“On March 20, 2007, the Chinese cyber-dissident Zhang Jianhong, member of the Independent Chinese PEN center (ICPC) was sentenced to six years in prison. Zhang, who was arrested last year, was charged with “incitement to subvert the state’s authority”. Zhang had posted articles online calling for political reform.”
In the handbook, Ethan Zuckerman–co-founder of Global Voices Online—who contributed the chapter “How to Blog Anonymously”, shows how to create your own post and still remain incognito. Here are a few chosen tips of what he’s provided:
- Create a new identity –a pseudonym by using a free webmail account and free blog host outside the native country.
- Use public computers to make blogposts that are used by lots of other people, rather than setting up webmail and weblog accounts from home or a work computer.
- Access the web through an anonymous proxy.
- Use someone else’s computer from abroad. A friend can help by setting a proxy user so that you can use his computer as a proxy.
Zuckerman does not dismiss the fact that every solution has its quirks and discusses how to find another solution to the anti-solution. This means, more or less, that the anonymous blogger should keep up-to-date with all the new tools of the web, continuously investigating the ever-evolving field of Web 2.0 in order to bring about futuristic change.
Fast forward many full moons, when pioneering transformation will become the norm, the unheard will be heard, new methods of repression shall emerge, and newer solutions shall also make way. The ball will shift in between fields, but the technologies we need already are and will still be on the ground, so let’s make the most of them now.