Globally, Limits On Web Freedom
網路在各地越來越不自由
By Vindu Goel

SAN FRANCISCO – Across the world, challenges to web freedom are mounting, with users forced into evasions and workarounds.
網路自由在世界各地遭受的挑戰越來越多，網友不得不設法規避並找尋替代方案。

Russia and Turkey in particular are trying to tighten controls on foreign-based Internet companies. Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, has signed a law require companies to store data about Russian users inside the country, where the government can get access to it. Few companies are expected to comply with the law, which is effective September 1.
俄國和土耳其加緊控制總部在國外的網路公司著力尤深。俄國總統普亭已簽署法案，要求各公司把俄國網友的資料儲存在俄境，讓政府得以查閱。預料少有公司會遵守9月1日生效的這項新法。

In mid-December, Russia’s Internet regulator demanded that Facebook remove a page that was promoting an anti-government rally. After Facebook blocked the page for its 10 million or so Russian users, dozens of copycat pages popped up and the word spread on other social networks like Twitter. That created even more publicity for the planned January 15 event, intended to protest the sentencing of Aleksei A. Navalny, a leading opposition figure.
去年12月中旬，俄國網路管理機構要求臉書移除一個宣傳一項反政府集會的專頁。臉書對俄國約1000萬網友封鎖該專頁後，數十個類似專頁突然出現，消息在推特等其他社群網站上傳開，讓1月15日抗議反對派要角納瓦尼被判刑的活動更獲關注。

Anton Nosik, a prominent Russian blogger, said it was absurd for a government to think it could easily suppress an article or video when it can be copied or found elsewhere with a few clicks. “The reader wants to see what he was prevented from seeing,” Mr. Nosik said.
俄國知名部落客諾錫克說，政府以為能輕易封鎖一篇文章或一段影片很荒謬，網友按幾個鍵就能複製或在他處找到同樣內容，他說：「讀者就想看不准看的東西。」

The Turkish government faced a similar embarrassment when it tried to stop the dissemination of leaked documents and audio recordings on Twitter in March. Not only did the government lose a court fight on the issue, but while Twitter was blocked, legions of Turkish users taught one another technical tricks to evade the ban.
土耳其政府去年3月試圖阻止外洩文件和錄音在推特上散布，也遇到類似難堪情況，不僅輸掉官司，推特被封時大批土耳其使用者還互相傳授規避禁令的技巧。

“We all became hackers,” Asli Tunc, a professor at Istanbul Bilgi University.
伊斯坦堡知識大學教授愛絲麗．頓奇說：「我們全成了駭客。」

Free-speech activists view Facebook, the world’s largest social network with 1.35 billion monthly users, as the company most inclined to work with governments. Last spring, while Twitter was blocked in Turkey and YouTube was shut down, Facebook removed contested content and continued to operate.
鼓吹言論自由的社運人士認為，全球最大社群網站臉書是最願意配合政府的公司。臉書平均每月有13.5億使用者。去年春天土耳其封鎖推特、關閉YouTube時，臉書卻移除爭議內容，在土境繼續營運。

Twitter, which has about 284 million monthly users, styles itself as the world’s town square and a global champion of free speech, conforming to the letter of censorship laws while winking at workaround strategies.
推特平均每月有2.84億使用者，自我定位為全球的市政廣場和言論自由領頭羊，既遵循言論審查法的字面意義，也默許使用者迴避審查。

As the biggest player, Google, whose YouTube often angers foreign governments and has been forced into many fights, is still viewed by many as a hero for its decision to pull out of China in 2010 rather than continue to censor search results there.
最大網路公司谷歌的YouTube常激怒外國政府，多次被迫迎戰，許多人仍視谷歌為英雄，因為它2010年決定撤出大陸，而非繼續審查大陸的搜尋結果。

Despite such victories for free-speech advocates, governments are stepping up their efforts to control the Internet. “There are more and more requests for removal of information,” said Colin Crowell, Twitter’s global vice president of public policy.
雖然提倡言論自由者取得這些勝利，各地政府卻加緊控制網路。推特全球公共政策副總裁克洛爾說：「移除資訊的要求越來越多。」

