During the Almedalen week a number of articles about the Swedish company NetClean were published in the daily press. Public radio SR P3 brought up the problem and DFRI participated. Furthermore, we found out that NetClean already have the Egyptian government as customers. Despite the extensive censorship that takes place in the country NetClean claim that their equipment does not contribute to the censorship. NetClean also claims that the equipment is “locked” and can not be used for other content than what’s on the revocation lists from IWF (Internet Watch Foundation).
NetClean have in a blog post said that Whitebox (the product that performs censorship on the network operator level) is located in approximately 20 countries. DFRI is still awaiting the response to the open letter we sent last week.
Despite the criticism, it is unlikely that a deal of this magnitude can be stopped in the first place. DFRI continues to work on the issue. For those who want to help us and wonder what they can do, a good first step is to inform themselves more about the subject. The only Swedish research on internet filtering has been done by Marie Eneman at the University of Gothenburg. In an interview with NetClean CEO one can read:
Christian Berg refers to Marie Eneman at Chalmers research on filtering of the internet and wrote a thesis which, among other things, is about overblocking - to mistakenly include too much on the list. - She came to the conclusion that there was no problem, he says. - I did not at all, says Marie Eneman.
Journalist Anders R Olsson has also written a book about filtering which can be downloaded for free. DFRI’s European partner organization EDRi published in 2010 a blocking booklet. It is in English but is easy to understand. However, it has no information about what happened after 2010, such as court cases, etc.Under Almedalsveckan publicerades ett flertal artiklar om det svenska företaget Netclean i dagspressen. Nyheterna i SR:s P3 tog upp problemet och DFRI medverkade. Vidare har vi fĂ„tt reda pĂ„ att Netclean redan har den egyptiska regeringen som kunder. Trots den omfattande censur som sker i landet sĂ„ hĂ€vdar Netclean att deras utrustning inte bidrar till censuren. Netclean menar Ă€ven att utrustningen Ă€r âlĂ„stâ och inte kan anvĂ€ndas för annat Ă€n spĂ€rrlistorna frĂ„n IWF (Internet Watch Foundation).
Netclean har i en bloggpost sagt att Whitebox (produkten som utför censur pÄ operatörs-nivÄ) finns i ca 20 lÀnder. DFRI invÀntar fortfarande svar pÄ det öppna brevet vi skickade förra veckan.
Trots kritiken Àr det osannolikt att en affÀr i den hÀr storleksordningen kommer lÄta sig stoppas i första taget. DFRI fortsÀtter sitt arbete med frÄgan. För de som vill hjÀlpa oss och undrar vad de kan göra, Àr ett bra första steg att informera sig mer om Àmnet. Den enda svenska forskning som berör internetfiltrering har gjorts av Marie Eneman pÄ Göteborgs universitet. I en intervju med Netcleans VD kan man lÀsa:
 â Christian Berg hĂ€nvisar till Marie Eneman pĂ„ Chalmers som forskar pĂ„ filtrering av internet och skrivit en avhandling som bland annat handlar om överblockering â att rĂ„ka ta med för mycket pĂ„ listan. â Hon kom fram till att det inte var nĂ„gra problem, sĂ€ger han. â Det gjorde jag inte alls, sĂ€ger Marie Eneman.â
Journalisten Anders R Ohlsson har ocksÄ skrivit en bok om filtrering som kan laddas ned gratis. DFRI:s europeiska samarbetsorganisation EDRi skrev 2010 en blocking booklet. Den Àr pÄ engelska men Àr lÀtt att förstÄ. DÀremot har den ingen information om det som hÀnt efter 2010, tex rÀttsfall mm.