LinkedIn: technological and financial giants; but morally pygmies

Analyzer是GreatFire的第一个项目,在2011年上线后,它一如以往的为大家提供测试服务直至今日。现在,我们做了一个新的项目叫做"Blocky",欢迎大家试用这个全新的版本!如果您对此有任何意见和建议,请发送邮件到support@greatfire.org

When LinkedIn decided to create a China-hosted version of its website in February, 2014, it made a decision to compromise the company's values in the pursuit of the dollar.

It's important to note that before LinkedIn launched LingYing (the local version of the site), LinkedIn was already active in China. By their own account, they had four million registered users (with little marketing effort), a Chinese-language interface and China-based clients who were buying recruitment ads on the platform (the major source of their revenue). The site had been blocked by the authorities for one 24-hour period but otherwise was always accessible.

So why was it necessary for LinkedIn to create a local entity in China? With a local entity the company would be able to issue official receipts in RMB, making it more convenient for local companies to buy advertising on the site. A local entity also makes it easier to secure marketing deals to promote LingYing in China.

But perhaps the biggest appeal in creating a local entity for LinkedIn is that it would be among the few foreign internet companies who could cosy up with Lu Wei and the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). Having that kind of a relationship with CAC surely helps the business and those who are associated with the company.

2015-07-14-1436865048-6462717-1115415785_14326334877831n.jpg

LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman meets China's cyber czar Lu Wei for the umpteenth time.

There are surely other additional benefits, but in order to operate as a local entity, LinkedIn had to agree to the following:

  • To censor content and users on the platform, inside and outside of China, on a 24/7 basis at the behest of the authorities.
  • To store all data about its Chinese users on servers inside China and to agree to allow the Chinese authorities to access this data whenever they want to.
  • To follow all present and future regulations on internet operations in China.

LinkedIn already has egg on its face over its handling of censorship in China. While their commitment to transparency remains vague and noncommittal ("may", "could", "attempt"), the company's CEO, Jeff Weiner, has been more explicit in his description of how he handles censorship. The following is a transcript from the 22 minute mark in an interview with BuzzFeed's Mat Honan:

Weiner: "I'll tell ya, you can have any discussion you want theoretically, but when you are actually asked to censor even one thing, one profile or one update, it's gut-wrenching. It's gut-wrenching. And so we take that very, very seriously.".

Honan: "Do you get involved in those discussions personally?"

Weiner: "So our head of China reports directly to me."

Honan: "Is that a "yes"?

Weiner: "Yeah."

(If you want to listen to the entire China discussion, this starts around the 19 minute mark.)

There is no need to sugarcoat Weiner's disingenuousness in this interview. Anybody remotely familiar with how censorship works in China would be able to tell you that it is near impossible that Weiner personally discusses whether to censor individual updates and profiles on LinkedIn. Nor, for that matter, would his China CEO have the time to do that.

If we want to give Weiner the benefit of the doubt and take his comments at face value, this means that he would have to consider, on a daily basis, all of the censorship directives handed down by the authorities and whether or not they applied to each individual member, plus any requests that have been submitted directly to LinkedIn.

Locally registered internet companies, like LingYing, must censor the information which appears on their sites and employ roughly one censor for every 100,000 users on its platform. In its heyday, Weibo employed 4000 censors in house. With LinkedIn's 9 million members in China, this would mean that Weiner and China CEO Derek Shen are personally handling the work of 90 censors. If true, shareholders should be concerned that the CEO is spending more time dealing with censorship than trying to drive recruitment advertising revenue.

Weiner then goes on to say that the justification for censoring content on a global basis is that the potential exists for content to get "re-circulated" back into China, which may put their "members" in danger. This is an argument that seems to hold weight with many foreign internet firms - that Chinese internet users are not mature enough to understand what is appropriate to post and what is not appropriate to post.

We would posit that perhaps LinkedIn executives are not mature enough to handle China. In the midst of market turmoil, we have seen increased censorship of postsrelated to how the authorities handle this situation. Surely, this is the type of content that business people in China would be sharing on LinkedIn. Is this the type of censorship that Weiner finds "gut-wrenching"? Has he ever said "no" to the censors?

We likely will not be able to verify that information because of LinkedIn's local entity in China. It appears that this entity does not submit information for LinkedIn's transparency report. China is not mentioned in any report, despite a flurry of update and profile deletions around the two most recent Tiananmen anniversaries. While LinkedIn does not seemingly provide statistics on content removal, it does provide member data to governments upon request. However, no such requests from China appear in the report. What is the point of issuing an opaque transparency report?

