Fine-Grained Censorship Mapping: Information Sources, Legality and Ethics.

Abstract

We examine the problem of mapping internet filtering, or censorship, at a finer-grained level than the national, in the belief that users in different areas of a country, or users accessing the internet through different providers or services, may experience differences in the filtering applied to their internet connectivity. In investigating this possibility, we briefly consider services that may be used by researchers to experience a remote computer’s view of the internet. More impor-tantly, we seek to stimulate discussion concerning the po-tentially serious legal and ethical concerns that are intrin-sic to this form of research. 1