Censorship

Tearing Down That Firewall

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"The Internet is a vast, fast, and inexpensive way to access information, to communicate, and to organize. It is perhaps the greatest hope for global information freedom and democratization, and it provides an important vehicle for the development of civil societies."

Twitter this

The means exist to rupture Internet censorship in China and Iran -- if the State Department will cooperate.

THE MOST interesting question President Obama fielded in China came over the Internet... from a Chinese citizen who asked, "Do you know of the firewall? Should we be able to use Twitter freely?" In response, Mr. Obama...said, "I'm a big supporter of not restricting Internet use, Internet access, other information technologies like Twitter."

How the Falun Gong empowered the Iranian uprising.

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"... as the Chinese have escalated their efforts to stamp out the Falun Gong, the group has grown ever savvier in outwitting its oppressors. And it was the protestors in Iran who benefited from this savvy."

"The creators of the software seized upon by Iranians are members of the Global Internet Freedom Consortium, based largely in the United States and closely affiliated with Falun Gong. The consortium is one of many small groups developing systems to make it possible for anyone to reach the open Internet. It is the modern equivalent of efforts by organizations like the Voice of America to reach the citizens of closed countries..."

Volunteer Engineers Get Dissidents onto Blocked Internet Sites

"For many of Iran's dissidents trying to ... contact with the outside world depends on a little flash drive in Shiyu Zhou's pocke."

Today, it is these Chinese supporters of Falun Gong who are the best hope for Iranians trying to reach blocked sites.

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“We know the pain of people in closed societies, and we do want to accommodate them,”

Sen. Arlen Specter talked about attacking the cyberwalls and also mentioned that the Global Internet Freedom Consortium (GIFC) is the most prominent organization that has developed software that can be used to bypass the most sophisticated Internet restrictions. GIFC developed ways to neutralize China's "Golden Shield" and "Green Dam" too.

The Senate can help fend off authoritarian censorship.

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"the most important of these groups is the Global Internet Freedom Consortium (GIF), whose software has been critical in Iran. During the protests of June 20 alone, more than one million Iranians used GIF tools to visit 390 million pages on the uncensored Internet."

We offer a one-stop, complete solution to global information freedom on the Internet.

"Two hundred years ago, there was the Underground Railroad that helped to free slaves in America. Today there is an Underground Railroad in cyberspace."

- A FirePhoenix engineer