Burmese bloggers and surfers discover anti-censorship web technologies

Stuart Corner
Sunday, 14 October 2007 16:28

Your IT - Home IT

The Global Internet Freedom Consortium (GIF)- an organisation created to help people in China bypass Government censorship of the Internet, says that Burmese web surfers have discovered its facilities and are using them to circumvent Internet censorship amid the recent crackdown by the Myanmar military junta.

The Global Internet Freedom Consortium  was formed in 2006 as an alliance of organisations developing and deploying anti-censorship technologies for Internet users in oppressive regimes. The Consortium says it partners "have contributed significantly to the advancement of information freedom in China."

According to GIF, two of its member companies - UltraReach Internet Corp (UR) and Dynamic Internet Technology received over 120,000 average daily hits from IP addresses originating from Burma in September, a sharp increase from less than 40,000 back in August.

DIT also witnessed Burmese postings on blogs with photos of the protests and their crackdown in Myanmar, through its anti-censorship portal and says that such a surge of censorship-escaping activities is in sync with the recent protests and crackdown in Myanmar.

"Our anti-censorship products have become household brand names in China, because of our intensive promotion and the trust we have gained there," said Alex Wang, VP of World's Gate, a member company of the Consortium. "It has been a pleasant surprise to see web surfers from [Burma] getting onboard our virtual 'Underground Railroad', though we never advertised there."

Both UltraReach and DIT have been developing anti-censorship technologies to circumvent Internet censorship in oppressive regimes, especially in China. GIF says that other members of the Consortium are developing anti-censorship tools of all kinds. "Some of the tools, such as 'Ultrasurf', 'Freegate', 'Garden', 'GPass' and 'FirePhoenix' are very popular among web surfers in China who are eager to explore the world behind the Great Firewall," GIF said.