Web woven,worldwide

POLITICAL motivations: These are common in authoritarian states,which seek to block the oppositions viewpoint. Examples include sites promoting religious conversions,Tibetan sites in China,and Buddhist sites in Vietnam. During the Arab Spring,Egypt and Libya blocked some sites.

SECURITY concerns: Analysts find these a more legitimate reason behind censorship of sites promoting terrorism,insurgency and extremism. Some countries have blocked Wikileaks,pro-North Korea sites,or Muslim Brotherhood sites.

SOCIAL conventions: These include sites containing or promoting pornography,illegal drug use,neo-Nazism,hate speeches,crime,violence,and sometimes even political satire.

COPYRIGHT: This,and intellectual property rights issues,are cited in many countries in censorship of sites providing file-sharing facilities,or facilities like Skype. Internet tools,such as search engines,networking sites,media sharing sites,blogging sites,etc,are blocked or regulated in several countries to prevent users from accessing and sharing controversial information. Googles history with China is one of the most talked-of examples.

WHO BLOCK

CHINA is one of the pioneers. It has blocked YouTube and Facebook,while access to Google is restricted. Also on the Reporters Without Borders Enemies of the Internet list are:

IRAN,which aw an upsurge in censorship after Mahmoud Ahmadinejads advent to power in 2005. Many netizens have faced jail or harassment under one of the most extensive technical filtering systems in the world. Twitter,Flickr,YouTube and Facebook have been censored,along with sites promoting womens rights,anti-regime sentiments and political blogs.

CUBA,which restricts access to computers,ensuring citizens can surf only through government-regulated access points. Independent journalists and bloggers are known to have been punished for their work.

MYANMAR,another example of a lack of internet facilities ensured by the government. A law pertaining to importing a modem without permission entails a 15-year imprisonment penalty. The 2007 anti-government protests saw a complete shutdown of internet links by the government.

UNLIKELY SUSPECTS

Some countries put under surveillance by Reporters Without Borders are not among the authoritarian,regime-dominated governments usually accused of such acts. Democracies doubted of censorship include:

AUSTRALIA,said to be in the process of contemplating a highly-developed internet filtering system in its Senate. It already blacklists several websites,and does not allow certain categories of content to be hosted within the country.

FRANCE,which strongly promoting freedom on the internet. It has come under much criticism recently for a new copyright HADOPI law,which advocates banning users from the internet after a third-time violation.