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Reporters Without Borders Fight Web Censorship
eldavojohn writes "Yesterday Reporters Without Borders (RSF) launched a new initiative called 'Anti-Censorship Shelter' that aims to provide shelter for bloggers and Internet journalists in foreign countries who risk persecution or censorship from their local governments. RSF stated, 'At a time when online filtering and surveillance is becoming more and more widespread, we are making an active commitment to an Internet that is unrestricted and accessible to all by providing the victims of censorship with the means of protecting their online information. Never before have there been so many netizens in prison in countries such as China, Vietnam, and Iran for expressing their views freely online. Anonymity is becoming more and more important for those who handle sensitive data.' Working with Xerobank, RSF has a high-speed, devoted VPN that users can connect to that sounds like an onion router. While RSF admitted this masked address service is not foolproof, it's impressive to see an organization proactively seeking out individuals and offering them a digital shelter to protect themselves from a fate similar to that of the estimated 120 imprisoned bloggers around the world."
The technology needs to be upgraded. I suggest that a Linux distribution designed specifically for journalists be created. Maybe call it Xerotrace. It has to be a liveCD, it can include Tor, Freenet, GNUNet, and encrypted truecrypt container for permanent storage. This could be combined with cloud computing to allow the blogger or journalist to upload their truecrypt container to the web via SSL. GPG should be included so the user can authenticate and confirm they are who they claim to be.
The main problem is that most journalists are not hackers. So while you have the rare hacker/journalist who can create their own linux distribution, write their own software, or can fully make use of whats already out there, the product has to be simplified greatly before it will be good enough.
Why the heck would you allow non-hackers to protect you from the people you need to hide from?
I seem to recall that a group like the pirate bay, who made it their business to mask identity from powerful interests created baywords.com for exactly this purpose.
A misconfigured tor node or vpn stream could expose someone to torture or worse. A group like this needs to step back, and ask someone in the know to do it, and just offer funding.
The reporter whose life is in danger needs more than a virtual shelter for himself and his family. He needs a ticket out.
Citation?
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"