Pakistan bombarded Facebook with nearly 1,800 requests to take down content in the first half of 2014. Google’s YouTube video service has long been blocked there. And the government briefly succeeding in getting Twitter to block certain “blasphemous” or “unethical” tweets last year.
2014年上半年，巴基斯坦政府要求臉書移除內容近1800次。巴國已封鎖谷歌YouTube影片服務許久，去年並短暫使推特封鎖某些「瀆神」或「不道德」的訊息。

But it’s not just autocratic regimes that are pressing. In the European Union, which has established a “right to be forgotten,” allowing residents to ask search engines to remove links about them, now want search results on the non-European versions of its service deleted on request.
但不是只有專制政權壓制言論。歐盟已確立「被遺忘權」，居民可要求搜尋引擎移除有關自己的網頁連結，現在歐盟希望搜尋引擎也能因應要求刪除歐洲以外版本的搜尋結果。

But Russia is the current flash point in the censorship wars. In the summer, the government began demanding that anyone with at least 3,000 daily visitors follow rules similar to those applying to a media company.
不過，俄國才是目前言論審查戰的焦點。去夏俄國政府開始要求，日訪客達3000人的網站均須遵守適用於媒體公司的法規。

Google, whose search engine is the number-two player in Russia after the local Yandex service, has said that it will close its engineering offices in Russia. Although Google said it had been consolidating such offices globally, one factor in the risk of a raid by Russian authorities.
谷歌是俄國第二大搜尋引擎，僅次於本土的Yandex。谷歌已表示將關閉在俄國的工程辦公室。雖然谷歌宣稱正在全球各地整併這類辦公室，但避免俄國當局臨檢也是原因。

Robert Shlegel, a member of the Russian Parliament active in shaping the Kremlin’s Internet policies, said that the Russian regulations were in many ways a response to the revelations of the former American intelligence contractor, Edward J. Snowden, about American government spying through Silicon Valley companies.
熱中於形塑克里姆林宮網路政策的俄國國會議員許雷戈說，俄國的規範在許多方面都是在回應美國情報機構前約聘人員史諾登揭發的事，也就是美國政府透過矽谷的公司從事間諜活動。

“This problem was created by the United States,” Mr. Shlegel said.
許雷戈說：「問題是美國製造出來的。」

Russia’s first preference, Mr. Shlegel said, is to persuade other nations to form an international set of rules for social networking sites and crowdsourced news, clarifying when countries could block pages to comply with national laws.
許雷戈說，俄國最想做的是，說服其他國家制定一套國際社群網站與「取材於眾」新聞的規範，並釐清國家何時可封鎖網頁，以符合國內法。

He said that Russian authorities had no intention of blocking American Internet companies for failing to follow the data storage law.
他說，俄國當局無意因美國網路公司不遵守資料儲存法而封鎖這些公司。

“What we need to do is have a dialogue,” he said.
他說：「我們該做的是對話」。

If strictly enforced, the personal data law would close most Internet hotel and airline bookings, sending Russians to stand in line at travel agencies instead.
如果個人資料法嚴格執行，上網訂飯店、機票幾乎不可能，俄國人得去旅行社排隊。

Mr. Nosik said that sites like Facebook were unlikely to get banned, if only for fear that millions of Russians who suddenly lost access to years of photographs, family memories, love letters and contacts with friends would blame the Kremlin.
俄國知名部落客諾錫克說，政府不太可能封殺臉書這類網站，單單害怕數百萬突然無法讀取多年來相片、家庭回憶、情書、與朋友通聯紀錄的俄國人怪罪克宮，就足以讓它三思了。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/02/business/international/web-freedom-is-seen-to-be-growing-as-a-global-issue-in-2015.html

2015-01-27聯合報/G5版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 李京倫譯 原文參見紐時週報八版左