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Canadian Company Netsweeper to Censor Bahrain’s Internet for $1.2M
- MisterWalter 11y agoMaybe I'm naive, but I just can't see how these NetSweeper people justify this to themselves.
- dubcanada 11y agoThey care about money. And that's it.
- dmix 11y agoDemand <--> supply. Controls might help prevent this type of thing but often just pushes it underground. In all likelyhood they'd probably just get it from some source without public tenders. Then we'd know even less about their censorship capabilities. Or at best they'd get a less-capable software version from an amoral and less technically savvy country - which may be easier to circumvent. Bluecoat seems to still be operating fine despite doing similar things years ago in the US.
- gooserock 11y ago"Somebody is going to do this, so we might as well do it" is not a valid defense for doing something that is immoral.
- dmix 11y agoYou mischaracterized my argument. To reiterate: If somebody is going to do it anyway it is therefore often better to have it done in public rather than pushed into black markets via controls (see: drug war). The additional condition I provided is where the black market options are much weaker or limited than the possible public options, allowing the markets to effectively circumvent or eliminate the negative utility of the black market products - therefore making controls a valid option (see: nuclear arms).
- venomsnake 11y agoMoney are extremely good at placating the conscience of a person.
- charlesdm 11y agoA cool 1.2m dollars
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- pc86 11y agoYou should read the article.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- kitcar 11y agoTo make matters even more complex, Netsweeper appears to have received subsidies / grants from the federal government of Canada ( see http://www.giantgoat.com/blog/2010/03/guelph-partnership-for-innovation-breakfast-march-25.html http://www.giantgoat.com/blog/2010/03/guelph-partnership-for... )
- dmix 11y agoThis is very common for tech companies operating in Canada. Though it is interesting to consider nonetheless.
- eliteraspberrie 11y agoCanadian companies doing business with foreign governments get help from the Canadian Commercial Corporation and probably consular personnel too. The Canadian government is very much involved.
- mfoy_ 11y ago"Andrew Graydon: Chief Operating Officer of Netsweeper Inc. Andrew gave an enthusiastic talk on the benefits that IRAP has had on Netsweeper; explaining how they started out in 2002 with an IRAP YEP grant (Youth Employment Program) and then moved on in subsequent years to get IRAP project funding that enabled them to develop very innovative and what sounds like potentially very profitable technologies in the Internet content filtering area." Last line is pure gold in retrospect.
- karanbhangui 11y agoShame on them, both as a Canadian and coming from a family who used to live in Bahrain.
- sandworm101 11y agoSame here. I was just across the causeway in Dhahran.
- x5n1 11y agoWhatever 1.2 million is not much money. And if they don't do it someone else will do it.
- emptybits 11y agoOne could justify the sale of any unethical product or service to any despicable group this way, could they not? Is there ever a role for principled commerce?
- Zigurd 11y agoNetsweeper is creating a bigger national security threat than any so-called subversives could. They are reinforcing a constricted, benighted, world-view in a place that needs exposure to diversity of thought more than most others.
- venomsnake 11y agoOne of the cornerstones of international law is that a country's internal affairs are their own.
- eliteraspberrie 11y agoKeep an eye on this graph to see when it goes online: https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-relay-country.html?graph=userstats-relay-country&start=2016-01-01&end=2016-12-01&country=bh&events=off https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-relay-country.html?...
- kazinator 11y agoNow if it also turned out that the money actually comes from the Canadian government as some sort of aid funding for development projects abroad, that would be perfect!
- davidu 11y agoWe say no to these deals because the cost of doing them is too great. Not only have we said no to these opportunities in the past, but we probably said no to this specific one. Here is our documented anti-censorship policy: https://www.opendns.com/about/anti-censorship-policy/ https://www.opendns.com/about/anti-censorship-policy/ Even as a part of Cisco, it's easy to avoid these kinds of deals still today. You simply say "No – The cost is too great."
- chvid 11y agoMaybe it is me but 1.2 mio dollars does not sound like much for doing something like this. But then the article doesn't really describe what exactly what censorship entails.
- Robin_Message 11y agoI'm appalled that someone would give up such basic principles for a million dollars. A billion, and I could understand it being hard to turn down, but one million? If you're going to sell out, might as well be for a large sum†. † Given they have to implement it, and there are probably more than a few people involved, I can't see anyone getting more than 100 thousand out of this. On the other hand, Judas was content with 4 months pay, so maybe some people just don't care.