This may be due to the fact that the Chinese authorities have requested that LinkedIn not share information about their requests - another pitfall of doing business in China. As China works through the details of its cybersecurity law, who knows what new requests lurk around the corner? What we do know is this - whatever the request, LinkedIn will be there to meet it, because relationships matter.

The issue of storing data in China raises many questions. What constitutes a Chinese user for LinkedIn? Presumably, the 4 million Chinese users who had joined before LinkedIn registered a local entity had their data shifted to China. Were they informed of this change?

When considering LinkedIn's transparency policy on content removal, it is also safe to assume that if you claim to be based in China or if you use the Chinese-language interface, regardless of where you may live or what language you speak, your information will be stored in data centers in China.

This is a dangerous development for many of LinkedIn's users, including dissidents, activists, journalists and those working in the non-profit sector. In 2004, Yahooinfamously handed over the emails of a dissident at the request of the Chinese authorities. These emails were later used as justification for sending the dissident to prison for eight years. By the letter of the law, LinkedIn would need to do the same. This information could include a user's location, communications and the profiles of people that are in their networks on LinkedIn, regardless of whether or not those users are based in China.

Sometime in May 2015, LinkedIn deleted my profile on their website. In all honesty, my profile was likely violating several items in the company's user agreement, including the use of a real name ("Charlie Smith" is a pseudonym). But how the company has handled the censorship of my account and the censorship of news which the Chinese authorities have deemed harmful, raises many questions about how foreign internet firms who wish to operate in the China market balance local laws against freedom of speech.

GreatFire has used LinkedIn since 2011. To the company's credit, LinkedIn helped us find contacts that could help with our mission of ending online censorship in China. We then started to automatically post our FreeWeibo Twitter feed to our LinkedIn profile and we expanded our network by connecting to Chinese who were working in media in China. As the LinkedIn site is not blocked, this proved to be an effective means of distributing banned content.

LinkedIn never informed me my account was taken offline. IFTTT, the app I used to auto post from my Twitter feed informed me that the LinkedIn recipe was no longer working. I wrote to LinkedIn twice before I received an answer about my account. The company then asked me to send government issued-ID to prove that the photo I was using on my profile matched my identity (I used a picture of Lu Wei as my profile photo). After I submitted copies of this information (not my real identity) I was then told that my account was being restricted because of "inappropriate content". They furthermore responded:

LinkedIn determined that recent public activity you posted (such as comments, or items shared with your network) contained content prohibited in China.

LinkedIn users in China who are activists, human rights defenders, working for nonprofits, journalists and the many, many others who operate in fields deemed "sensitive" by the authorities (including lawyers), should take the necessary actions to protect their personal security. The mishandling of the deletion of our four-year old account (with thousands of connections), raises several red flags:

  • After submitting my photo identification to LinkedIn for verification, they confirmed that they have deleted this information from their database. But according to Chinese law, this information needs to be retained, even if accounts are deleted.
  • After LinkedIn communicated that I needed to submit identification to get my account restored, they then told me that my account would be deleted because content I shared on the platform was illegal (they refused to elaborate on what content, specifically). Confusingly, if LinkedIn was deleting my account over content issues, why was it necessary for me to send them my personal identification?
  • LinkedIn will not inform you that your account has been removed or that your updates have been deleted. And their non-committal "commitment" to transparency allows them to take these types of actions.
  • If LinkedIn considered my account to be outside of China, then they would likely be able to delete my personal information from their database. But this then shows that they are practicing Chinese censorship on a global basis. If LinkedIn considered my account to be inside China, and they have deleted my personal information from their database, then they are in violation of Chinese law. But because relationships matter, they likely escaped punishment by the authorities.

As China drafts its cybersecurity law, we can thank businesses like LinkedIn for any new, overbearing requirements. LinkedIn have shown that they will do anything for the authorities in return for market access. Now, when a new foreign company wants to enter the China market, the authorities can simply point at LinkedIn and say "these are the minimum requirements you have to meet".

If LinkedIn mimicked their China approach in the West, human rights organizations would be all over them. It is highly likely that the authorities are demanding that LinkedIn hand over sensitive information about dissidents, activists, civil society actors and any other group deemed to be "picking quarrels". By the letter of the law, LinkedIn will have to comply with these requests - but they will simply see this as a "gut-wrenching" cost of doing business and nothing else.

LinkedIn would do well to heed the words of Tom Lantos who, while investigating Yahoo's complicit cooperation with the Chinese authorities, had this to say about American companies operating in China:

Chinese citizens who had the courage to speak their minds on the internet are in a Chinese gulag because Yahoo chose to reveal their identities to the Chinese government. It is beyond comprehension that an American company would play the role of willing accomplice in the Chinese suppression apparatus. My message to these companies today is simple: your abhorrent activities in China are a disgrace. I simply do not understand how your corporate leadership sleeps at night.

