Reporters without borders: The internet's "Black holes"

rubbish

so what!

at least they may still get porn.
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If at first you dont succeed... don't try parachuting

What's this?

Rubbish...Agree

interesting idea good information i bet nobody notice this before thinking ads that what it is....

(my Life Is Design & Design Is my LIFE)

interesting idea good information i bet nobody notice this before thinking ads thats what it is....

(my Life Is Design & Design Is my LIFE)

excellent, simple and impressive!

Interesting subject. Poor idea.

truth hurts. talk about government control huh?.

I wish this one could be buried in a black hole somewhere.

simple??...

or why not think simple??

ughhh. all this horrible reporter garbage makes me lose all sympathy for whatever this is trying to tell me.

as said, it's a very interesting subject.
but it seems that 70% of the people here didn't get the point hidden behind this flat and ugly execution.

yeah, what's with everyone backing censorship and government control of information? Do you realize that this site can't be accessed from China?

digitalmimicry.com

Uhhh...
Is everyone else reading a different article, or am I the only one who cares about the fact that these people don't get to exercise one of the same basic rights that we do?

Rubbish...Agree

Data is wrong ... News is free in NEPAL

what happened to germany? :D

thats not germany but belarus

Digg it: http://digg.com/tech_news/The_Black_Hole_Of_The_Internet_Pic

This is factually inaccurate. Why can you say Iran has no internet when it does, and say iraq has internet when only the westerners have it?

Get the facts straight and post them. Report accurately before you talk about borders.

China has internet too. That picture is meant to show which countries don't have unrestricted access to the internet. I have come across many articles about Iran blocking certain sites because the government didn't like that was on them.

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the isalamic regime

Why do you mention Libya as a black hole? Most of the internet is allowed there, hell, even porn is allowed. Just the opposition's websites are censored, and really, who gives a damn about that?

Quote-"Why can you say Iran has no internet when it does"

It's not trying to say there is no internet butt hole it is trying to say that information does not flow freely there.......

According to this graphic, I think that someone should literally move more offshore servers 'offshore'. I'm really amazed by the 'amount of internet' available in the oceans, and clearly connecting the poles.

Seriously, some graphic designer thought it cute to put WAY too many lines in that image. Try: http://www.cybergeography.org/atlas/more_isp_maps.html

:p

SAYS WHO!!!
i'm from saudi arabia... what type of "NEWS" am i missing?

(FYI: if ur talking about filtered sites, then there are MANY MANY ways to bypass those blockades, but mostly they're porn so i'm glad that they're there for the children's sake)

Information does not flow freely in the US either. Try criticizing the administration's policies...you will find yourself fired or arrested (much like the kid from Loose Change)

This is just stupid who would say there is a black hole in the internet? whoever made this must also thinks that when the earth crashes into the sun we would move to mars. god these peole are idiots. this is my first day on digg so may i ask: does anyone here play runescape? If you do plz add me my username is yoikillyou2. K? Goodbye!

Propaganda at it's finest.

God damn, there are alot of stupid people on the internet. It's not about Internet access, you idiots. It's not suppose to be a work of art to appease your delicate gay palettes.

Do you idiots see the black holes?

Black holes = censorship
Censorship = bad
Idiots = bad
Idiots = Black Holes

Funny Quotes:
Just the opposition's websites are censored, and really, who gives a damn about that?

What's this?

nobody notice this before thinking ads that what it is....

horrible reporter garbage makes me lose all sympathy for whatever this is trying to tell me.

what happened to germany? :D // thats not germany but belarus (You Idiot)

Why can you say Iran has no internet when it does (because it about censorship you idiot)

I love the Saudi reply that yeah, there are blockades but tons of ways to get around them, and they pretty much just block porn. What if others thought this way:

Soviet Russian: "We don't need independent media. Besides, we can watch American TV on satellite if we hide the dish well enough."
Palestinian: "Sure, there are tons of checkpoints, but why do you want to cross them anyway? Only infidels out there."
Chinese: "Yes, we have to get a visa to travel to parts of our country, but it's for our own good. Nothing to see in Hong Kong anyway, it's just like the rest of the country."

Not true.. Nepal should not be in this list. It has open access to internet

keep information fee. . . f* china and their great firewall

Let's count how much time will it take to Venezuela become the newest member...

