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Voice of America considers anti-censorship tech



By Ann Kellan
CNN Science and Technology

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Voice of America is considering new technology to allow Chinese citizens access to Web sites now banned by their government.

Currently, Chinese government firewalls block many Western Web sites, including some Voice of America sites.

Software, called Triangle Boy, will act as a deflector for Chinese citizens who want to access banned Internet sites. The technology attempts to fool the government by sending the signal outside the government's firewall to a "friends" site, then bounces that signal to the "banned" site and back to your computer.

Triangle Boy was developed by Safe Web, Inc., and debuted in March.

"It looks to the local authorities as something innocuous. But that's how we reopened access after we were blocked in Beijing, blocked in Saudi Arabia and blocked in Shanghai, all these places," said Safe Web, Inc.'s CEO Stephen Hsu (PRON: shoe).

Known for using powerful radio signals to reach the masses living under oppressive regimes, Voice of America has had its broadcasts jammed by governments as well as some of its Web sites, including the mandarin site, www.voa.gov/chinese.

Voice of America home page
Voice of America home page  

Next week, on September 5, Voice of America plans to unveil a new Web site, www.voachinese.com, with an advanced search engine. That's another reason it's in negotiations with Safe Web, Inc., to purchase Triangle Boy, to foil the Chinese government's efforts to ban the site.

"We stand for the free flow of information. We want people in China to get to our Web site. We want people to be able to access it freely," said Voice of America spokesman Joe O'Connell.

According to its Web site, "Voice of America is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. Government broadcasting over 900 hours of news and cultural programming every week to an audience 91 million worldwide. The programs are also available at www.voa.gov, live and on-demand."






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• SafeWeb -- Triangle Boy

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