Freegate
| download areas | |
| Developer(s) | Dynamic Internet Technology Inc. (DIT) |
|---|---|
| Initial release | ? |
| Stable release | 7.25 / 2012-01-22 |
| Operating system | Windows |
| Available in | English, Chinese, Persian, Spanish |
| Type | Proxy system |
| License | Freeware |
| Website | http://www.dit-inc.us/freegate |
Freegate is a software that enables internet users from mainland China, Syria, Iran, Vietnam and United Arab Emirates, among others, to view websites blocked by their governments. The program takes advantage of a range of proxy servers mainly run by Hurricane Electric, which allow users to penetrate firewalls used to block web sites.[1] Developer Dynamic Internet Technology (DIT) estimates Freegate has 200,000[1] users. The maintainer and CEO of DIT is Bill Xia.[2]
Contents |
[edit] Creation and funding
Freegate was created by Falun Gong practitioners[3] and has been financed by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, a US governmental agency.[4][5][6][7][8] Freegate also receives funding from Human Rights in China,[5] which is also one of its clients[9] and which receives some funding from the American non-profit organization the National Endowment for Democracy.[10] According to a CRS report, the US government gave $685,000 in funding to Freegate.[11]
[edit] Trojan horse reports
The Financial Times, citing a member of staff at Symantec in mainland China, reported that Norton AntiVirus identified Freegate as a trojan horse. There were initial fears that the reports may be a ploy by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities to encourage removal of the software from computers,[12] but it was soon delisted as a threat. Symantec explained that its detection was based on the software operating similarly to various Trojan horses, based on the use of proxies to penetrate firewalls used to block web sites, but that it had modified its detection to exclude Freegate.[1]
[edit] See also
- Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China
- Internet censorship
- Golden Shield Project
- Tor (anonymity network) – a free product sponsored by the Tor Project that implements onion routing where web connections are repeatedly encrypted and then sent through several proxies making tracing more difficult.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c John Leyden, Freegate is not Trojan horse, says Symantec, The Register, September 16 2004.
- ^ www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_08/b3972061.htm.
- ^ Testimony of Shiyu Zhou, Deputy Director of the Global Internet Freedom Consortium Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, Hearing on Global Internet Freedom: Corporate Responsibility and the Rule of Law, 20 May 2008.
- ^ Susan L. Shirk: China: Fragile Superpower. Oxford University Press 2007, p. 93.
- ^ a b Geoffrey A. Fowler: “Chinese Censors of Internet Face ‘Hacktivists’ in US”. In: Wall Street Journal, 14 February 2006.
- ^ Philip P. Pan: “Free Software Takes Users Around Filters”. Washington Post, 21 February 2006.
- ^ Chipping Away at China's Great Firewall, Public Broadcasting Service, 11 April 2006.
- ^ K. Oanh Ha: “Hackers, activists challenge Beijing's Internet police: Piercing China's great firewall”. Mercury News, 8 July 2006.
- ^ Dynamic Internet Technology, Our Clients.
- ^ cf. Project Database of the NED.
- ^ Michelle W. Lau: “Internet Development and Information Control in the People’s Republic of China”. Congressional Research Service Report for the United States Congress, 22 November 2005, table 1. “International Broadcasting Bureau Funding for Counter-Censorship Technology”.
- ^ John Leyden, Symantec labels China censor-busting software as Trojan, The Register, September 14 2004.
[edit] External links
- Freegate's main page
- Latest version of Freegate on "DIT Chinese website"
- Latest version of Freegate on Softpedia.com
- Dynamic Internet Technology Inc - Main site discussion
- Google China censors news
- Tor: anonymity online
- Presentation of Freegate in How to Bypass Internet Censorship, a FLOSS Manual, 10 March 2011, 240 pp.
