Proxy Database - Access Restricted Information, Bypass Censorship!
We fight against censorship since 2012. Meanwhile, approximately 900 000 people used our database to access prohibited content. To bypass restrictions. - Vis...
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Proxy Database - Access Restricted Information, Bypass Censorship! - Video
In our last issue on Feb. 5, an article entitled Privilege is not an active part of our lives, was published in the opinion section of the Old Gold & Black.
Since then, members of the Editorial Board have received online comments, e-mails and verbal criticisms for having printed the article, which some have found offensive.
The individuals expressing these feelings seem to be under the impression that the views of this article are indicative of our own. As a result, we feel it is necessary to address the misconception over our policies regarding censorship.
The opinion section of the Old Gold & Black is comprised of editorials and letters to the editor, written by members of the Wake Forest community who wish to express their own, personal thoughts on current events and happenings of the day.
These op-eds do not, in any way, shape or form, represent the views of this newspaper or its staff. They represent only the views of the author.
No matter how controversial or unpopular ones views may be, the members of the Editorial Board strongly believe that every voice has the right to be heard a right that we will not rob from Wake Forest students, faculty, staff or alumni.
Our constitution states: In accordance with the First Amendment to the Constitution of the U.S., we believe that all members of the Wake Forest community should have the right to exercise freedom of speech regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, physical disability or political views.
We are a newspaper founded on the principle of free speech for all not just for those who hold opinions more favorable than others. We are not now, nor will we ever become, an instrument of censorship. We do not believe controversy is something to shy away from.
There are important discussions and debates that we, as a community, must have; silencing the opinions of certain students is not the way to go about moderating these conversations.
To that end, we encourage all who call Wake Forest home to use the OGB as a way to engage in meaningful, constructive dialogue and debate. To clarify our policies for the future, we will include a disclaimer at the beginning of the opinion section of the newspaper, beginning with this issue.
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Censorship is no way to hold a debate
The 200,000 or so Russian Internet users who have signed up with Tor since Vladimir Putin regained the countrys presidency in 2012 might soon have to find new ways of getting around Internet censorship. Under Putin, Russia has increased the Kremlin's ability to control information online, and now, based on the remarks of a powerful politician, it looks like Tor could be next.
One of the factors in the formation of the Internet environment in our country has become the authority for the pretrial blocking of websites, Leonid Levin, the head of the Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications, said in a speech Thursday, as quoted by RBC.Ru. It allows [us] to block information banned in Russia quickly. At the same time the pretrial blocking of anonymizing services deserves attention, such as access to the anonymous network Tor.
Tor, which stands for The Onion Router, cloaks Web users' Internet activities and physical locations, gives them access to otherwise inaccessible regions of the Internet and provides other services that help people hide themselves online. Its open to question exactly how safe the software is, but it's clear that Russia is not the only country trying to find out who is doing what -- and where. Originally a U.S. military project, Tor has been a target of virtually every major intelligence agency (including the National Security Agency) and repeatedly demonized by lawmakers throughout the world.
This could mean the Russian government's offer last July to pay $3.9 million rubles ($111,000 at the time) to anyone who could study the possibility of obtaining technical information about users and equipment on the Tor anonymous network wasn't successful.
Levin, who also said the state could pursue virtual private networks, expressed frustration that Moscow invests substantial additional funds in police and military but lacks the wherewithal to do so online.
Maybe the only surprise about the Russian government's going after Tor is that it hasn't clamped down already. Not content with television and radio, the Kremlin quickly increased its control of the Internet with laws targeting foreign social media outlets, popular Russian bloggersand was recently cited as the possible perpetrator of iOS malware launched against Russia's European rivals.
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Russian Censorship: Tor, Anonymous VPNs Could Be Target Of Next Crackdown, Kremlin Warns
The worst countries for press freedom are expected to increase control of the Internet, says Paris-based RSF
Authoritarian governments are doubling down on press censorship and becoming more adept at blocking Internet access to uncensored news sources, according to the annual World Press Freedom Index that will be published on Thursday.
The report, from Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, saw many countries lose points this year as threats against reporters and press freedom increased. They included governments using national security as an excuse to track reporters and their sources; threats from para-military, organized crime and terrorist groups; government interference in the media, and reporters being targeted for covering demonstrations.
The five countries ranked highest for press freedom were all in Northern Europe, while the U.S. ranked 49th, down 3 places from last year, in part because of a crackdown on government whistle blowers under President Barack Obama.
Most of the bottom 20 countries saw their ratings fall after greater efforts to control free access to information.
