My Way News - China Orders Video Web Sites to Close
AP reports: "The government announced in December that all video-sharing sites had to be state-owned. [...] Chinese Web surfers have recently been blocked from seeing YouTube after video about the Tibet protests appeared on the popular U.S. site. Foreign Web sites run by news organizations and human rights groups are regularly blocked when they carry sensitive information."

My Way News - Bush Presses House for Surveillance Bill
AP reports: "President Bush said Monday that telecommunications companies should be thanked, not sued, for helping the government conduct warrantless wiretapping in the U.S. after the Sept. 11 attacks."

Congress worries that .gov monitoring will spy on Americans | Tech news blog - CNET News.com
CNET News reports: "A new Bush administration plan to capture and analyze traffic on all federal government networks in real time is generating privacy worries from congressional Democrats and Republicans alike."

My Way News - Pakistan Causes Worldwide YouTube Outage
AP reports: "On Friday, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority ordered 70 Internet service providers to block access to YouTube.com, because of anti-Islamic movies on the video-sharing site, which is owned by Google Inc."

Comment: It's scary that a country with a religious and ideological agenda can disrupt global internet service. Think about this: an Islamic country seeking to prevent people from watching anti-Islamic movies on a video-sharing site has the power to prevent you from watching those movies...even if you are not in that country. What's to prevent them from targeting pro-Christian movies?

My Way News - Encrypted Laptop Poses Legal Dilemma
AP reports: "Tien, the attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said a person's right to keep a password secret is a linchpin of the digital age. Encryption is 'really the only way you can secure information against prying eyes,' he said. 'If it's too easy to compel people to produce their crypto keys, it's not much of a protection.'"

My Way News - China Steps Up Internet Video Control
AP reports: "The rules are aimed at expanding a Chinese censorship system that tries to block Internet use to spread dissent while promoting it for business and education. Communist leaders are especially anxious about unflattering video showing up online ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August, a major prestige project."

My Way News - Access to YouTube Resumes in Turkey
AP reports: "Access to the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube resumed on Thursday, six days after a court ordered it blocked because of clips allegedly insulting the country's founding father."

My Way News - Turkey Bans YouTube for Second Time
AP reports: "A Turkish court has again blocked access to the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube because of clips allegedly insulting the country's founding father, according to reports Sunday."

My Way News - UK Says It Wants to Tackle Net Terror
AP reports: "But Internet service providers and experts say they could be accused of corporate censorship and face a mess of lawsuits if they must carry out any government order to aggressively police the Internet."

My Way News - China Limits Providers of Internet Video
AP reports: "China has moved to restrict videos online, allowing only state-controlled sites to post any - including those shared by users - and requiring Internet providers to delete and report a variety of content."

My Way News - Ask.com to Unveil New Privacy Control
AP reports: "Hoping to establish itself as the Internet's least intrusive search engine, Ask.com is empowering people to prevent their search requests from being deposited in data banks. The new privacy control, called "AskEraser," is scheduled to be unveiled Tuesday. When it's turned on, the safeguard purges a user's search requests from Ask.com's computers within a few hours."

For those of you looking to practice safe searching, this may be a good tool.

Syria blocks access to Facebook - Yahoo! News
AP reports: "Syrian authorities have blocked Facebook, the popular Internet hangout, over what seems to be fears of Israeli 'infiltration' of Syrian social networks on the Net, according to residents and media reports."

My Way News - Video Web Site Gets Religion

AP reports: "GodTube.com, a video-sharing site with Christian content, drew more than 4 million unique visitors during October. It maintains more than 150,000 registered users with active profiles. Plans for the future include producing entertainment programs at the site's headquarters north of Dallas."

My Way News - Swiss Votes to Use 'Unbreakable' Code
AP reports: "A new 'unbreakable' encryption method will be keep votes safe for citizens in the Swiss canton (state) of Geneva in the country's upcoming national elections, officials said Thursday. The city-state will use quantum technology to encrypt election results as they are sent to the capital on Oct. 21, said Nicolas Gisin of the University of Geneva."

Comment: While I'm not sure this technology will be not available to consumers for quite some time, it does seem like it's time for a PGP for the 21st Century.

My Way News - China Censors Ratchet Up Web Monitoring
AP reports: "In the lead-up to the sensitive Communist Party Congress, which convenes Monday to approve top leaders who will serve under President Hu Jintao through 2012, authorities have been casting an even wider net than usual in their search for Web content they deem to be politically threatening or potentially destabilizing."

China Cracks Down on Dissent
Here are two news reports that suggest that the underground church in China is in for some very difficult times as the Olympics approach:

My Way News - China Closes Christian-Linked Businesses
AP reports: "China has closed two businesses whose owners allegedly sought Christian converts in a traditionally Muslim region and also revoked the visa of an American citizen for illegal proselytizing, a rights group said Wednesday."

My Way News - Rights Group Condemns China Net Controls
AP reports: "Though the communist government promotes Internet use, it also has set up an extensive surveillance and filtering system to prevent Chinese citizens from accessing material considered obscene or politically subversive."

My Way News - Cell Phones, Web Spread News of Myanmar
AP reports: "Cell phones and the Internet are playing a crucial role in telling the world about Myanmar's pro-democracy protests, with video footage sometimes transmitted one frame at a time. Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday the junta has cut some cell phone service."

Comment: This is a great example of cyber dissidents using the internet to fight repression. It's also, unfortunately, an example of how a government can restrict internet access.

My Way News - Chinese Catholic Bishop Dies in Custody
AP reports: "A bishop who led an underground congregation of Roman Catholics and was repeatedly detained in China for his loyalty to the Vatican died in police custody, a monitoring group said Tuesday. [...] China's officially atheist communist government requires that Christians of all denominations worship in state-registered churches. Millions, however, instead worship in underground churches - known as 'house churches' because services are often held in private homes - risking arrest, fines and official harassment."

GODSurfer.com
Here is a great resource to help promote Christian websites, articles, blogs and other internet resources. GODSurfer.com is:

a tool to spread the good word of Jesus Christ to the world. This includes all faiths of Christianity (Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, and Christian Non-Denominational). Although GODSurfer.com is tolorant of other religions and point of views the main point of GODSurfer.com is to spread the word of GOD to everyone who comes across this site.

This site is similar to digg and reddit in that it allows registered members to vote on the submissions. So, benefit from the wisdom of the crowd, a Christian crowd, and visit GODSurfer.com today.

Internet Surveillance
Here is an interesting development, a proposal to enlist ISPs in government surveillance programs (Torrent Freak - Congressman wants ISPs to be Copyright Police):

With warrentless wiretapping sweeping the US, a leading congressman is proposing similar measures for the Internet. This isn't an attempt at "fighting terror" but instead a new measure to reduce so-called "piracy" by making the ISPs the police force.

This is a proposal in the United States, but it's a reminder of the capability that all governments have to control the internet.