Understanding Internet Censorship Policy: The Case of Greece

Abstract

The Greek government has recently initiated large scale content blocking that leads to Internet censorship. In this article we analyze the techniques and policies used to block content of gambling websites in Greece and present the implications of the detected underblocking and overblocking. We have collected results probing eight major broadband and cellular Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that are a representative sample of Internet usage in Greece, and investigate the methods and infrastructure used to conduct the content filtering. The results of this study highlight issues related to how transparently Internet filtering is implemented in democratic countries and could indicate the presence of unfair competition between ISPs.