On 17 October 2008, SCEE instigated a worldwide recall of LittleBigPlanet and announced the game's release be pushed back,[66] after a PlayStation Community member reported the lyrics to one of the licenced songs in the game included passages from the Qur'an and could therefore be offensive to some Muslims.[67] The song, entitled "Tapha Niang", was by Malian artist Toumani Diabaté, himself a devout Muslim.[68][69] The game was patched twice, the day before its release for players who had received the game early, before its intended release date. The first update did not affect the song, and was released to patch online issues, modify jetpack controls, and add further costumes,[70][71] whilst the second updated the game to remove the vocals from the track, leaving only an instrumental.[72] Some American Muslims responded to the recall and stated that they were offended by the restriction of freedom of speech. M. Zuhdi Jasser M.D., head of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, was quoted as saying, "Muslims cannot benefit from freedom of expression and religion and then turn around and ask that anytime their sensibilities are offended that the freedom of others be restricted."[73]
In April 2009, Media Molecule released a free software update dubbed "Cornish Yarg", the first major update for the game. New features that were introduced with this update include the ability for the user to play their own music from the PlayStation 3's hard drive whilst in their Pod or in "Create" mode, the ability to turn a prize collection in user-created levels on or off and improvements to the character customisation process. Changes were also made to some creation tools including the ability to hide mechanical objects such as bolts and pistons.[92] Shortly after this update, Creator Pack 1 was released as a free piece of downloadable content. This pack added new Create mode tools including a new type of checkpoint which provides the player with an infinite number of lives for a given section, a tetherless version of the jetpack and a power-up removal marker which forces the player to drop any power-ups such as the Paintinator or jetpack. The update also included a tool to allow the creator to trigger changes in the entire level's lighting and other environmental settings, when the player passes a certain point or performs an action.[93][94]
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Some experts argue that support for counter-censorship technology, which has long dominated the U.S. effort to promote global Internet freedom, has had an important but limited impact. Obstacles to Internet freedom in China and elsewhere include not only censorship but also the following: advances in government capabilities to monitor and attack online dissident activity; tight restrictions on social networking; and the lack of popular pressure for greater Internet freedom. As part of a broadening policy approach, the U.S. government has sponsored a widening range of Internet freedom programs, including censorship circumvention technology; privacy protection and online security; training civil society groups in effective uses of the web for communications, organizational, and advocacy purposes; and spreading awareness of Internet freedom.
The People's Republic of China (PRC) has the world's largest number of Internet users, estimated at 500 million people, including an estimated 300 million people with accounts on Twitter-like microblogging sites. Despite government efforts to limit the flow of information, Chinese Internet users are able to access unprecedented amounts of information, and the web has served as a lifeline for political dissidents, social activists, and civil society actors. "Netizens" have helped to curb some abuses of government authority and compelled some officials to conduct affairs more openly.2 The web also has enabled the public to engage in civil discourse on a national level. Some government departments have begun to solicit online public input on policy issues. However, the Internet has proven to be less of a catalyst for democratic change in China than many foreign observers had initially expected or hoped. Along with its extensive internal security apparatus, China also has an aggressive and multi-faceted Internet censorship system. In 2011, Freedom House ranked China as one of the five countries with the lowest levels of Internet and "new media" freedom. According to some estimates, roughly 70 Chinese citizens are serving prison sentences for writing about politically sensitive topics online.3
The widespread satisfaction reportedly felt by many Chinese Internet users has reduced public pressure for greater freedom. Although netizens have frequently protested against government actions aimed at further controlling web content and use, the Internet in China offers a wide and attractive range of services, making restrictions almost unnoticeable to many users. Furthermore, some experts argue that the Internet in China has created an illusion of democracy by allowing people to vent their opinions online and by providing venues for debate on some political and policy issues.5 Moreover, many Chinese accept the government's justification that it regulates the Internet in order to control illegal, harmful, or dangerous online content, services, and activities, such as pornography, gambling, slander, cyberattacks, and social networking by criminal organizations.
U.S. efforts to promote Internet freedom have broadened. Since the early 2000s, policy makers have focused on supporting censorship circumvention techniques and their use in China, protecting the privacy of Chinese Internet users, and discouraging or preventing U.S. information and communications technology companies from aiding Beijing's censorship efforts and public surveillance system. According to some analysts, counter-censorship technology has proven to have a vital, but limited, impact on the promotion of freedom and democracy in the PRC. They have advocated a broader approach or the development of a more comprehensive and robust mix of tools and education for "cyber dissidents" and online activists in China and elsewhere, including the following: software and training to help dissidents and civil society actors communicate securely through evading surveillance, detecting spyware, and guarding against cyberattacks; archiving and disseminating information that censors have removed from the Internet; developing means of maintaining Internet access when the government has shut it down entirely; and providing training in online communication, organization, and advocacy.6
While remaining vigilant against Internet activities that it perceives may give rise to organized or potentially destabilizing political activities, the PRC government has been careful not to unnecessarily provoke the ire of the general online population. Nor does it want to alienate China's international business community, which relies upon Internet services as well as VPNs. In one dramatic example, the government backed down when confronted by an outpouring of domestic and foreign opposition to an initiative designed to filter content. In 2009, the Ministry of Information and Information Technology issued a directive requiring the installation of special software ("Green Dam Youth Escort" software), ostensibly created to block harmful content potentially affecting children, on all Chinese computers sold after July 1, 2009, including those imported from abroad. Many Chinese Internet users and international human rights activists, foreign governments, chambers of commerce, and computer manufacturers openly opposed the policy, arguing that the software would undermine computer operability, that it could be used to expand censorship to include political content, and that it may incorporate pirated software and weaken Internet security.14 On June 30, 2009, the PRC government announced that mandatory installation of the software would be delayed for an indefinite period and that any future policy would involve public input.15 One clear exception to this method of selective targeting, however, is Tibet, where Internet censorship is often indiscriminate and repression of free speech and communication harsher than other parts of China.16
In the short space of two years, microblog sites (weibo), similar to Twitter,17 have become, according to some experts, the country's "most important public sphere," the "most prominent place for free speech," and the most important source of news.18 There are reportedly 300 million microbloggers on platforms provided by major Chinese Internet service providers such as Sina and Tencent. They have been at the forefront of exposing official malfeasance, corruption, and other sensitive news. In July 2011, for example, microbloggers broke the news about the high speed train crash near the city of Wenzhou that killed 40 passengers, as the government attempted to control coverage and official news outlets delayed reporting. Microblogs have become so popular that news sites and online portals have started highlighting "hot microblogs." Chinese government departments, elites, opinion makers, trend setters, and others, including government ministries and officials, police departments, state media outlets, academics, celebrities, and candidates for local people's congresses have opened microblog accounts, as has the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
Some observers have questioned the ability of the U.S. government to effectively promote Internet freedom and meet the other policy goals of the Strategy and U.S. foreign policy and national security goals generally. The United States also has been criticized for employing many of the most sophisticated surveillance and other security-related technologies on the Internet, both domestically and internationally, and many repressive regimes have used restrictive technologies developed by U.S. companies.44 In addition, Google has recently reported that several democratic countries including the United States have engaged in their own censorship efforts, significantly increasing their requests for websites or online information to be removed from Google search results.45 2ff7e9595c
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