The Weekly NetPulse
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The Latest Weekly NetPulse
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 Iran's
Complex Content-
Tracking
The Iranian government has gone far beyond
smashing computers, blocking
access to Web sites or breaking Internet
connections in an effort to stop citizen journalists from
reporting within Iran and to keep foreign media out.
The Iranian government performs online-content
inspection on a
national scale and coordinated at a single location.
With assistance of European telecommunications
companies, the Iranian government has
developed "one of the world's most sophisticated
mechanisms for controlling and censoring the
Internet." In an attempt to censor its people, the
Iranian government has been tracking the content of
individual online communications through a practive
called deep packet inspections.
According to the WSJ, "Deep packet inspection involves inserting
equipment into a flow of online data, from emails and
Internet phone calls to images and messages on
social-networking sites such as Facebook and
Twitter. Every digitized packet of online data is
deconstructed, examined for keywords and
reconstructed within milliseconds. In Iran's case, this
is done for the entire country at a single choke point,
according to networking engineers familiar with the
country's system."
Reports from Iranian Internet users saying that the
Internet is running at less than a tenth the speed it
usually does may be a sign of the government's use
of deep packet inspections. Without an increase in
processing power, the online data filtering system
would lead to drastic delays in online transmission.
Blocking websites is no longer a viable option for
censoring its people since videos like the one of a
young Iranian woman named Neda can be sent out
online and posted by multiple users outiside of Iran.
Repressive regimes, such as the one in Iran, the
scanning of messsage by message from a
central "monitoring center" has allowed the
government to to choke the flow of information and the
use of deep packet inspections, which enable
authorities to not only block communication but
to "monitor it to gather information about individuals,
as well as alter it for disinformation purposes."
Related Stories:
Iran's
Web Spying Aided By Western Technology
(LATimes)From new media, a new portrait of Iran
emerges
Super-filtered
#IranElection info for the easily overwhelmed
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"Quote Of The Week" |
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A Week of Tragic Deaths, Including The
Death of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's
Political Aspirations
During a press conference Wednesday, South
Carolina Governor Mark Sanford gave a hearfelt
confession of his whereabouts for the past week. You
guessed it...Argentina with his mistress. Sanford
admitted today that he's been having an affair with a
woman he visited on a secret trip to Argentina, saying
"I've been unfaithful to my wife." (AP) Video of Press Conference
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Stat of the Week |
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U.S. News |
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 Genachowski
Confirmed as FCC
Chairman
(Broadcasting & Cable) The full Senate agreed by
unanimous consent Thursday to confirm Julius
Genachowski as the next chairman of the FCC. Also
approved was the re-nomination of Republican
Commissioner Robert McDowell. Majority leader Harry
Reid (D-NV) read out only the numbers of the
nominations corresponding to their numbers on the
day's calendar. Genachowski was calendar number
251, McDowell 252.
Full Story
(NYTimes)
Senate
Confirms New Chairman to Lead F.C.C.
Senators To Introduce Legislation To Help Media
Report Iran Story
(Broadcasting & Cable) The Senate wants to help new
and old media get the Iran story to the world in spite of
that regime's crackdown on news of the ongoing
violence there.
It wasn't clear how they were going to do it, but three
Senators Friday pledged to introduce legislation after
the July 4 break to "expand television and radio
broadcasting into Iran and prevent the Iranian regime
from slamming shut the virtual door to the rest of the
world provided by the Internet."
Full Story
 Exclusive: Read e-
mails Between SC
Gov. Mark Sanford And Mistress
(TheState) E-mails, obtained by The State newspaper
in December, between Gov. Mark Sanford and Maria, a
woman in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
At the time, efforts to authenticate the e-mails were
unsuccessful. However, Sanford's office Wednesday
did not dispute their authenticity.
The State has removed the woman's full name and
other personal details, including her street address, e-
mail address and children's names.
Full Story
 Obama's
Campaign Strategies get
Tested in NJ, VA
(AP) President Barack Obama sent an e-mail
endorsing Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh
Deeds to hundreds of thousands of Obama
supporters in Virginia last week, the latest indication
that the lessons of Obama's 2008 presidential
campaign are playing out in key state races in 2009.
To boost Democrats, Obama has shown he's willing
to tap the database of 14 million backers who helped
him win his party's primary and defeat Republican
Sen. John McCain in the general election. The vast
supporter list also helped Obama bring in a record-
shattering $750 million in campaign contributions.
