Canadian Company Netsweeper to Censor Bahrain’s Internet for $1.2M

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/canadian-company-netsweeper-to-censor-bahrains-internet-for-12m?utm_source=mbtwitter

by kushti • 11 years ago

102 24 11 years ago

motherboard.vice.com

MisterWalter• 11 years ago

Maybe I'm naive, but I just can't see how these NetSweeper people justify this to themselves.

dubcanada• 11 years ago

They care about money. And that's it.

dmix3• 11 years ago

Demand <--> 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• 11 years 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.

venomsnake2• 11 years ago

Money are extremely good at placating the conscience of a person.

charlesdm2• 11 years ago

A cool 1.2m dollars

kitcar• 11 years ago

To 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... )

dmix3• 11 years ago

This is very common for tech companies operating in Canada. Though it is interesting to consider nonetheless.

eliteraspberrie2• 11 years ago

Canadian 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_• 11 years 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• 11 years ago

Shame on them, both as a Canadian and coming from a family who used to live in Bahrain.

sandworm101• 11 years ago

Same here. I was just across the causeway in Dhahran.

x5n1• 11 years ago

Whatever 1.2 million is not much money. And if they don't do it someone else will do it.

emptybits• 11 years ago

One 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• 11 years ago

Netsweeper 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.

venomsnake2• 11 years ago

One of the cornerstones of international law is that a country's internal affairs are their own.

eliteraspberrie2• 11 years ago

Keep an eye on this graph to see when it goes online: https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-relay-country.html?...

kazinator• 11 years ago

Now 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!

davidu2• 11 years ago

We 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/

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."

charlesdm2• 11 years ago

I doubt you can get every technologist to say "no" to a million dollars. There will always be someone willing to supply this technology.

davidu2• 11 years ago

Definitely. It just doesn't need to be me.

chvid• 11 years ago

Maybe 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• 11 years ago

I'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.

Canadian Company Netsweeper to Censor Bahrain’s Internet for $1.2M

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