IN JANUARY, a court in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, sentenced a young journalism student to death. Sayed Pervez Kambaksh’s crime was to download and distribute a document about Islam and women’s rights to his fellow students at Balkh University in Mazar, an action that the court considered blasphemous. Despite widespread international condemnation, the Afghan Senate later passed a motion confirming the death sentence.
Kambaksh was caught because some of his fellow students reported him to the authorities. But oppressive governments could soon have a simple way to track the internet activity of their citizens directly, potentially paving the way for many more…
