Hot Trends watch: beat Internet filtering and 天安门母亲

(image courtesy Joy of Tech)

Checking out today's Hot Trends, one we've figured out, one we haven't.

1. Down at number 93 is "beat Internet filtering," a term whose origin is unclear, but whose meaning we can probably guess. Internet filtering is the practice of using software, hardware, legal means or other obstacles to make certain online information inaccessible. In the U.S., many states have laws mandating that computers in schools or public libraries contain filters. And in an increasing number of countries, China being the best-known case, entire swaths of the Internet are censored for everyone -- in fact, according to this (dry but informative) video from Harvard's OpenNet Initiative, around two dozen countries are now using technical means to filter their population's Internet. Check out this tool from Williamsburger.com that allows you to compare image results from Google China and Google U.S.

To beat filtering, you'd need to "hack" through whatever kind of filtering that's being applied, which is easier said than done. There are many kinds of blocking technologies, and like everything else, they're constantly evolving to stay viable. There are other problems with getting around filters. If you're a Burmese citizen, for instance, you may not know which sites are being blocked in the first place, so how would you know to look for it?

If anyone knows the source for the search term, TV, Radio or otherwise, drop a note...

2. 天安门母亲 -- I didn't know this when I picked this off the list, but this phrase actually translates to Tiananmen Mother. This leads back to the Tiananmen Mothers campaign, a group of family members of victims of the 1989 incident that is challenging the official Chinese version of the student protests there. Yesterday, the group released a series of maps showing the locations of the 175 Tiananmen Square deaths.