These enterprises, which have grown so powerful, so wealthy, so full of themselves, apparently have very little social conscience, apparently they don't appreciate their success is a result of a free and open and democratic society. What I am suggesting is that they do something in addition, merely, to doing business according to the laws of a repressive regime.

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星期四, 8月 10, 2023

1.4 million people used FreeBrowser to circumvent the Great Firewall of Turkmenistan

Since 2021, the authorities in Turkmenistan have taken exceptional measures to crack down on the use of circumvention tools. Citizens have been forced to swear on the Koran that they will not use a VPN. Circumvention tool websites have been systematically blocked. Arbitrary searches of mobile devices have also taken place and have even targeted school children and teachers.

The government has also blocked servers hosting VPNs which led to “near complete” internet shutdowns on several occasions in 2022. Current reports indicate that 66 hosting providers, 19 social networks and messaging platforms, and 10 leading content delivery networks (CDNs), are blocked in the country. The government presumably is unconcerned about the negative economic impact that such shutdowns can cause.

星期五, 3月 18, 2022

Well-intentioned decisions have just made it easier for Putin to control the Russian Internet

This article is in large part inspired by a recent article from Meduza (in Russian).

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Russian users have had problems accessing government websites and online banking clients. Browsers began to mark these sites as unsafe and drop the connection. The reason is the revocation of digital security certificates by foreign certificate authorities (either as a direct consequence of sanctions or as an independent, good will move); without them, browsers do not trust sites and “protect” their users from them.

However, these actions, caused - or at least triggered by - a desire to punish Russia for their gruesome actions in Ukraine, will have long-lasting consequences for Russian netizens.

Digital certificates are needed to confirm that the site the user wants to visit is not fraudulent. The certificates contain encryption keys to establish a secure connection between the site and the user. It is very easy to understand whether a page on the Internet is protected by a certificate. One need just look at the address bar of the browser. If the address begins with the https:// prefix, and there is a lock symbol next to the address, the page is protected. By clicking on this lock, you can see the status of the connection, the name of the Certification Authority (CA) that issued the certificate, and its validity period.

There are several dozen commercial and non-commercial organizations in the world that have digital root certificates, but 3/4 of all certificates are issued by only five of the largest companies. Four of them are registered in the USA and one is registered in Belgium.

星期一, 8月 03, 2020

GreatFire 应用生成器 发布

GreatFire (https://en.greatfire.org/) 是一家专注于中国的审查监督组织,我们自豪地宣布一个新的反审查工具,该工具将使任何被屏蔽的媒体、博客、人权组织或民间社会组织反制审查,将其内容得以传播到中国和其他互联网审查国家的数百万读者和支持者的手机上。

GreatFire 已经构建了一个名为“GreatFire 应用生成器”的网页程序,任何组织可以使用它来为中国和其他国家的用户解锁他们的内容。任何人可以访问 (https://appmaker.greatfire.org/),该网站将编译一个带有自己logo的应用,并将包含他们以前被封锁的内容。该应用还将包含一个特殊的、绕过审查的网络浏览器,以便用户可以访问未经审查的网络。这些应用将使用包括机器学习在内的多种策略来规避中国当局先进的审查策略。这个项目在其他有类似中国的审查限制的国家也同样有效。对于组织和最终用户而言,这些应用将免费、快速且非常易于使用。

这个项目的灵感来自于GreatFire自己的应用 自由浏览(https://freebrowser.org/en)的第一手经验,并希望帮助那些可能没有内部专业知识来规避中国审查制度的小型非政府组织。GreatFire的反审查工具在中国发挥了作用,而其他工具却没有。自由浏览可以引导中国的互联网用户从应用的首页进入被僧所内容的导航(http://manyvoices.news/)。

   

人权基金会 (HRF) 已经使用 GreatFire 应用生成器 创建了一个应用程序HRF 在全球范围内促进和保护人权。该组织的使命是确保自由在世界范围内得到维护和促进。 HRF 的网站 在中国被封锁, 但现在中国任何人都可以 下载 HRF Android 应用程序 并访问该网站的信息。

“现在是中国政府防火墙倒塌的时候了,”人权基金会战略顾问王珍妮说。 “与我们在 GreatFire 的朋友一起,我们致力于击败中国的审查制度——在每一部手机。”

