Flop of the week: Enemies of the Internet
To mark the third «World Day Against Internet Censorship» on March 12, the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) added ten countries to its list of «Enemies of the Internet.».
As in the two previous years, the list includes Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. According to the ROG report, these states censor the internet through massive filtering and blocking of websites, systematically persecute critical internet users and instrumentalize the internet for propagandistic purposes. Following the revolutionary upheavals, Tunisia and Egypt are no longer among the "enemies of the Internet", but are still "under observation". In addition to Tunisia and Egypt, ROG has placed 14 other countries "under observation". These are countries that have taken "worrying censorship measures that could easily be abused". France, Libya and Venezuela are now "under observation". France is on the list due to the new online law package "Loppsi 2" ("Loi d'orientation et de programmation pour la performance de la sécurité intérieure") passed in February 2011.
