Spirit of America has launched the Blog Safer wiki, containing a series of guides on how to blog under difficult conditions in countries that discourage free speech (Hat Tip - HSPIG's Ron Wright):
"The guides are a synthesis of all currently available information on the subject of anonymization. They have been edited for non-technical readers, translated into the languages of the target areas and posted on the wiki. Bloggers can use the wiki format to expand, edit and change the current guides to reflect a closer knowledge of the changing situation in their countries. Others may use the guides, and the other resources provided, to translate the guides into other languages or create new guides specific to their countries' situations."
Countries targeted in the initial launch include:
- Iran (Farsi)
- China (Chinese)
- Saudi Arabia (Arabic, also useful for other Arabic-speaking regimes)
- Malaysia (English, also applicable to neighboring Indonesia and Singapore)
- Zimbabwe (English, applicable to English-speaking Africans as well as aid workers)
Some of you may recall that back in December 2004, Winds of Change.NET led Team Pajamahdeen - Operation Viral Freedom in raising money for Spirit of America's foreign language blogging tool project. Bravo to our readers who participated!
Those blogging tools need this anonymization component to reach their full potential. If you want to donate to Project Anoniblogging, here's the link.
As a non-wiki alternative, the group has also started up the Anonymous Blogging blog. That's good, because wikis are disruptable once the bad guys clue in.
Now all we need is widespread mirroring of the wiki so domain blocking will be ineffective....
Fascinating. We really are living in tectonic times
There are, according to Glenn Reynolds, more bloggers in Iran than France. One is less likely to be either tortured or murdered in the latter nation. Nonetheless, might an Iranian be able to speak more freely than a citizen of France? Think about it.
Freeing up blogger communications: Hurray!
Bad guys using the same steps and tech to avoid surveillance: not so great...
Thx Joe.
For more on this and why this is so important to win the War of Information that ultimately is the key to win the GWOT see this piece at Rocket's Brain Trust.
John,
Good point.
But it's relative - either our folks like, Agt. Jack Bauer, are smarter and faster than they are or they are the staid, braindead folks like the Senators in the Alito hearings and it won't matter anyway.
In any event facilitating the buzz inside Iran that the Mad Mullahs can't filter and/or block will ultimately be their demise.
It's really the same argument that's been raging for over ten years about crypto-chips, backdoors, how many bytes can be used in public-key crypto.
No good answers, but as freedom spreads, so does the opportunity for unobservable malfeasance.
Yes, life is full of risks, some more dangerous than others. I'm concerned that those who will do real evil are finding it much easier to do so, while those who are well-intended will get killed nonetheless...
No good answers.
Communicating anonymously when resisting a state-level adversary is a Hard™ problem. If we ever have to blog anonymously in the name of liberty when the adversary either 1. is the NSA or 2. has capabilities similar to the NSA (Chinese intelligence in five years, anyone?) we're in for a world of pain.
Agreed, T.J.
I'm just hoping the free world still has significantly better computer knowledge and far greater adaptability than the tyrannies...
And if we ever become a tyranny (not that I think it likely), I'll continue to hold that hope (assuming there's any free world left if we fall).
Contrast anonoblogging with the Martus system. This software is funded by Benetech, an interesting organization.
The Martus project is interesting in what it reveals about the agenda and assumptions of the backers: that documenting "human rights abuses" is a job for NGOs, not regular folks. Reports go back to the "home office" and are collected in a database for further action - maybe - and certainly not general or immediate publication.
This is not to say that these folks don't do good work or that this is a useless approach. But I don't see any recognition at Benetech that the social internet has a role to play in this space or deserves protection. At its worst, this approach allows NGOs to decide what is and is not a "human rights violation".
Prominent among the backers of Benetech is George Soros' Open Society Institute.