Understanding & Combating Global Censorship with WordPress
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Recent growth in places like China, Vietnam, India and Russia brought astounding economic and technological successes that also yielded some of the largest networks of censorship in history. The Great Firewall of China, DPI and SORM in Russia, and SmartFilter in Iran and Saudi Arabia are just a few of the tools used to block the free expression of millions of people.
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Understanding & Combating Global Censorship with WordPress
- 1. Understanding & Combating Global Censorship with WordPress John P. Gamboa jpgamboa.com @jgamboa WordCamp Los Angeles 2015
- 2. @jgamboa • Enterprise Support Team, WP Engine • Four plus years of web experience abroad • Lived in Singapore, Seoul and Shanghai • San Diego State - Journalism & Geography
- 3. What you’ll learn from me • Why and how WordPress and non-WordPress sites get blocked • Which plugins are blocked and how they affect performance • What to do when your site is blocked • How to work around the censored Web
- 6. What is Web Censorship • Domain and IP-level timeout, connection resets, removed content • Man-in-the-middle attacks, State sponsored DDOS • Government ISP directives • Trolls and hackers for hire • Judicial retaliation
- 7. How is WordPress Affected? • WordPress is now nearly a quarter of the entire Internet • More non-English Downloads than English Downloads • “Internet Sovereignty,” Segmentation and The Right to be Forgotten • Democratization of the web
- 8. Web & WordPress Censorship
- 9. Turkey • Reports of WordPress.com in May linked to single blog post • Censorship related to take-down requests and anti-government speech • EngelliWeb.com - list of domains blocked in Turkey
- 10. Russia • 2012 Government Decree/2015 “Illegal Memes” • Trolls for hire - New York Times “The Agency” • SORM - Surveillance & Monitoring • RUBlacklist.net - list of blocked sites
- 11. India • Fluctuating censorship protocols based on 2000 & 2009 IT Act • Public discourse & discussion of the web • Targeted WordPress sites, often due to radicalization fears
- 12. Vietnam • Communist state • Targets dissident WordPress users • Social media sites sometimes blocked • Savviest users
- 13. Middle East • SmartFilter - American tech used for censorship • Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, UAE • Lots of individual blogs • Facebook, Twitter, etc in Iran
- 16. China • Most pervasive form of Internet censorship • Great Firewall of China promotes harmony • Causes the most trouble with WordPress • Many top Alexa sites blocked • Facebook, Twitter, WordPress.com, Blogger, YouTube, Flickr, Dropbox — All blocked • World’s largest Internet population
- 17. China, cont. • 96% all traffic within Mainland • Avoid the Three “T’s” & Uighur Rights • Limited VPN usage • River Crabs, 50 Centers & Big Mamas 河蟹,五毛 & 大妈
- 21. China, cont. • 96% all traffic within Mainland • Avoid the Three “T’s” & Uighur Rights • Limited VPN usage • River Crabs, 50 Centers & Big Mamas 河蟹,五毛 & 大妈
- 24. Blocked Plugins & Functionality • API/External WordPress calls • Politically-sensitive discussions • Blocked IPs and domains on shared hosts • Jetpack, WordPress.com, Gravatar • Google (Plus, Fonts, Photos) • Be Mindful: BBPress, Yoast SEO, Social Media
- 25. Developing Around Censorship • Know your blocked plugins • Limiting reliance on outside sources • Reconsider SSL • Government hosting “registration” - CloudFlare/Baidu • Avoid sensitive discussion • You are responsible for your users • Hong Kong hosting
- 28. If you get blocked • Confirm - BlockedinIran.com - Greatfire.org - RUBlacklist.net - EngelliWeb.com • Ask your host for help - Noisy neighbors - Domain blocks - Change servers/hosts
- 29. What Can The Community Do? • Continue to Support Non-English WordPress • Follow and Understand OpenNet Initiative • Polyglots: Contribute to Core and Plugin Translations • Talk About it • Publish, Publish, Publish
- 30. Q & A John P. Gamboa @jgamboa jpgamboa.com http://wclax.reviews
Editor's Notes
- Hey Everyone. I’m John P. Gamboa. I’m a Enterprise Support Specialist at WP Engine’s HQ in Austin, TX, USA Prior to being in TX I spent four years living and working overseas. One year in S. Korea and nearly three years in Shanghai, China I got my start in WordPress doing a few small beer-oriented websites for Shanghai’s burgeoning craft beer scene. And yes, there’s craft beer in China.
- Government: Most obvious and well-known type of censorship. This is information that a government doesn’t want you to know or so. Or information they can’t control. Religious censorship is a form of censorship where freedom of expression is controlled or limited using religious authority or on the basis of the teachings of the religion. This has been seen in all corners of the world. Moral censorship is the suppression of materials that the public considers obscene or offensive. Think snuff films and child pornography. This is most culturally-accepted type of censorship. Chief Justice Potter of the US Supreme Court once famously said about obscenity, IE, moral censorship “I know it when I see it.” This is the most dubious form of censorship, that has the most risks for free expression Self-censorship: This is the most commonly seen in our web 2.0 era. This is one of the most damaging for the posterity of the web, and its been seen in many different places. For example, buzzfeed deleting thousands of posts online.
- Government: Most obvious and well-known type of censorship. This is information that a government doesn’t want you to know or so. Or information they can’t control. Religious censorship is a form of censorship where freedom of expression is controlled or limited using religious authority or on the basis of the teachings of the religion. This has been seen in all corners of the world. Moral censorship is the suppression of materials that the public considers obscene or offensive. Think snuff films and child pornography. This is most culturally-accepted type of censorship. Chief Justice Potter of the US Supreme Court once famously said about obscenity, IE, moral censorship “I know it when I see it.” This is the most dubious form of censorship, that has the most risks for free expression Self-censorship: This is the most commonly seen in our web 2.0 era. This is one of the most damaging for the posterity of the web, and its been seen in many different places. For example, buzzfeed deleting thousands of posts online.
- There are lots of countries, including my own native United States, that make numerous organization’s lists of enemies of the Web. However, for the sake of our discussion, we’re going to talk mostly about emerging or growing markets and how their censorship affect WordPress and its viability of a growing Web