When IT expert Steven Hunter learned of the difficulty that citizens in Iran and China were having in accessing news and Western websites in the name of government correction he got angry at the unmitigated gall of governments censoring the internet from people who were old enough to decide what they wanted to look at. He wanted oppressed peoples to experience a little bit of the freedom that he enjoys in a free country. So he created a proxy for those oppressed peoples to access so that they could see what the government didn’t want them to see.
Hunter intended for this new avenue of freedom to lead to learning, and possibly even changing the entire country. What actually happened though is as much an example of human nature as it is of innovation. Along with China and Iran there are 23 other countries that block their citizens from seeing Wikipedia, YouTube and other Western websites. But others like Hunter wanted to provide access to foreigners to see these sites if they so wished.
Specialists at the Citizen Lab in Toronto created a work around for those citizens. A volunteer in the US or Canada hosts a psiphonode. This host then allows web surfers in a country with oppressive censorship to use their PC’s web connections, which lets them access any site as if they are doing so from another country. To date there have been more than 110,000 copies of this software downloaded since last year.
Hunter purchased the program and freely advertised his connection to anyone in the Psiphons public forum. One particular taker in China claimed he wanted to see banned news sites. This taker did visit CNN’s site, then a few other news sites that his government would prevent him from seeing. Then his exploration took a turn to the odd when he began searching for nude celebrity pictures. The next five hours of his surfing was on hard core porn sites.
Hunter then banned the taker from his network as hosts are privy to the sites that their guests visit. He was angry that a search for banned news turned so quickly into a gawking session at nude women in lewd poses. Hunter was lambasted by those in the forum by those who criticized his move as being just as bad as that of the Chinese government.
Unfortunately this type of experience is all too common with internet proxies. True, getting around censorship and helping others do that is a noble goal. But human nature is human nature and the fact that an attractive nude woman is a sight that most men stop and take a little time to enjoy is only natural. One concern that Hunter has is a guest on his network accessing child pornography. Not only is it illegal in all countries, it can get the host arrested. But proxies will continue to exist, and so will porn, it’s like they were meant for each other, isn’t it?
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