Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Global Internet Censorship

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Global Geographies of the Internet

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Geography ((BRIEFSGEOGRAPHY,volume 1))

  • 2514 Accesses

Abstract

Of all of the innumerable myths that swarm around cyberspace, one of the most insidious is that the internet is an inherently emancipatory tool, a device that necessarily and inevitably promotes democracy by giving voice to those who lack political power, and in so doing undermines authoritarian and repressive governments.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 34.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 49.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abbott, J. (2001). Democracy@Internet.asia? The challenges to the emancipatory potential of the net: Lessons from China and Malaysia. Third World Quarterly, 22(1), 99–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adams, P. (1996). Protest and the scale politics of telecommunications. Political Geography, 15, 419–441.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Africa ICT Policy Monitor (2006).Retrieved from http://africa.rights.apc.org

  • Ahmed, A. (2002). Pakistan’s blasphemy laws: Words fail me. The Washington Post, May 19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, J. (1997). Globalizing politics and religion in the muslim world. Retrieved from Journal of Electronic Publishing. www.press.umich.edu/jep/archive/Anderson.html

  • Anderson, K. (2009). Net surveillance and filters are a reality for Europe, too. Retrieved from The Guardian, June 24. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jun/24/kevin-anderson-internet-filtering

  • Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (2004). The Internet in the Arab world: A new space of repression? Retrieved from http://www.hrinfo.net/en/reports/net2004/

  • Bahgat, H. (2004). Egypt’s virtual protection of morality. Middle East Report, 230, 22–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bernstein, J. (1995). Recovering ethical life: Jürgen Habermas and the future of critical theory. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barry, E. (2009). In Azerbaijan, a donkey suit leads to laughs, questions and possibly arrests. New York Times, July 15, p. A49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bi, J. (2001). The internet revolution in China: The significance for traditional forms of communist control. International Journal, 56(3), 421–441.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burnett, P. (2005). Internet censorship on the rise in Africa? Retrieved from http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/06/africa/burnett.htm

  • Calhoun, C. (1992). Habermas and the public sphere. Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crampton, J. (2003). The political mapping of cyberspace. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crampton, J. (2007). The biopolitical justification for geosurveillance. Geographical Review, 97(3), 389–493.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crovitz, G. (2010). China’s web crackdown continues. Wall Street Journal, Jan 11. Retrieved fromhttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703948504574649021577882240.html

  • Conway, M. (2007). Terrorism and internet governance: Core issues. Retrieved from http://www.unidir.ch/pdf/articles/pdf-art2644.pdf

  • Cortés, M. (2000). Internet censorship around the world.Retrieved from http://www.isoc.org/inet2000/cdproceedings/8k/8k_4.htm

  • Cunningham, K. (2002). Factors influencing Jordan’s information revolution: Implications for democracy. Middle East Journal, 56(2), 240–256.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dann, D., & Haddow, N. (2008). Just doing business or doing just business? Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and the business of censoring China’s internet. Journal of Business Ethics, 79(3), 219–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deibert, R., & Rohozinski, R. (2008). Good for liberty, bad for security? Global civil society and the securitization of the internet. In R. Deibert, J. Palfrey, R. Rohozinksi, & J. Zittrain (Eds.), Access denied: The practice and policy of global internet filtering (pp. 123–150). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobson, J., & Fisher, P. (2007). The panopticon’s changing geography. Geographical Review, 97(3), 307–323.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunn, M. (2000). The information revolution and the middle East: An overview of the early literature. Middle East Journal, 54(3), 465–476.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eriksson, J., & Giacomello, G. (2009). Who controls what, and under what conditions? International Studies Review, 11, 206–210.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eurasianet.org. (2007). In Turkemenistan, Internet access comes with soldiers Retrieved from http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav030807.shtml

  • Fandy, M. (1999). Cyberresistance: Saudi opposition between globalization and localization. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 41, 124–147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Froomkin, A. (2003). Habermas@Discourse.net. Toward a critical theory of cyberspace. Harvard Law Review, 116(3), 740–873.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gauch, S. (2001). Effects of Arab censorship blunted by the internet. Christian Science Monitor Jan 29, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gellman, B. (2005). The FBI’s secret scrutiny: In hunt for terrorists, bureau examines records of ordinary Americans. Washington Post November 6, A1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghareeb, E. (2000). New media and the information revolution in the Arab world: An assessment. Middle East Journal, 54(3), 395–418.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghattas, K. (2002). Surfing the net in Iraq. Retrieved from BBC News, May 1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1959481.stm

