The Information & Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) has announced that, as from now, some pedophilia websites cannot be accessed from Mauritius. Websites which are blocked belong to a black list created by Interpol (and, I suppose, regularly updated). Technically speaking, the blocking is done at the IP level with tweaked Border Gateway Protocol routing tables.
I am uneasy with this decision for two main reasons:
- pedophiles who are sufficiently knowledgeable in networking won’t have any problem bypassing this filter,
- this filtering, which is a form of censorship according to me, opens the door to a lot of abuse (even though ICTA says it has no intention to block other kinds of websites… but we all remember this). Who knows what ICTA will come up with later?
What do you think?
blocking of websites by ICTA is a joke. . Hmmmm, perhaps in the near future they will block youtube for copyright infrignments of local artists. . I am just saying. Posted using mobile. .
It is going to be highly ineffective. People who have an affinity for child pornography do not just type in a site address to get their material. All those sites are very well hidden and require some technical know-how to access. Collectors of such material are always under legal and moral fire so they are very up to date with the concept of how to protect their identity online, how to obfuscate their online activities and let nothing trace back to them.
The ICTA is using a blacklist created by the Internet Watch Foundation. Lets remember that IWF added Wikipedia’s page for Scorpion’s Virgin Killer album to its blocklist because the CD cover features a nude, under 18 year old girl. Thats it. The IWF just decided on its own moral ground that a CD which is already in wide circulation is “potentially illegal” and added it to its blocklist. Another fiasco is when IWF blocked legitimate file sharing sites such as megavideo, megaupload, rapidshare etc.
Australia tried a nationwide ISP blocklist with the excuse “its against child porn” The secret blacklist was leaked and showed it had sites absolutely not on the topic, such as anti-abortion opinion sites.
Also the ICTA says its to block “des sites a caractere pedophile”. This is where the ICTA is damn WRONG! A pedophile does not need to see pornography.. a pedophile can just see a normal picture of a kid playing on the beach and thats enough for him/her.
I think our Ombudsman for children should weigh in. She is one of the rare people whom I know who understands the issue. She can also understand the difference between Pedophile and Child molester, something most people can’t.
Anyone having “sufficiently knowledgeable in networking” will surely have better things to do other than turning into some pedophile :P
Back to serious matters now. Wherever there is law, you will always have some people trying to break them. Make it legal, these same people might ignore them.
Yes, we run the risk of having ICTA blocking part of the web if ever someone writes anything bad about our PM. We, Mauritians should be careful about what we write on our blogs, because some day, ICTA may ban our links from the local websphere. We can always try to start finding possible solutions, just like wikileaks ;)
I totally relate to your views. I think that this is a very dangerous precedent. I believe the internet should be completely open.
I hate the thought that the ICTA now has the technical capability to block our access to information and such a wonderful medium to express our thoughts. There have been calls in the past from people like Cassam Uteem or even Lucien Finette to block part of the internet.
Tomorrow they can block wikileaks, twitter or even facebook. We have moved one step closer to China’s internet policy.
Filtering, imho is never good, nor effective.
Filtering is easily abused for other purposes. It might be censoring Youtube for infringement of local artists one day, and the next, it’s used for censoring a newspaper for statements a local politician doesn’t like.
Exactly.
Like Kailash said, I, too, hate the thought that the ICTA can block our access to information. Too much power. Maybe in the wrong hands…
I see nothing wrong in it provided that they “know” what they are doing.
know/nÅ/Verb
1. Be aware of through observation, inquiry, or information.
2. Have knowledge or information concerning.
:) I’m 99% sure they don’t know…
Doing some research abt the blocked sites and with some tweeks actually the sites are not blocked at all!!!
for sure thoz mthfker can catch and inspeck most of what we do online, all our google search etc.
Dangerous for us all and mainly for the ict/networking illiterate ones.
Thats why in one of my other post on your blog I said that we must set up our own network a kind of local web net with multiple hops with all necessary security and without any authority whatsoever getting their hands on as long as it not connected to the internet .
We are not safe at all, neither on the internet nor the phone and sms, and even worst thoz using mobile internet on their phone or the internet everywhere thing.
What one can do for now is make sure if the site being visited offer option of https connection and always use it. (i.e. google) Else pipes in pipes through russia and other country of the like.
Lot of new rules are being defined slowly and gradually killing our freedom / stealing our money / doing thing on our motherland to enrich only the politicians and relatives without the masspopulation being aware of it and doing nothing against it or any kind of side solution.
Jinfei, terre rouge-verdun, medpoint, bagatelle, ebene cybercity, recensement, and the list goes on and on.
Good luck to all our kids
have a look at this:
http://lifehacker.com/#!5746102/build-a-pirate-box-for-mobile-and-secure-file-sharing
http://gizmodo.com/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gizmodo%2Ffull+%28Gizmodo%29#!5753868/how-long-it-takes-hackers-to-crack-your-password
Maybe you’re right.
The Internet is too powerful now to be left in the hands of those who can be influenced by politicians (at least, theoretically speaking).
Witness what happened in Tunisia and, especially, in Egypt. Mubarak tried to kill the Internet but people still could use Twitter to coordinate the rebellion.
Who “owns” the Internet in Mauritius? ICTA? Why?
Some additional info http://www.itwire.com/it-policy-news/government-tech-policy/45031-mauritius-filters-the-internet
Such noobs, people can always use a proxy or VPN software
Yep.
Someone once told me that laws are to prevent good people (like us) to do bad things. Bad people do not even notice them.
Orange/MT needs to be an ISP, provide me with internet connectivity that I paid for with no fluctuations in service as they see fit. This door they’re opening with censorship is actually a big can of worms. As much as I despise the blocked websites I have a feeling the power to censor will be used to other ends.
Orange needs to act like the CEB, they provide me with Electricity and ‘generally’ don’t care how I use it.
Orange needs to stop telling us we’re getting broadband when broadband has been defined as 4Mbps down and 1Mbps up
You’re 100% right.
An ISP should not filter. There is something called net neutrality after
all.
Hi. My colleagues and I were discussing about Internet last time and two of our questions remained unanswered.
1. Do our ISPs in Mauritius know exactly on which websites we surf and what we download?
2. Is it legal for an adult living in Mauritius, to view (including download) online adult websites (18+)?
Hope someone can answer our questions. Thanks in advance.
Anyone?
As far as know, 1 is yes and 2 is most probably as the “content” is abroad.
“pedophiles who are sufficiently knowledgeable in networking won’t have any problem bypassing this filter”.
…..what an appalling reason Avinash! What next, getting rid of locks and alarms because thieves are adept at picking locks and bypassing or disconnecting alarms?
Hi Aziz, my point is that sites should not be blocked outright (as there is always risks of false positives and abuse).
If the government really wants to go against pedophiles (and, remember, this is a post from three years ago and, as far as I know, the filter has not been activated), it’s “better” to identify the culprits by monitoring their activity online.