Amnesty releases API access to censored files

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL is set to release an API to its data base of politically-censored material to enable people to develop software to get the information into their own sites and blogs.

The irrepressible.info campaign, launched in May, provides javascript banners featuring censored sites and content. The API will give direct access to the irrepressible.info site's database of censored material so that supporters can create their own applications to distribute the information better.

Amnesty hopes that someone will come up with ways making irrepressible.info accessible to social networking sites like MySpace and Bebo, who can't use the Javascript based banner system irrepressible.info runs now.

A spokesAmnesty Mel Herdon said the organisation was getting more involved in Web 2.0-style projects in a bid to expand the distribution of its message. The outfit's irrepressible.info site is also to be expanded with new interactivity features a few days before its Internet Governance Forum in Athens next week.

The conference, to discuss the future of the internet, is likely to blast IT companies like Yahoo, Google and Microsoft, for aiding and abetting regimes who lock up journalists who say nasty things about them online.

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