Op-Ed Contributor
\nPolitical Repression 2.0
\nBy EVGENY MOROZOV – September 1, 2011<\/p>\n
AGENTS of the East German Stasi could only have dreamed of the sophisticated electronic equipment that powered Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi\u2019s extensive spying apparatus, which the Libyan transitional government uncovered earlier this week. The monitoring of text messages, e-mails and online chats \u2014 no communications seemed beyond the reach of the eccentric colonel.<\/p>\n
What is even more surprising is where Colonel Qaddafi got his spying gear: software and technology companies from France, South Africa and other countries. Narus, an American company owned by Boeing, met with Colonel Qaddafi\u2019s people just as the protests were getting under way, but shied away from striking a deal. As Narus had previously supplied similar technology to Egypt and Saudi Arabia, it was probably a matter of public relations, not business ethics.<\/p>\n
Amid the cheerleading over recent events in the Middle East, it\u2019s easy to forget the more repressive uses of technology. In addition to the rosy narrative celebrating how Facebook and Twitter have enabled freedom movements around the world, we need to confront a more sinister tale: how greedy companies, fostered by Western governments for domestic surveillance needs, have helped suppress them.<\/p>\n
Libya is only the latest place where Western surveillance technology has turned up. Human rights activists arrested and later released in Bahrain report being presented with transcripts of their own text messages \u2014 a capacity their government acquired through equipment from Siemens, the German industrial giant, and maintained by Nokia Siemens Networks, based in Finland, and Trovicor, another German company.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, after storming the secret police headquarters, Egyptian activists discovered that the Mubarak government had been using a trial version of a tool \u2014 developed by Britain\u2019s Gamma International \u2014 that allowed them to eavesdrop on Skype conversations, widely believed to be safe from wiretapping.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s not just off-the-shelf technology; some Western companies supply dictators with customized solutions to block offensive Web sites. A March report by OpenNet Initiative, an academic group that monitors Internet censorship, revealed that Netsweeper, based in Canada, together with the American companies Websense and McAfee (now owned by Intel), have developed programs to meet most of the censorship needs of governments in the Middle East and North Africa \u2014 in Websense\u2019s case, despite promises not to supply its technology to repressive governments.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the American government, the world\u2019s most vociferous defender of \u201cInternet freedom,\u201d has little to say about such complicity. Though Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton often speaks publicly on the subject, she has yet to address how companies from her country undermine her stated goal. To add insult to injury, in December the State Department gave Cisco \u2014 which supplied parts for China\u2019s so-called Great Firewall \u2014 an award in recognition of its \u201cgood corporate citizenship.\u201d ….more<\/a><\/p>\n