GreatFire 应用生成器 的起源可以追溯到 2014 年,当时开放技术基金 (OTF) 支持 GreatFire 的“依附的自由”实验。该项目直接导致了 2015 年中国政府的大规模网络攻击,后来被称为“大炮”。 OTF 还为 GreatFire 开发 AppleCensorship.com,该网站正在跟踪苹果对包括香港在内的全球应用商店的审查情况。

自由浏览 是“大炮”攻击的直接结果,五年后,我们很高兴能够向任何可能遭受中国当局审查的组织提供我们的方法。 

星期五, 7月 24, 2020

Apple, anticompetition, and censorship

On July 20, 2020, GreatFire wrote to all 13 members of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law of the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, requesting a thorough examination into Apple’s practice of censorship of its App Store, and an investigation into how the company collaborates with the Chinese authorities to maintain its unique position as one of the few foreign tech companies operating profitably in the Chinese digital market.  

This letter was sent a week before Apple CEO TIm Cook will be called for questioning in front of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law. The CEOs of Amazon, Google and Facebook will also be questioned on July 27, as part of the Committee’s ongoing investigation into competition in the digital marketplace.

This hearing offers an opportunity to detail to the Subcommittee how Apple uses its closed operating ecosystem to not only abuse its market position but also to deprive certain users, most notably those in China, of their right to download and use apps related to privacy, secure communication, and censorship circumvention.

We hope that U.S. House representatives agree with our view that Apple should not be allowed to do elsewhere what would be considered as unacceptable in the U.S. Chinese citizens are not second class citizens. Private companies such as Apple compromise themselves and their self-proclaimed values of freedom and privacy when they collaborate with the Chinese government and its censors.

星期一, 6月 10, 2019

苹果审查中国西藏的信息

苹果在涉及西藏的审查方面有着悠久历史。 2009年,据计算机世界网透露 ,与达赖喇嘛有关的几个应用程序在苹果的中国区应用商店中不存在。这些应用的开发者未收到他们的应用被删除的通知。当面对这些审查制度时,苹果发言人只是说该公司将“继续遵守当地法律”。

2017年12月,在中国的一次会议上,当被问及与中国当局合作审查苹果应用商店时,蒂姆·库克 宣称

“所以你的选择是参与进去,还是站在局外,吼叫着事情应当怎样?我自己的看法非常强烈,你得进入赛场,因为没有任何东西会从局外发生改变。"

自苹果公司首次因与中国当局合作以遏制已被边缘化的声音而被批评的十年间,情况发生了什么变化?苹果继续严格遵守中国当局的审查令。蒂姆库克什么时候会期望他的公司能帮助在中国带来积极的变化?

根据生成的数据 https://applecensorship.com,Apple现在已经审查了在中国应用商店中29个西藏的热门应用程序。关于新闻,宗教研究,旅游甚至游戏的西藏主题应用程序正在被苹果审查。最下方附有完整的审查应用列表。

“苹果的领导力隐藏在他们审查应用程序以遵守模糊的'中国当地法律'的借口,但他们的行为缺乏任何透明度。通过从中国苹果应用商店删除藏文和其他许多应用程序,苹果阻碍了藏人获取信息和自由表达自己的能力,这是国际法下的一项基本人权。“ TibCERT(西藏计算机应急准备小组)的响应协调员Dorjee Phuntsok说道。 他们与GreatFire合作对被屏蔽的应用程序进行了分析。

   2019年1月,GreatFire推出了applecensorship.com。在那时,GreatFire联合创始人马丁约翰逊指出:“苹果公司在其透明度报告中没有分享有关应用商店审查的信息 - 该项目强制透明度。蒂姆库克可以随心所欲地说苹果在中国做了或没有做什么,但 applecensorship.com 提供了可以实际看到苹果实施审查原始数据的途径。

分析苹果在中国审查的iOS应用程序

有许多应用程序由藏人或为藏人制作,苹果正在审查中国区应用商店中的许多应用程序。了解某些应用程序被阻止的方式和原因以及这些决策背后的基本原理非常重要。为了解这一点,TibCERT(西藏应急准备小组)对在中国应用商店中被审查的藏文应用程序进行了分析。该研究使用关键字搜索藏文应用程序,然后使用GreatFire提供的应用程序审查平台。

TibCERT分析了119个以藏语为主题的iOS应用程序。使用“西藏”,“藏人”,“达赖喇嘛”,“佛教”,“藏传佛教”,等关键词搜索苹果应用商店时,可以找到下面列出的应用程序。这些应用程序分为五大类:“宗教或文化”,“媒体/政治”,“娱乐”,“工具”和“教育”。

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