"With complete control of the traditional media assured, reining in the Internet is the next big task," said the report.
China was said to be "a pioneer" in Internet censorship, after blocking access to all Google services during the last year and stamping out domestic coverage of the Occupy Central protests in Hong Kong and the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
Iran continues to pursue a national intranet that will keep citizens off the global Internet, and it arrested people who were using messaging apps WhatsApp, Viber and Tango. In Cuba, Internet access remains difficult to obtain and expensive, the report said.
Some countries, including Kazakhstan, have taken to blocking or banning websites without the need for court orders, while Uzbekistan, Belarus, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have cracked down on bloggers.
The two bottom-ranked countries, North Korea and Eritrea, run censorship regimes that ensure citizens have virtually no access to free information.
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More online censorship coming to closed countries, says report
One great thing about living in Japan is the consideration, or omoiyari, people here commonly show for others. My newspaper delivery guy climbs the 25 steps to my front door and deposits a copy of The Japan Times in my mailbox every morning, rain or shine. His colleagues in the U.S. my home country might toss the paper from a moving vehicle in the general direction of a customers front yard. Both are just doing their jobs, but my guy considerately spares me effort (and exercise), at no profit to himself.
Jishuku, often translated as self-restraint, can also be framed as an expression of consideration. When Emperor Hirohito was dying of terminal cancer in 1988, many journalists knew the truth, but the story did not run on the front pages of Japans major newspapers. It could be argued that the purpose of this media jishuku was to spare not only the Emperor himself, but the Imperial Family and the Japanese people in general from shock and distress.
But jishuku has come to have another, more troubling meaning: self-censorship. Following the Emperor Hirohitos death on Jan. 7, 1989, normal TV programming was suspended for days in favor of eulogistic documentaries and reverential news shows, while businesses closed and events were canceled by the thousands. I thought at the time it was uncanny as though the postwar period, with its Occupation-supported freedom of expression, never happened.
Jishuku is not limited to Japans Imperial system, however. Instead, the media, including the supposedly free-spirited talents it hosts, has long practiced a type of self-censorship that is less an expression of consideration than a knuckling under to corporate and governmental power and, now, the angry voices on the Internet.
After iconic actor Ken Takakura died on Nov. 10, 2014, the Tokyo Shimbun noted that the theme song of Abashiri Bangaichi (Abashiri Prison), the 1965 movie that became his breakout hit, had been subject to media jishuku since the 1970s. Recorded by Takakura himself and based on a folk song, the tune became a hit, but radio stations and TV broadcasters kept it off the air for decades because its lyrics were deemed to be supportive of criminal acts. This was done under the cover of a voluntary ban by the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan (Minporen) on songs with problematic lyrics. Minporen has long since dropped the lyrics-restricting rule, but as film director Tatsuya Mori told the Tokyo Shimbun, The tendency of the media to self-regulate (free expression) hasnt changed at all.
Examples of similar jishuku have multiplied since the end of 2014, beginning with popular comedy duo Bakusho Mondai and veteran lead singer for the Southern All Stars, Keisuke Kuwata, making abject public apologies after venturing some mild criticisms of authority.
Bakusho Mondais Yuji Tanaka had complained to a TBS radio audience on Jan. 7 that public broadcaster NHK had nixed the duos proposed political gags for a New Years show. Earlier, at a Dec. 28 concert with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in attendance, Kuwata had mocked Abes decision to call a snap election last fall. Also, in a performance on NHKs New Years Eve show Kohaku Utagassen (Red and White Song Contest), Kuwata sung other lyrics some interpreted as critical of Abes conservative-leaning administration.
Amid the ensuing controversy, both Kuwata and Tanaka apologized and recanted.
These are mainstream talents working in a media environment that is hypersensitive to anything resembling controversy. Its hardly surprising that, following their slip-ups, they would quickly toe the agency or broadcaster line. Nonetheless, given the political nature of their mini-scandals, with much of the online outrage coming from the far-right side of the political spectrum, it was hard not to hear free-speech alarm bells ringing.
Those bells have gotten louder with the local media reaction to the capture of two Japanese hostages by the Islamic State group, climaxing with the death of freelance video journalist Kenji Goto on Feb. 1. In response, The Fuji TV network pushed back the broadcast of an episode of the anime Ansatsu Kyoshitsu (Assassination Classroom) that featured a knife. A Jan. 31 broadcast of the Tantei Kageki Milky Holmes TD (Detective Opera Milky Holmes TD) animation series about the adventures of girl detectives was also postponed for its ransom-themed story.
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Is Japanese cinema sinking into a self-censorship swamp?