Ok... so are people just not able to understand the notion of "freely" flowing information? This is not saying that the internet never reaches these places... just that these countries don't have access to ALL the internet (be it a jpeg on your first webpage or government conspiracy page). The problem here is as follows: YOU don't get the option to choose what you want to see as your country makes that choice for you... Those of you in the US... don't get your complexes complicated yet... our government is instead listening to everything you say.... 2 solutions... same issue...

I have visited both Tunisia and Iran, both of which are on your "list". I had no problems getting online in either of these countries and accessing websites hosted outside of those countries. I was able to access websites via HTTP and HTTPS. I was also able to use ssh from both of those countries back to servers in the UK. So if i had been ultra-paranoid about being filtered or blocked I would have just use an ssh tunnel back to a squid proxy, but as I have already said, that did not become necessary.

This is an inaccurate picture. Cuba has internet, it's filter, but it has internet. I was in Cuba a little more than a year ago, and I was able to access my hotmail from there.

Their point might be an important one but the graphic itself sucks. Also, dead zones of free information liken nothing to a "black hole". The metaphor is ignorant.

Important tip: when making a graphic representation use real information, otherwise you've drawn thousands of people to your site to look at a pretty picture with no relevance. It pisses them off.

OMFG, SEA IS HIGLY NETWORKED!!!!!!!

Since when is "free information flow" a basic human right?

Information has been, is, and will always be an instrument of the government and influential powers alike (e.g. corporations) to control the mass, regardless of country. In any case, what use is free information flow if you don't take action about it? Take the U.S., for instance. Thanks to its free flow of information, there are now people who know that Bush is a terrible president and that the whole war in Iraq is a show put up for the profit of big American corporations. How many people are doing something concrete about this information? Why is Bush still in power? I'm just guessing but most of them are probably just sitting on their ass at the dining table talking about how terrible a president Bush is. I don't blam them. I just want you to realise that free flow of information does not mean everything. With this freedom comes the problem of information overflow, where people become desensitised about important issues because, everywhere, there is too much information of all levels of importance and truthfulness, and you lose the ability to distinguish the important from the trivial, and the true from the false. Information overloading is quite possibly a much scarier mechanism of mass control than information blocking. When you block information, the mass can sense something wrong and actively seek to circumvent the block. However, when you have information overload, the mass literally has its senses overwhelmed and voluntarily ceases to take interest in true, important information.

Please read Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" and realise the bigger information-related problem in your own country.

I, for one, can proudly say that I am fighting information overload. For instance, I have stopped watching television news because there really is not much valuable content for my time. My time is better spent reading news articles. Not that news articles are any more unbiased than television news, but reading is more thought stimulating and allows me to analyse better.

Some of these comments truly show how much their writers do not understand.

This graphic is not saying that these places do not have internet. It is saying that they DO have internet, but that there are heavy filters in place that prevent access to some sites.

Yes, there are many ways around this, but that is not the point.

The point is that of censorship. I will not define censorship, because if you do not know what it is then you are probably too stupid to read anything other than US Weekly.

I'm from Belarus.

We do have Internet.

But during elections or some other important political activities our government blocks ALL opposition sites, so people don't have an idea what's really happening in the country.

That is the idea.

No truth, no information, no freedom, and almost no hope left...

I can't see this page, and yet my country is not blacked out. WTF1111!!!!??????

Seriously guys. This is a simple graphic on who censors the web. If you don't get that, you probably should censor yourselves off the web. It might harm you if you're that gullible.

Looks like North Dakota is also affected by this Blackhole... hmmm... explains a lot!

no way, China isn't free. And for all these years.....

black out MPAA and RIAA HQs and that should have been enough

seems that there are a lot of idiots out there that just dont understand the priviledge that they have by beeng informed , the blak hole is just in their heads

you think we are not in a hole?! think again.

This picture is dumb on so many levels............

Most of the posters here are absolutely CLUELESS. A black hole takes things in, but doesn't let them out. So what if you can read news in Libya or Iran? The point is that information cannot freely travel OUT of the black hole.

since when is internet access an inalienable human right?
freedom to travel should be though, so travel to another country and log on.