  • Goldsmith, J. (1998). Against cyberanarchy. University of Chicago Law Review, 1199, 1217–1222.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldsmith, J., & Wu, T. (2006). Who controls the internet? illusion of a borderless world. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. (1979). Communication and the evolution of society. Boston: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. (1989). The structural transformation of the public sphere: An inquiry into a category of bourgeois society. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hachigian, N. (2001). China’s cyber-strategy. Foreign Affairs, 80(2), 118–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hachigian, N. (2002). The internet and power in one-party East Asian states. Washington Quarterly, 25(3), 41–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harwit, E., & Clark, D. (2001). Shaping the internet in China: Evolution of political control over network infrastructure and political content. Asian Survey, 41(3), 377–408.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hohendahl, P. (1979). Critical theory, public sphere and culture: Habermas and his critics. New German Critique, 16(winter), 89–118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Human Rights Watch (2002). Human rights watch: World report 2001, Vietnam. Retrieved from www.hrw.org/wr2k/asia/Vietnam.html

  • International Censorship Explorer (2006). Vietnam strikes back Retrieved from http://ice.citizenlab.org/?p=150

  • James, R. (2009). A brief history of Chinese internet censorship. Time, March 18. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1885961,00.html

  • Kahn, J. (2002). China has world’s tightest internet censorship, study finds. New York Times, 4, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kalathil, S., & Boas T. (2001). The internet and state control in authoritarian regimes: China, Cuba, and the counterrevolution. Carnegie Endowment Global Policy Program Work, Paper No. 21. Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kalathil, S., & Boas, T. (2003). Open networks, closed regimes: The impact of the internet on authoritarian rule. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katyal, N. (2001). Criminal law in cyberspace. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 1003, 1100.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kellner, D. (1979). TV, ideology, and emancipatory popular culture. Socialist Review, 45, May–June 13–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kellner, D. (1990). Television and the crisis of democracy. Boulder: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kreimer, S. (2001). Technologies of protest: Insurgent social movements and the first amendment in the era of the internet. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 150(1), 119–171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kreimer, S. (2006). Censorship by proxy: The First amendment, internet intermediaries, and the problem of the weakest link. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 155, 11–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lake, E. (2009). Hacking the regime. The New Republic, September 3. Retrieved from http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/hacking-the-regime

  • Lambroschini, A. (2011). No Twitter revolt for Central Asia's closed regimes. Physorg.com (February 24). http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-twitter-revolt-central-asiaregimes.html

  • Luhmann, N. (1996). Quod omnes tangit: Remarks on Jurgen Habermas’s legal theory. Cardoso Law Review, 17(4–5), 883–900.

    Google Scholar 

  • LaFraniere, S. (2009). Censors put tighter grip on internet in China. New York Times, 18, A14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ludlow, P. (2010). Wikileaks and hacktivist culture. The Nation October 4, 25–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, J. (2001). Companies compete to provide Saudi internet veil. New York Times Nov., 19, A1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Machleder, J. (2002). Struggle over internet access developing in Uzbekistan. Eurasia Insight. March 12, http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/rights/articles/eav031202.shtml

  • MacKinnon, R. (2008). Flatter world and thicker walls? Blogs, censorship and civic discourse in China. Public Choice, 134, 31–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacKinnon, R. (2009). China’s censorship 2.0: How companies censor bloggers. First Monday 14(2) . Retrieved fromhttp://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2378/2089

  • McGlinchey, E., & Johnson, E. (2007). Aiding the internet in Central Asia. Democratization, 14(2), 277–288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murdoch, S., & Anderson, R. (2008). Tools and technology of internet filtering. In R. Deibert, J. Palfrey, R. Rohozinksi, & J. Zittrain (Eds.), Access denied: The practice and policy of global internet filtering (pp. 57–72). Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • OpenNet Initiative. (2004). Internet filtering in Saudi Arabia in 2004. Retrieved from http://opennet.net/studies/saudi

  • OpenNet Initiative. (2005). Internet filtering in China 2004-2005. Retrieved from http://opennetinitiative.net/studies/china

  • OpenNet Initiative. (2006). Singapore. http://opennet.net/sites/opennet.net/files/singapore.pdf

  • OpenNet Initiative. (2007). Commonwealth of independent states. Retrieved from http://opennet.net/research/regions/cis

