Re: [Pearg] Research Group Last Call for "A Survey of Worldwide Censorship Techniques"

[Amelia Andersdotter <[e-mail]>]

On 2020-05-29 19:28, Eric Rescorla wrote:
> Document: draft-irtf-pearg-censorship-03.txt
>
> S 2.
>     We describe three elements of Internet censorship: prescription,
>     identification, and interference.  The document contains three major
>     sections, each corresponding to one of these elements.  Prescription
>     is the process by which censors determine what types of material they
>     should block, i.e., deciding to block a list of pornographic
>     websites.  Identification is the process by which censors classify
>     specific traffic to be blocked or impaired, i.e., blocking or
>     impairing all webpages containing "sex" in the title or traffic to
>     www.sex.example.  Interference is the process by which censors
>
> I'm not finding this distinction super clear. It seems to me like
> deciding to block www.sex.example and "impairing...traffic to
> www.sex.example" are pretty similar.

I felt like picking up on this: the difference between blocking and
impairing is that blocking would be definitive (content is rendered
inaccessible to end-node), while impairment would just mean, for
instance, downgraded in quality (content is made to run more slow or
without encryption, for instance). I do feel there is a point to keeping
that distinction.

It serves the purpose of highlighting that censorship may take more
subtle forms than outright bans on sensitive content.

best regards,

Amelia