Big Brother Watch

Space: the internet's new frontier?

Guest post by Nick Pickles

The UK Government is currently considering the possibility of a UK-wide firewall, which (simply put) would give the Government the ability to block access to websites from the UK.

The argument has mainly been made around file-sharing sites, and to a lesser extent child pornography, and of course the Government insists that it would never be used for political reasons.

Yet the example of the Arab Spring and the subsequent activities of Governments in shutting down social networking sites (or more disturbingly, setting up spoof sites to entrap potential trouble makers) should not be forgotten.

It is entirely possible that as part of the super-injunction/privacy debate that website blocking could potentially be on the cards - neatly demonstrated by the High Court judge who warned “the internet is out of control.”

The internet is beyond the reach of Governments. So the natural response of Governments is to seek to bring it back under their control. The first step is to block sites sharing illegal music. That path leads to not being able to read about Tienanmen Square or organise demonstrations - it is not one that a civil society should permit.

However, there is a further option - for social networks to become ISPs.

The power of a shared satellite network, providing internet access to users without reliance on physical cable under the control of Governments, would have the potential to topple the Great Firewall of China, free protestors to organise demonstrations and globalise free speech beyond the reach of overactive judiciaries.

Eventually, universal internet access will be a humanitarian cause. What it needs is someone to take the first step, and aim for the stars.

Criminal justice, Russian style

Back in October, Alex wrote about the case of Alexander Litvinenko, a Russian national who was more likely than not murdered by a representative of the KGB.  Andrei Lugovoi, the former KGB agent accused of committing the crime, remains in Russia despite extradition request by the Crown Prosecution Service which has been pending since 2007.  It appears that extra-judicial killing has become an accepted facet of Russian law enforcement.

Over at the Marginal Revolution blog, there's an excellent post today about the fate of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the wealthy businessmen who was jailed in dubious circumstances last year after high profile disagreements with the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

A report from the European Court of Human Rights examining Khodorkovsky's trial made a few (sadly) predictable conclusions:

"It was found that [Khodorkovsky's] human rights were violated in prison, that procedural violations were committed before the trial, and that he had not proved a political motivation to his prosecution, not that no such motivation was present"

While Big Brother Watch does not usually seek to involve itself in foreign policy concerns, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Foreign Office's softly-softly approach towards Russia is failing.  Rather than seeking to separate discussions about trade and human rights from one another, the British government must fuse the two.  In foreign policy, what's morally wrong shouldn't be considered politically right.

Hat-tip: @mjhsinclair

US law enforcement agencies censoring European gambling websites

By David Atherton

As a poker player of 6 years my Saturday is often taken up playing in tournaments of up to 1,000 people. However yesterday (17th April 2011) the numbers seemed to be down.

The lack of Americans was due to the Federal Bureau of Investigation  closing down three of the biggest sites Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and PokerStars and seizing their funds.  The owners of the sites have been charged with conducting and financing illegal gambling and accepting funds via electronic bank transfer. Those who have been arrested to face up to five years in jail and a fine of $250,000 and those yet not arrested have had warrants issued against them.

Curiously American operated sites such as WSOP, Bodog and Carbon Poker are still accepting deposits and their websites unaffected, but the European owned and operated ones have FBI warnings. The Americans tried to ban internet poker (with the support of the casino industry)  not by banning playing on the internet but making electronic payments illegal via the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). The Europeans took the American Government to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and so far have lost every single round.

Economics and naked protectionism aside this is a very pernicious development in internet censorship.

The European sites are legitimate businesses who advertise on TV and their addresses and telephone numbers are in the public domain. However the government sees fit to stop apparently censor the internet to stop consenting adults having an absorbing and entertaining pastime.

The slippery slope beckons

Inspired by Mussolini?

Guest post by Will Cobbett

The capital city of Eritrea is beautiful.  As a result of Mussolini’s determination to build an Italian colonial showcase in Africa, Asmara has one of the highest concentrations of Modernist architecture in the world.  Government offices, cinemas, even petrol stations are coloured with pastel shades, and built in a simplified but monumental style.

While the city is inspirational, adopting Mussolini’s approach to domestic politics is a step too far.

President Isaias of Eritrea has made modern Eritrea into a showcase for civil liberty abuse.  After the country won its independence from Ethiopia, Isaias was given a period of grace by the population and the international community.  They accepted that the transition from rule by freedom fighters to full democratic elections might take some time.  It’s been 18 years now.  In a television interview in May 2008, Isaias said Eritrea might hold elections "in three or four decades."

In 2001 leading members of the nascent Eritrean opposition wrote an open letter to the President, which prompted their arrest and imprisonment.  They remain in prison, ten years later, without trial or even adequate health care.  They share their cells with all of Eritrea’s independent journalists and a number of religious groups.  Mass conscription, on the pretext of an invasion by Ethiopia, has enslaved the rest of the population. 

As Mussolini said: “All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.” 

If you wish to know more about the UK government’s approach to Eritrea and President Isaias, go to www.visiteritrea.org

Change your mind, Shami

As BBW readers will know, I am a fan of Shami Chakrabarti. I proposed her as a future member of the House of Lords to a sceptical Conservative Home audience. I have appeared on panels with her at high-profile events (link). Like many people, I believe that she deserves enormous credit for her unparalleled record on human rights.

However, as Robert Halfon MP and others have highlighted, her involvement with the London School of Economics - and their deep entanglement in Libyan blood money - is profoundly disappointing. The Director of the LSE, Howard Davies, has already resigned - he has done the honourable thing. It seems to me that t is not just him, but the whole of the LSE council who made the decision to accept that money who should also resign - especially Shami. 

As staunch BBW supporter Rob Halfon MP has said:

The LSE took blood-money from a mass murderer and dictator. It is extremely disappointing that Shami Chakrabarti oversaw this on the LSE Council. I believe that she should resign from that role.

Which is entirely right. How can one be in favour of human rights here in the UK, but not in Libya?

Nothing would send a more powerful signal than her resignation from their Council. She's said she won't. She should change her mind.

Shami, when even your admirers think you're wrong, it's time to reconsider your position.

By Alex Deane

The United Arab Emirates has banned Big Brother Watch

Last week, the Big Brother Watch team received an e-mail from a Dubai-based co-conspirator alerting us to problems he was having accessing our blog. 

Whenever typed in our website address - as he had been doing for more than a year - he received a  message from his ISP informing him that the site was "down" and that a "fault exists" with our server.  Our many thousands of daily visitors in the UK - and indeed across the world - were not plagued by the same problems.

Almost a week on, the website remains unavailable in the United Arab Emirates as a result of it failing to conform "with the cultural and religious ethos" of the country.  It appears the IP address of the website - and that of the Private Eye magazine - have been blocked by the country’s state-controlled ISP Etisalat.  Etisalat, it should be noted, are also the ISP of choice in oases of democracy such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Sudan. 

While we can't be sure of the exact reason the UAE has blocked access to our website, our recent post outlining the human rights situation in Eritrea and the means by which Libyans can circumvent Gaddafi's efforts to block internet access can't have helped...

Here's the good news: the UAE's authorities have no means by which they are able to block our weekly newsletter.  You can sign up to it by clicking here.

UPDATE: Big Brother Watch Campaign Director Daniel Hamilton has written to the Ambassador His Excellency Abdulrahman Ghanem Almutaiwee protesting the decision.  Click here to download a PDF of his letter. 

Tunisia, Egypt, Libya…. Why Eritrea won’t be next

Guest post by Will Cobbett of www.visiteritrea.org

Commentators are scanning maps of North Africa and the Middle East trying to identify where the next public protests against a repressive regime will break out.

Eritrea seems an obvious candidate.  It’s been governed by President Isaias, without any hint of democracy, since 1991.  The Mo Ibrahim Index ranks Eritrea as the worst country in the world for human rights.  (Even Somalia was better.)  Reporters Sans Frontieres put Eritrea at the bottom of their press freedom index.  The country is now second worst in the world for education provision according to the Global Campaign for Education, and the Global Hunger Index rates Eritrea as one of only four countries in the world where the levels of hunger are "extremely alarming".

However, a vast number of Eritreans are enslaved by the government.  President Isaias extended the statutory national service of 18 months to an indefinite period so that all male and female adults must be available to work at the direction of the state until the age of 40.  This puts the majority of the public under his direct control: either in military camps in the border regions, or working for private companies owned by military chiefs.

Isaias locked up all the opposition politicians, and all the independent journalists, in 2001.  None of them have had a trial, but all of them remain in prison 10 years later.

Internet penetration is also pretty low.  Only about 4% of the Eritrean population has access to the internet.  (In places like Egypt and Tunisia it's much higher – between 20 and 35%.)  So there’s no need for Isaias to close down Twitter or Facebook – but he could if he wanted to, because he controls the monopoly telecoms provider.

The state-run television channel is also a monopoly, and Eri-TV has been remarkably reticent about reporting on the unrest in neighbouring countries.

And that’s why – despite the appalling treatment Isaias has meted out to his beautiful country – I don’t think that he needs to worry much about a popular rebellion.

If you’d like to know more about the situation in Eritrea, or for its extraordinary culture inherited from Italian colonists, go to www.visiteritrea.org.