  • OpenNet Initiative. (2009a). Internet filtering in Iran. Retrieved from http://opennet.net/sites/opennet.net/files/ONI_Iran_2009.pdf

  • OpenNet Initiative. (2009b). Internet filtering in Sudan. Retrieved from http://opennet.net/sites/opennet.net/files/ONI_Sudan_2009.pdf

  • Privacy International. (2003). Silenced—Costa Rica. Retrieved from http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd[347]=x-347-103752

  • Paltemaa, V., & Vuori, J. (2009). Regime transition and the Chinese politics of technology: From mass science to the controlled internet. Asian Journal of Political Science, 17(1), 1–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parry, N. (1997). The past and future of information technology in Palestine. Retrieved from www.nigelparry.com/mideastInternet/unitednationspaper.html

  • Poster, M. (1997). Cyberdemocracy: Internet and the public sphere. In D. Porter (Ed.), Internet Culture. 202–214. London, Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pierre, A. (2000). Vietnam’s contradictions. Foreign Affairs, 79(6), 69–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quirk, M. (2006). The web police. Atlantic Monthly, May. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2006/05/the-web-police/4818

  • Rodan, G. (2000). Singapore information lockdown: Business as usual. In L. Williams & R. Rich (Eds.), Losing control: Freedom of the press in Asia (pp. 66–81). Canberra: Asia Pacific Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhoads, C., Chao, L. (2009). Iran’s web spying aided by Western technology. Retrieved fromWall Street Journal, June 22, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124562668777335653.html

  • Reporters Without Borders. (2004). Retrieved from Pakistan annual report 2004. http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=10794

  • Reporters Without Borders. (2008). Belarus Retrieved from http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=25496.2008

  • Schwartz, S. (2005). The Kyrgyz take their stan: A democratic revolution in Central Asia? The Weekly Standard, April 11, 10(28):12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Srinivasan, R., & Fish, A. (2009). Internet authorship: Social and political implications within Kyrgyzstan. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 14(3), 559–580.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stelter, B., & Stone, B. (2009). Web pries lid of iranian censorship. Retrieved from New York Times June 22:A1 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/world/middleeast/23censor.html

  • Stone, B., & Barboza, D. (2010). Scaling the digital wall in china. New York Times, 16, B1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sayare, S. (2009). As web challenges French leaders, they push back. New York Times December 13, 26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slane, A. (2007). Democracy, social space, and the internet. University of Toronto Law Journal, 57, 81–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Troianovski, A.,& Finn, P. (2007). Kremlin seeks to extend its reach in cyberspace. Washington Post, Oct. 28:1. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/27/AR2007102701384_pf.html

  • Teitelbaum, J. (2002). Dueling for ‘Da’Wa’: state vs. society on the Saudi internet. Middle East Journal, 56(2), 222–239.

    Google Scholar 

  • Villeneuve, N. (2006). The filtering matrix: Integrated mechanisms of information control and the demarcation of borders in cyberspace. First Monday 11(1–2) .Retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1307

  • Warf, B. (2009). The rapidly evolving geographies of the Eurasian internet. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 50(5), 564–580.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Warf, B. (2011). Google bombs, warblogs, and hacktivism: The internet as agent of progressive social change. In J. Tyner & J. Inwood (Eds.), Nonkilling Geography (pp. 127–148). Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Center for Global Nonkilling.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warf, B., & Grimes, J. (1997). Counterhegemonic discourses and the internet. Geographical Review, 87, 259–274.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Warf, B., & Vincent, P. (2007). Multiple geographies of the Arab internet. Area, 39, 83–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wines, M. (2010). China’s censors tackle and trip over the Internet. New York Times, April 8, 1, 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wines, M. (2012). Crackdown on Chinese bloggers who fight the censors with puns. New York Times, May 29, A5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wriston, W. (1997). Bits, bytes, and diplomacy. Foreign Affairs, 76(5), 172–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang, G. (2003). The co-evolution of the internet and civil society in China. Asian Survey, 43(3), 405–422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zittrain, J., & Palfrey, J. (2008). Internet filtering: The politics and mechanisms of control. In R. Deibert, J. Palfrey, R. Rohozinksi, & J. Zittrain (Eds.), Access denied: The practice and policy of global internet filtering (pp. 29–56). Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA

    Barney Warf

Authors
  1. Barney Warf
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Warf, B. (2013). Global Internet Censorship. In: Global Geographies of the Internet. SpringerBriefs in Geography, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1245-4_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation