Waterloo company accused of censoring the web
Citizen Lab says Netsweeper technology is undermining human rights
WATERLOO REGION — The technology sector in Waterloo Region needs to do some soul searching about how its products are used by oppressive governments abroad to censor the web, stifle dissent and violate human rights, says the director of an internet watchdog group at the University of Toronto.
Citizen Lab released a report Wednesday that documents how technology from Waterloo-based Netsweeper is used in Afghanistan, Bahrain, India, Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Ye- men in ways that it says have “serious human rights implications.”
“Our research has verified that Netsweeper installations are used in several countries to implement internet censorship in ways that undermine internationally recognized human rights,” says the report, called Planet Netsweeper.
Netsweeper technology filters internet content. It is used by libraries and schools to block sexually explicit and hateful material.
Citizen Lab’s latest report documents how Netsweeper’s filters are also used by authoritarian governments to block content about LGBTQ issues, civil rights, HIV/AIDS prevention, political campaigns, abortion, media websites and religious content.
Ron Deibert, Citizen Lab’s director, has long called for greater accountability and transparency around the export and use of technology that is developed in Waterloo Region and sold to authoritarian governments known for abusing human rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of worship and peaceful dissent.
“What I would say to the entire community there, because it is a kind of Silicon Valley North, is there needs to be some serious
reflection on what are the responsibilities of companies in this sector to act in conformity with Canadian values and internationally accepted human rights principles,” said Deibert.
“Clearly, the standard is not being met by several of these companies, and I think there is a black mark on the industry because of that, and that needs to be attended to by the people in those companies.”
Netsweeper did not respond to requests for comment about the report, the fifth one prepared by the Citizen Lab highlighting how the Waterloo company’s technology is used by foreign governments to curtail human rights.
In the new report, researchers say they found the company’s technology was deployed in 30 countries, and focused on 10 that appear to be filtering content at a national level. It says Netsweeper technology was blocking access to a wide range of digital content “protected by international legal frameworks, including religious content in Bahrain, political campaigns in the United Arab Emirates and media websites in Yemen.”
The use of the technology raises many questions, says the report.
“These questions include whether and to what degree Netsweeper undertakes due diligence with respect to sales of its technology to jurisdictions with problematic rights records, and whether the Canadian government should be assisting Netsweeper financially or otherwise when its systems are used in a manner that negatively impacts internationally-recognized human rights,” it says.
Citizen Lab, based at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, researches information communications technologies, human rights and global security. It has published several reports that have been critical of technology companies in this region, including Sandvine, BlackBerry and Netsweeper.
The new report on Netsweeper makes several recommendations. It says Canadian governments should not fund companies that sell technology to oppressive governments; export licences should be required for any technology that could be abused by foreign governments; and those export licences should require tech companies to monitor how their technology is deployed.
“And they would have to monitor that on an ongoing basis, that is what we are pushing for,” said Deibert. “Certainly, the government could require this as a byproduct of getting a licence to export.”
Earlier this year, Global Affairs Canada published Ottawa’s corporate social responsibility strategy for oil, gas and mining companies that operate in foreign countries. Deibert wants to see that expanded to technology companies selling products to foreign governments.
The new policy for the oil, gas and mining industry came after two decades of work by groups such as Mining Watch that looked into the overseas operations of Canadian mining companies.
“There has been a maturation among many of the companies in that sector over all. They understand that at least they have this obligation,” said Deibert. “I think in the tech sector, the IT sector, for the most part, that is largely absent.”
Direct financial support for tech companies from federal and provincial governments should come with prohibitions against the unlawful or unethical use of their technology by foreign governments, says the report. And federal, provincial and local governments should only buy technology from companies that have policies to respect human rights and monitor how their technology is used overseas, it says. Citizens of foreign countries victimized by governments that used Canadian technology should be able to sue the Canadian tech companies in Canadian courts, says the report.
In January, the federal government announced the creation of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise to investigate allegations of abuse by Canadian corporations abroad. The Citizen Lab says the new office should be given powers to compel witnesses to provide information, seize documents and make legally binding and mandatory orders and impose fines.