Alkasir

{{Short description|Internet censorship circumvention free software}}

Alkasir ({{Langx|ar|الكاسر|lit=the breaker}}) is an internet censorship circumvention free software developed by Yemeni software developer Walid al-Saqaf.{{cite web |url=https://alkasir.com/en/index.html#about |title=About Alkasir |publisher=Alkasir.com |date= |accessdate=2016-03-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315033128/https://alkasir.com/en/index.html#about |archive-date=2016-03-15 |url-status=dead }} Al-Saqaf is the son of Yemeni investigative journalist Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf who died under what The Guardian called "mysterious circumstances" and who had set up a news website focusing on Yemeni affairs, YemenPortal.net, while he was earning a PhD in Sweden.{{cite news|last1=Krotoski|first1=Aleks|title=The internet's cyber radicals: heroes of the web changing the world|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/nov/28/internet-radicals-world-wide-web|work=The Guardian|date=28 November 2010}} Alkasir was created when the government blocked access to the site using Websense, and later, Netsweeper.{{cite web|url=http://www.fastcompany.com/1731691/yemen-hero-access-blocked-sites-facebook-twitter-egypt-revolution-protests |title=Yemeni Journalist Offers Facebook and Twitter Access, Piercing Government Blocks |publisher=Fastcompany.com |date=2011-02-25 |accessdate=2012-07-09}}{{cite book|last1=Dwyer|first1=Jim|title=More Awesome Than Money: Four Boys, Three Years, and a Chronicle of Ideals and Ambition in Silicon Valley|date=2015|publisher=Penguin Publishing Group|isbn=9780143127895|pages=81-82|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BLraCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA81|language=en}}{{cite news|last1=Hudson|first1=John|title=Meet the U.S. Companies Helping Censor the Arab Web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/03/meet-corporate-enablers-helping-censor-arab-web/349117/|work=The Atlantic|date=March 28, 2011}}

Alkasir was launched in 2009 with the newest version, added in May 2010, containing an internal browser with updates often being released.{{cite web|author=Esra'a (Bahrain)|title=Alkasir v1.2.0 launched with internal browser to circumvent censorship|url=http://www.mideastyouth.com/2010/06/08/alkasir-v1-2-0-launched-with-internal-browser-to-circumvent-censorship/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120710073756/http://www.mideastyouth.com/2010/06/08/alkasir-v1-2-0-launched-with-internal-browser-to-circumvent-censorship/|archive-date=2012-07-10|accessdate=2012-07-09|publisher=Mideastyouth.com}}

Governments around the world, most notably in China and in the Middle East, use censorship to block access to various websites. In light of using social networking sites in political movements, such as the Arab Spring, Middle Eastern governments have implemented Western tools to censor the internet.{{cite web|last=Sonne |first=Paul |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704438104576219190417124226?mod=googlenews_wsj |title=U.S. Products Help Block Mideast Web |publisher=Online.wsj.com |date=2011-03-27 |accessdate=2012-07-09}}

Alkasir's site also contains a map{{cite web |url=https://alkasir.com/map |title=Cyber-Censorship Map (dynamically generated) |publisher=alkasir |accessdate=2012-07-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120724124100/https://www.alkasir.com/map |archive-date=2012-07-24 |url-status=dead }} tracking the use of its software to gain access to particular URLs. The more people using the software to access a particular site, such as Facebook, the more likely it is blocked by the people's country.

As of 2012, the Arab country with the highest number of Alkasir users was Syria and the software received over a hundred thousand reports of blocked URLs.{{cite book |editor1-last=Diamond|editor1-first=Larry|editor2-last=Plattner|editor2-first=Marc|title=Liberation technology: Social media and the struggle for democracy|year=2012 |publisher=JHU Press|isbn=1421405687}}

Walid al-Saqaf was selected as a TED fellow in 2010 for the development of Alkasir.{{cite web|url=http://www.ted.com/pages/view/id/437 |title=Meet the TED Fellows |publisher=Ted.com |date= |accessdate=2012-07-09}} He was also selected as a TED 2012 senior fellow.{{cite web|url=http://blog.ted.com/2011/10/25/meet-the-ted2012-fellows |title=Meet the TED 2012 Fellows |publisher=Blog.ted.com |date=2011-10-25 |accessdate=2012-07-09}}{{cite web|title=Founder Awarded TED Fellowship for anti-Censorship Efforts|url=https://alkasir.com/node/50|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308110015/https://alkasir.com/node/50|archive-date=2012-03-08|accessdate=2012-07-09|publisher=alkasir}}