Amnesty International Launches Campaign Against Internet Censorship

Amnesty International has created a new website called Irrepressible.info to draw attention to the fact that people are "persecuted and imprisoned simply for criticizing their government, calling for democracy and greater press freedom or exposing human rights abuses online" in countries such as China, Iran, Myanmar, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Syria and Vietnam.

The campaign wants to encourage people who operate websites or send e-mails to include a snippet that contains some of the censored information. A variety of snippets can be copied the Irrepressible.info website.

Amnesty International is also urging people to sign a petition that asks governments to stop censoring the web and that asks technology companies such as Yahoo!, Google and Cisco to stop collaborating with governments that suppress dissent online.

Previous Library Boy posts on Internet censorship include:

• Repression Precedes UN-Sponsored Info Summit in Tunisia (Nov. 15, 2005)
• Report on Internet Filtering in Tunisia (Nov. 21, 2005)
• Background to the Google Censorship Issue in China (Jan. 31, 2006)
• More on the Google China Censorship Controversy (Feb. 1, 2006)
• Toronto Academics Get Huge Grant to Fight Internet Censorship (Feb. 7, 2006)
• More on China Internet Censorship (Feb. 13, 2006)
• Helping Citizens in Repressive Societies Get Around Censorship (Feb. 13, 2006)
• "The Nation" Commentary on China Internet Censorship Issue (March 1, 2006)