ubuntu-us-ohio team mailing list archive

[Stephen Michael Kellat <skellat@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is something for us all to think about in these strange days we find ourselves in.

Stephen Michael Kellat
Point of Contact & Leader, Ubuntu Ohio

Begin forwarded message:

Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2013 17:35:07 +0100
From: Collin Anderson <collin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "liberationtech@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
<liberationtech@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [liberationtech] Dimming
the Internet: Detecting Throttling as a Mechanism of Censorship in Iran


Libtech,

Today, my latest paper “Dimming the Internet: Detecting Throttling as a
Mechanism of Censorship in Iran,” a documentation on three years of the
use of bandwidth throttling as a means of political censorship in Iran,
was posted on the publishing site arXiv.

Blogpost:
http://cgcsblog.asc.upenn.edu/2013/06/20/dimming-the-internet-detecting-throttling-as-a-mechanism-of-censorship-in-iran-2/
Paper (arXiv): http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.4361

“Dimming the Internet" uses a three-year dataset of network
measurements as a monitoring service for political throttling, then
applies the methodology to shed light on the recent history of
censorship in Iran, and finds that Iran’s Internet has experienced
prolonged and significant disruptions timed annually near the
anniversary of the Islamic Revolution and 25 Bahman, the first
anniversary of the contested elections, and protests over the
depreciation of the value of the Iranian Rial. Through the Measurement
Lab (M-Lab) platform, anti-censorship researchers gain a diverse and
non-partisan perspective on a network that is often opaque and
difficult to access from outside. The results described not only shed
light on instances of censorship, but also the manner in which public
networks are subjected to a greater degree of disruption than those of
business, universities and governments.

Iran is not alone in this behavior, with Syria, Bahrain, Myanmar and
Vietnam reportedly utilizing similar tactics. As stories of connection
throttling timed with political instability grow and access to
international communications platforms remains a necessary means for
expression otherwise denied, “Dimming the Internet” provides a framework
for accountability on a trend that thus far has been opaque. In the
coming months, the Center for Global Communication Research at the
Annenberg School for Communication will expand on this methodology as a
means to account for historical cases and monitor this phenomenon on an
ongoing basis globally.

Cordially,
Collin
-- 
*Collin David Anderson*
averysmallbird.com | @cda | Washington, D.C.