Saudi Arabia mainly filter the porn sites. They don't block any kind of news on the internet, but they do monitor and control the local newspapers. CNN and Fox news channels are provided by the local cable providers, unlike USA which blocks AlJazeera English channel

This graph(ic) is so inaccurate it hurts. If by black-hole they mean intercepted or filtered web, try the majority of the world. Yes, yes, you sitting smugly in the USA, GB, Italy are having sites blocked, slowed down (throttled) or otherwise traced/manipulated just like those 'evil' contries we like to wag a disapproving finger at.

This looks more like a political map of those the USA does not have good relations with than anything based on rational thought, science, or *gasp* actual data!

Kudos for pulling wool. Our eyes were so cold and rational before it.

Looks like parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan are in the black hole, too?

There is plenty of information censorship right here in the U.S. A high percentage of Americans get much if not all of their Internet access at work or at public libraries, and there are filters and eavesdropping network overlords at libraries and at some companies that make Chinese government filters look like a joke. Add to that personal self-censorship of people choosing to use net filters and other things designed to keep them "safe" from evil things (when these products are known to block legitimate "safe" sites [like mine, grumblegrumble]) and I think you'll find that information does not ever flow freely anywhere. In some of these countries filtering is administered by the government, but in America it's a lucrative software niche.

This graphic is trying to make a point but it is carelessly made, and ambiguous enough that it invites misinterpretations more than insights.

You also skipped Antarctica.

-mt

So here I am, I've been living in Vietnam for more than 2 years and never, ever I've been blocked to visit a website... I don't deny that there is censorship here, but...

Guess this means that they won't be able to see that they are black holes of the internet since this is on THE INTERNET.

Those who say bubbish, at least you have the internet and the right to say that. Those in the countries listed can't say that about their regime openly or they will be arrested like the cases in Vietnam. DZ

For those in Vietnam, try and see if you can log on viettan.org, http://www.vietquoc.com/, http://www.vietnamhumanrights.net/, http://lenduong.net/spip.php?rubrique362 and such... Then email me and tell me if you are ok. Dai Zuong

cuba doesnt have a wide internet service provider because they were excluded in the network line that goes throught the caribbean, so they are forced to use satelite internet at a very high price, with not much of data to use, and only around 150mbit/70mbit for the whole country. this will change when anoter cable goes to the caribbean from venezuela, adding 40gps to cuba, and to other countries in the area. and venezuela will be soon on this list, because this is a lame propaganda. seriously, venezuela is a democratic socialist state, and if you read their constitution you will be able to learn a thing or two, but yea, it's better to get the news about venezuela in fox news, right?

I like turtles

if the data is trying to show the country that restricts internet access...i think nepal is the only country that has the most freedom of the web in the world and i am not kidding...get ur facts straight

Uzbekistan...aka..."Ass holes" - Borat

you bet.

Bull shit !! who says these countries dont have internet acess and restricted .just a bunch of crap.. who is the reporter any way .I am Nepalese living in US and i had way better internet acess back home than here.You dont even know how good it was ...so better research accurately before posting this kinda bullshit

I am a Chinese but I hate the black holes. Espectially the Germany. because it is the only democracy contry in the list. If this black hole can be filled up, I think we can do more for filling other black hole.

Some people still have not got it right!!!

* It is NOT about "access" to internet
* It is about BLOCKING OF SITES that are critical of the government / country / establishment
* It is about DENIAL of right to dissent
* It is about FREEDOM of speech

Many countries do not allow sites critical to their political ideology. Countries like Saudi Arabia does not allow sites that criticize their religion. Other countries block sites of political dissidents and opponents.

Information overload can happen in a fee society. But it’s not a bad thing. People know that Bush administration is bad because people can say so, without fear or harm.

~~be cool eh!~~

Actually it should have many shades of Grey, too.
Many democratic and free countries do actually have in place different levels of "black holes" !!!!
~~be cool eh!~~

So the U.S.A. has "free flow of information"? Think again!
Where was that page? Yes, here: http://www.rense.com/general57/news.htm
I have chosen the USA because this web page is from there.
Announcing some countries as "censor" or "the other" is easy way to forget about other deformities. The important thing is to fight against EVERY forms of prevention and censorship.
By the way, I am not from the USA. I am from TURKEY

some of you should be ashamed of yourselves, agreeing with censorship! what has got into you? have you not yet learned history's lessons?

for the record, i'm in china. i can see this site. no special circumventing needed.

total garbage i have logged on in the maldives and had no problems at all

rubbish map is out of date and full of rubbish