Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering (Information Revolution and Global Politics) (Paperback)

~ Ronald J. Deibert (Editor), (Editor), Rafal Rohozinski (Editor), Jonathan Zittrain (Editor)
Key Phrases: international business transactions, domain deregistration, armed social movements, Saudi Arabia, United States, Information Society (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In Access Denied an unlikely avant-garde of scholars, lawyers, hacktivists, and computer programmers come together to combat efforts by repressive regimes, corporate firms, and intelligence agencies to surveil, filter, and block the Internet. Through critical analysis, regional surveys, and the use of innovative software, the authors reveal the penumbra of a networked global civil society emerging from the Dark Side's efforts to eclipse the Internet. Everyone who supports open thought and the free flow of information should read Access Denied."
—James Der Derian, Director, Global Security Program, Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University

"No one had a clear sense of the nature of Internet censorship until now. This extraordinary work maps the unfreedom of the Net. Unfortunately, that state is becoming the norm."
—Lawrence Lessig

"The Web provides everybody with access to information. That makes those in power nervous. Transparency is the best defense against further narrowing of information access and the starting point for rolling back existing barriers. Access Denied provides the definitive analysis of government justifications for denying their own people access to some information and also documents global Internet filtering practices on a country-by-country basis. This is timely and important."
—Jonathan Aronson, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California

Product Description

Many countries around the world block or filter Internet content, denying access to information—often about politics, but also relating to sexuality, culture, or religion—that they deem too sensitive for ordinary citizens. Access Denied documents and analyzes Internet filtering practices in over three dozen countries, offering the first rigorously conducted study of this accelerating trend.

Internet filtering takes place in at least forty states worldwide including many countries in Asia and the Middle East and North Africa. Related Internet content control mechanisms are also in place in Canada, the United States and a cluster of countries in Europe. Drawing on a just-completed survey of global Internet filtering undertaken by the OpenNet Initiative (a collaboration of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, and the University of Cambridge) and relying on work by regional experts and an extensive network of researchers, Access Denied examines the political, legal, social, and cultural contexts of Internet filtering in these states from a variety of perspectives. Chapters discuss the mechanisms and politics of Internet filtering, the strengths and limitations of the technology that powers it, the relevance of international law, ethical considerations for corporations that supply states with the tools for blocking and filtering, and the implications of Internet filtering for activist communities that increasingly rely on Internet technologies for communicating their missions.

Reports on Internet content regulation in forty different countries follow, with each country profile outlining the types of content blocked by category and documenting key findings.

Contributors: Ross Anderson, Malcolm Birdling, Ronald Deibert, Robert Faris, Vesselina Haralampieva, Steven Murdoch, Helmi Noman, John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, Mary Rundle, Nart Villeneuve, Stephanie Wang, and Jonathan Zittrain

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (February 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262541963
• ISBN-13: 978-0262541961
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #231,133 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #22 in	Books > Nonfiction > Politics > Freedom & Security > Censorship
  #61 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Business & Culture > Government

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary, Beautifully Put Together, Basic Reference, March 4, 2008

By	Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a beautifully put together book in terms of brains, content, presentation, and coverage.

An edited work, with ten primary authors, it actually reflects the collaborative efforts of an international network of collaborators, and can safely be considered the seminal basic reference on this topic.

The first 150 pages include an introduction and six chapters, on measuring global internet filtering, the politics and mechanisms of
control, tools and technology for filtering, filtering and the international system, corporate filtering, and ethics. The rest of the book, 285 pages, is taken up by regional overviews and then country-specific summaries of filtering policy.

The motives for filtering are three: politics & power; social norms & morals, and security concerns.

Two types of filtering occur: announced, and disguised. Announced filters show a blocking page, unannounced filters pretend there was an error. Blocking anc be of entire sites, or specific pages identified by keywords.

The eye-opener for me was that filtering is not just on content, but on capability. Skype and Google Earth are two of the primary capabilities that are being denied to the people around the world by repressive ignorant governments who would rather have perpetual poverty than allow the people to leverage every aspect of the Internet including free global communications.

This is a first class intellectual, social, economic, and political contribution to the literature.

I recommend the following ten books along with this one:
The leadership of civilization building: Administrative and civilization theory, symbolic dialogue, and citizen skills for the 21st century
The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (Wharton School Publishing Paperbacks)
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
The Web of Inclusion: Architecture for Building Great Organizations
The Ingenuity Gap: Facing the Economic, Environmental, and Other Challenges of an Increasingly Complex and Unpredictable Future
Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom
The Pirate's Dilemma: How Youth Culture Is Reinventing Capitalism
The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an essential reference for students of cyberlaw and online free speech, February 4, 2009

By	Adam Thierer (think tank analyst in Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This is essential reading for anyone studying the methods governments are using to stifle online speech and expression. The contributors provide a regional and country-by-country overview of the global state of online speech controls and discuss the long-term ramifications of increasing government filtering of online networks.

Even if you don't read the whole thing, this is a must-have title for your bookshelf since there is no other resource out there like this. And it should be required reading in every cyberlaw class in America. Importantly, it also contains a very helpful chapter on the mechanics of Net filtering for those not familiar with the technical issues in play here.

Very highly recommended.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good overview and reference, November 24, 2009

By	Courtney Radsch - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Well written and straightforward account of exactly how governments, sometimes in collusion with private business, succeed in censoring information. From overt blocking to surreptitious intimidation, the authors investigate the status of online censorship the world over. I'm specifically interested in Egypt and was happy to see the author hit on most of the key points, though I think the sourcing could have been better. Definitely a worthy reference (though perhaps as an e-book with free updates since I'm sure things will change soon, given the surveys were conducted in 2006!).