Understanding & Combating Global Censorship with WordPress

John P. Gamboajpgamboa.com

@jgamboa

WordCamp Los Angeles 2015

@jgamboa• Enterprise Support Team, WP

Engine

• Four plus years of web experience abroad

• Lived in Singapore, Seoul and Shanghai

• San Diego State - Journalism & Geography

What you’ll learn from me• Why and how

WordPress and non-WordPress sites get blocked

• Which plugins are blocked and how they affect performance

• What to do when your site is blocked

• How to work around the censored Web

Censorship TypesGovernment Religious

Censorship TypesMoral Self-Censorship

What is Web Censorship

• Domain and IP-level timeout, connection resets, removed content

• Man-in-the-middle attacks, State sponsored DDOS

• Government ISP directives

• Trolls and hackers for hire

• Judicial retaliation

How is WordPress Affected?• WordPress is now nearly a quarter of the entire

Internet• More non-English Downloads than English Downloads• “Internet Sovereignty,” Segmentation and The Right to

be Forgotten• Democratization of the web

Web & WordPress Censorship

Turkey• Reports of WordPress.com in

May linked to single blog post• Censorship related to take-

down requests and anti-government speech

• EngelliWeb.com - list of domains blocked in Turkey

Russia• 2012 Government Decree/2015

“Illegal Memes”• Trolls for hire - New York Times

“The Agency”• SORM - Surveillance & Monitoring• RUBlacklist.net - list of blocked

sites

India

• Fluctuating censorship protocols based on 2000 & 2009 IT Act

• Public discourse & discussion of the web• Targeted WordPress sites, often due to

radicalization fears

Vietnam• Communist state• Targets dissident WordPress users• Social media sites sometimes blocked• Savviest users

Middle East• SmartFilter - American

tech used for censorship

• Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, UAE

• Lots of individual blogs• Facebook, Twitter, etc in

Iran

China• Most pervasive form

of Internet censorship

• Great Firewall of China promotes harmony

• Causes the most trouble with WordPress

• Many top Alexa sites blocked

• Facebook, Twitter, WordPress.com, Blogger, YouTube, Flickr, Dropbox — All blocked

• World’s largest Internet population

China, cont.• 96% all traffic within

Mainland• Avoid the Three “T’s” &

Uighur Rights • Limited VPN usage• River Crabs, 50 Centers &

Big Mamas 河蟹 , 五毛 & 大妈

China, cont.• 96% all traffic within

Mainland• Avoid the Three “T’s” &

Uighur Rights• Limited VPN usage• River Crabs, 50 Centers &

Big Mamas 河蟹 , 五毛 & 大妈

Blocked Plugins & Functionality

• API/External WordPress calls

• Politically-sensitive discussions

• Blocked IPs and domains on shared hosts

• Jetpack, WordPress.com, Gravatar

• Google (Plus, Fonts, Photos)

• Be Mindful: BBPress, Yoast SEO, Social Media

Developing Around Censorship• Know your blocked

plugins• Limiting reliance on

outside sources• Reconsider SSL• Government hosting

“registration” - CloudFlare/Baidu

• Avoid sensitive discussion

• You are responsible for your users

• Hong Kong hosting

If you get blocked

• Confirm - BlockedinIran.com - Greatfire.org- RUBlacklist.net - EngelliWeb.com

• Ask your host for help - Noisy neighbors - Domain blocks - Change servers/hosts

What Can The Community Do?

• Continue to Support Non-English WordPress• Follow and Understand OpenNet Initiative• Polyglots: Contribute to Core and Plugin Translations• Talk About it• Publish, Publish, Publish

Q & AJohn P. Gamboa

@jgamboajpgamboa.com

http://wclax.reviews