OneWorld.net (U.S.)

NEW YORK, July 22 (OneWorld) - A prominent rights advocacy group has launched a worldwide campaign this week against "big brothers" trying to block information on the Internet.

London-based Amnesty International says its campaign aims to claim back the Web from technology companies that support official attempts to impose censorship on the Web in many countries.

The group describes the Internet as "a great tool for the promotion of human rights," but adds that its potential for change is being undermined by governments and technology companies alike.

"From Iran to the Maldives and Cuba to Vietnam," according to Amnesty International, "governments are cracking down on those who use the Web to communicate their views.

"Web users are locked up, Internet cafes are shut down, chat rooms are policed and blogs deleted," the group says. "Web sites are blocked, foreign news banned, and search engines filter out certain results."

Among various other Internet firms, the group identifies Cisco Systems, Google, Nortel Networks, Sun Microsystems, and Yahoo! as compliant in officially imposed censorship and other activities such as tracking down individual users.

The campaigners against censorship recall how in 2004 Microsoft released information about nuclear whistle blower Mordechai Vanunu to the Israeli authorities without his knowledge or consent.

They claim that the data was initially used to prosecute Vanunu for having contact with foreign media. Though the judge in the ongoing trial has agreed not to use the information supplied by Microsoft, the data remains in the hands of the Israeli authorities. Activists fear the data could be used to continue to restrict Vanunu's freedom.

Among other activities, Amnesty International's campaign includes an online worldwide signature pledge drive, urging all governments and companies to respect Internet freedom.

"I believe the Internet should be a force for political freedom, not repression," the pledge reads on the group's campaign Web site. "People have the right to seek and receive information and to express their peaceful beliefs online without fear or interference."

In their pledge signers are calling on governments "to stop the unwarranted restriction of freedom of expression on Internet" and companies to stop "helping them do it."

Noting that Internet companies often claim to be ethically responsible, the group says its signature drive "will highlight how their cooperation in repression risks making them compliant in human rights abuses and damages their credibility."

Activists plan to present the total number of online pledges to the participants of a United Nations conference in November.

The conference is likely to be attended by hundreds of officials from around the world, as well as business leaders and civil society representatives.

After launching its campaign Wednesday, Amnesty International also released a separate report on the role of Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Google in Internet repression in China.

The report points out that many companies seem willing to cooperate with the authorities in China, as the apparatuses of Internet repression in that country continue to be "more advanced" than any other country.

Currently, in China there are an estimated 78 million people who use the Internet on a regular basis.

Last month, Chinese authorities ordered Web bloggers to register themselves or face criminal sanctions, and according to officials, a Web-based crawler program was in the making to monitor all Web logs within the country and report unregistered sites.

But while China may be the most sophisticated, it is not the only one with repressive laws governing Internet use. In Iran, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Kuwait, and many other countries, users continue to find their activities monitored and criminalized.

In addition to English, Amnesty International's global campaign against Internet censorship can be found in Arabic, French and Spanish at http://irrepressible.info.