Week 11 - Censorship, Privacy, and the Internet

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The origin of the word censorship is thought to come from a state official called "Censor" in ancient Rome. This official was responsible for the censuses, the morale of the citizens, and the control of the state treasury.  Today, this word means prohibition, limitation, and it manifests itself in many areas of life, especially communication. 


There is no doubt that it would not be wrong to define the internet as "the greatest source of information today". Until a short time ago, the internet, which seemed like a luxury need in terms of its fee prices, has become a wealth of information that can be accessed by everyone in a very cheap and easy way today. The amount and variety of information shared on the Internet are increasing rapidly. To give a few numeric data on internet usage in the world, the number of internet users in the world exceeds 4.6 billion, there are around 365 million domain names registered, and there are more than 600 million personal blogs. As there are many information on the internet, there should be censorship to limit the information which has prohibited content.





Iran 2009 election - Ban of Facebook

In Iran, Facebook was banned after the 2009 elections. Iran, which became a popular subject because of the restricting of blogger.com writers from time to time, this time was discussed as a country in 2009 that banned the usage of the social networking site, Facebook. In Iran, the majority of young people used Facebook to support anti-opposition candidates and urge the Iranian people to not vote for the current president. The reformist leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who received the most support on Facebook, and other similar sites, carried out an election strategy based on mobilizing Iran's youngsters. Mousavi had a Facebook page with more than 6,000 supporters in 2009 which was considered high for that time.





Privacy:

As people use computers for a variety of purposes, confidential information, confidential communication, and personal choices can be recorded in a variety of ways. Internet privacy is a broad term that refers to a variety of concerns, technologies, and strategies for protecting information, communications, and should-private choices.In general, using the Internet often means giving up some privacy measures. For those who wish to remain completely anonymous, the best approach is to use a public computer, such as those found in public libraries. Other steps to take when anonymity is the goal include clearing the cache and browsing history before leaving the computer - this is done differently depending on the browser used - and avoid entering personal information or creating any username or password.



Violation of Privacy: Facebook


Frequently coming to the public with security vulnerabilities, data breaches, and privacy issues, Facebook lost the information of its 533 million users in 2021. Information includes phone numbers, names, locations, email addresses, and other information.


On a low-level hacker forum, a user shared the phone numbers and personal information of millions of Facebook users for free. While the information of users from 106 countries was shared, the total number of users affected was 533 million.


The exposed information included phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdays, bios, and in some cases, email addresses. 32 million of the users whose information was exposed live in the USA, 11 million in the UK, and 6 million in India.


An interesting fact that was stated was that the personal information of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, including his phone number, was among those seized and published. Among the countries affected by the data scandal uncovered by cyber security researcher Alon Gal are 106 countries.



Resources:

https://nairametrics.com/2021/04/04/personal-data-of-533-million-facebook-users-leaked-on-a-hacking-forum/

https://clario.co/blog/what-is-online-privacy/

https://www.britannica.com/technology/Internet/Privacy-and-the-Internet

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/06/tech/facebook-data-leaked-what-to-do/index.html

https://www.vyprvpn.com/blog/internet-censorship

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/06/02/2020-12030/preventing-online-censorship

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/may/24/facebook-banned-iran

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