battle for our Birds pest control in the Catlins to protect an important at risk population of mhua/yellowhead in the beech forest.
As well as mhua, the operation will protect long-tailed bats/pekapeka at risk from rising predator numbers fuelled by heavy beech seed-fall.
DOC Catlins ranger Cheryl Pullar said monitoring results show there has been a full silver beech mast in the Catlins and rapidly rising rat and mice numbers.
Monitoring of rodents has shown that mice are increasing throughout the forest and are particularly dense in lower altitude areas where tracking is at 78%. This will trigger a stoat plague over the summer, just as mhua are nesting and trying to raise their young. Rats are not at worrying numbers yet but will soon bounce back, Cheryl said.
These birds are particularly vulnerable to predation by rats, mice and stoats because they nest in holes in trees.
The aerial 1080 predator control will knock down rodent and possum numbers. Stoats will also be reduced as a result of eating poisoned carcasses.
A pre-feed operation begins tomorrow with aerial application of non-toxic baits over 10,100 ha of conservation land in the Catlins.
We all have our guilty pleasures, and for many of us, they come in the form ofmovies, TV shows, or videosthat are, shall we say, ofquestionabletaste. Privately, you may relish in the Real Housewives ofinsert city name here, terrible B-rated Sci-Fi flicks, scandalous Anime, or compilations of kittens in knitted bodysuits(hey, were not here to judge), but were willing to bet you arent interested in sharing this stuff with your curiouschildren, taunting friends, or worse, your judgemental mother-in-law. For those who use Plex as a media server, this has been a problem the software has lacked any kind of parental controls or privacy measures, so when you grant someone access toyour collection, you share your entirecollection the good and the bad. But recently Plex announced a new feature coming to itssoftware, called Plex Home,whichmakes it possible to pick and choose exactly who sees what through its media server.
Related:Chromecast shines even brighter with new Plex features
Announced on its blog, Plex says that Plex Home has been over two years in the making, and that it aims to bring fine-grained parental controls and more to users by moving server managementto its Plex web app. Users will now be able to easily specify exact content ratings accessible by all theirfriends and family. It is important to note that some basic Multi-user features and Now Playing features will be available to anyone who uses the free version of Plex, but the really good stuff will be limited to Plex Pass holders. Recently, Plex hiked up Plex Pass rates, and they are now as follows: $4.99/month, $39.99/year, and $149.99/lifetime.
Whats the good stuff we refer to? For one: Label-based sharing will make specifying who can see whichcontent extremely easy. For example, you could choose to share only certain family videos with your parents and in-laws, and share only your recently-acquired Miles Davis box setcollection with your jazzer buddy.
Managing content forthose living in the home in which Plex is hosted will also be made extremely easy, especially for those kids whodont have a username, email, or password. Plex promises switching between users will be extremely quick, and that PINs will only be required where specified. So, for instance, those under 13 in the home would be able to access their approved content by simply selecting their profile, not additional actions needed, while accessing Dads account will require the use of a PIN as a password.
Finally, Plex promises access to any of the apps that come with a Plex Pass for everyone in the home. This should come in useful for those in a single home that operates separate Roku accounts, or those who opt to use several different kinds of media streaming hardware, such as the Google Nexus Player, which requires users to have a Plex Pass if they want access to Plex at all.
Related:Google Nexus Player review
Just chalk this up as one more reason to choose Plex as a media server, and perhaps the most compelling reason to throw a chunk of change down for a paid subscription. Plexs development has always been user-driven, and this is yet another example of its developers answering its supporters call.
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Plex will now let you keep your private videos hidden with new Plex Home feature