Full Story
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Obama Online |
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 And Data for All:
Why Obama's Geeky New CIO Wants to Put All Gov't
Info Online
(Wired) The Obama administration's most radical
idea may also be its geekiest: Make nearly every
hidden government spreadsheet and buried statistic
available online, all in one place. For anyone to see.
Are you searching for a Food and Drug Administration
report that used to be obtainable only through the
Freedom of Information Act? Just a mouseclick away.
Need National Institutes of Health studies and school
testing scores? Click. Census data, nonclassified
Defense Department specs, obscure Securities and
Exchange Commission files, prison statistics? Click
click. Click. Click.
Full Story
Obama Points To New Media In
Bringing Struggle in Iran to World
(Broadcasting & Cable) In his first non-primetime
news conference, which was covered live by the major
news networks, President Barack Obama pointed to
the power of new media to bring the struggle in Iran to
the world.
Full Story
 Ideas Online, Yes,
but Some Not So
Presidential
(NYTimes) On Jan. 21, his first full day in office,
President Obama promised to open up the
government, ordering officials to use modern
technologies like Internet message boards and blogs
to give all Americans a bigger voice in public policy.
Full Story
White House Posts Farsi Version of Obama
Remarks
(AP) The White House posted a video on its website
featuring a simultaneous translation into Farsi of US
President Barack Obama's comments on Iran.
The White House website, www.whitehouse.gov, also
posted a Farsi-language transcript of the remarks
about the situation in Iran made by Obama at a press
conference earlier in the day.
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Viral Video Of The Week |
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Clay Shirky: How social media can
make history
(TED) While news from Iran streams to the world, Clay
Shirky shows how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help
citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news,
bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-
down control of news is changing the nature of politics.
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International News |
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 Pirate Party Finds
France Fertile
Territory
(PCWorld) The values of the Parti Pirate Français are
those of the digital generation -- freedom, democracy,
solidarity, respect for individual privacy, and the
sharing of culture and science, its founder and
president, Rémy Cérésiani, wrote in its statutes. The
party's goals are similar to those of its Swedish
counterpart: reforming copyright law and the patent
system to protect art and science from rampant
commercialism, strengthening local democracy
through the use of the Internet, and protecting
individuals' privacy.
Full Story
Britain Says Facing Growing Cyber Security
Threat
(Reuters) Britain warned on Thursday of a growing
risk to military and business secrets from computer
spies and pledged to toughen cyber security to protect
the 50 billion pounds ($82 billion) spent a year online
in its economy.
Full Story
Tyranny's New Nightmare: Twitter
(LATimes) Twenty years ago, the world was transfixed
by an image of courageous resistance -- a lone young
man standing in the road before a column of Chinese
army tanks moving into Tiananmen Square to crush
the students and others who'd gone there to
demonstrate for reform. Since Saturday, the global
community has been similarly gripped by the tragic
photos and video of Neda Agha-Soltan, the 26-year-
old Iranian woman shot to death on the streets of
Tehran while on her way to one of the protests over
that country's disputed presidential election.
Ful
l Story
 Google Slammed
as China, U.S.
Quarrel Over Internet
(Reuters) China on Thursday stepped up accusations
that Google is spreading obscene content over the
Internet, a day after U.S. officials urged Beijing to
abandon plans for controversial filtering software on
new computers.
Full
Story
(NYTimes)Beijing
Adds Curbs on Access to Internet
How to Cross the Digital Divide, Rwanda-
Style
(TechCrunch) Whenever I tell someone the countries
I'm hitting for my new book, they start out nodding,
then the nodding slows, then they just get
confused. "China, India, Brazil, Israel and...Rwanda."
Then there's the inevitable question: "Rwanda? Is
there even any technology in Rwanda?" Sometimes I
even get asked if I have to stay in a tent when I go
there.
Full Story
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Event Calendar |
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2009
Personal Democracy Forum
Location: New York City
Date: June 29 & 30
Details: The Personal
Democracy Forum is the world's largest and best
known conference on the intersection of technology
and politics. For the sixth year, more than 1,000 top
opinion makers, political practitioners, technologists
and journalists will come together to network,
exchange ideas, and explore how technology and the
Internet are changing politics, democracy, and society.
Register before midnight for $100 off by using
coupon code: pdf100d
Register Here
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