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China Orders E-Mail Screening

Greyfox writes: "According to this CNN article, China has ordered Internet providers to screen users' E-mails for subversive statements. See how fascist governments control the flow of information? Aren't you glad our government doesn't do this? Oh... Wait..."

9 of 409 comments (clear)

  1. Devil's Advocate by Glorat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, at worst it is only consistent with their general policy of internet filtering/censorship. If they have their "Great firewall of China" this is a logical extension of that firewall.

  2. Typical liberal leftist name-calling by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    China is a *communist* country, not fascist. Please, try to get it right. The left you love and adore is equally capable of crushing human rights. Numerous examples abound - look at the media's darling Castro - Cubans die of old age and malnutrition in jail for having dared to speak against the socialist regime in place there. Political extremes, right or left, are indistinguishable to the man in the street, both crush all liberty.

  3. Re:The difference between China and the U.S. . . . by dj28 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Your extremist views pretty much negate any thoughful comment you had in that post, and that's a shame. There is a big difference that I pointed out in my original post. Email sent here in the USA does not have limitations on pornography (look at all the porn email now, although a lot of it constitutes spam), violence (unless it's a threat toward someone specific), or any idealogical/religous/cult thoughts. That isn't so in China. Sending a lot of emails we send here in the states would be illegal in China. Putting China's screening techniques on the same level as the USA's once again shows your liberal bias. Remember, it's easy coming up with complex conspiracy theories. Backing them up isn't so easy when they aren't true. That's the easy way out.

  4. this has to stop.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You know what, I'm really getting sick of the bigotry that I see here on Slashdot. Anytime a story is posted based on our rights, department of justice, business, etc... there always has to be a flame aimed towards the United States of America. I'm assuming most of the readers here have mostly a leftist view on most political issues, and that's absolutely fine.

    But what about the conservatives who read Slashdot? What about us? How do the people who read Slashdot with a right winged attitude feel about biased comments that contain negativity, and to some of us, a fallacy (sp?) towards our government, economy, policies, etc...

    Comments as well (I'm posting this anonymously for a reason). Whenever I post a comment that will go against something I read in an article that will have a conservative view to it, maybe 75-80% of time time it will get modded down to -1 (52 posts, no flames, Karma 2, you do the math). Whatever happened to getting 2, 3, 4, everyone's side of the story?

    The moderation system on slashdot is awful and wrong. Using an analogy of a hostile government. If I say anything remotely conservative, I will get modded down. Hmm... seems fair enough.

    I know the editors will not read this comment, nor will anyone who read this care, but I hope that anyone who does read this post will maybe understand that sometimes you should take into consideration other people's ideas and thoughts and not just have a one track mind and think that whatever Slashdot rights is legitimacy

    --Anon

  5. Give me a break! by anomaly · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I can't believe the comment about our opressive government! Obviously you people have not studied oppression in history!

    Clearly we must be vigilant in our maintenance of our freedoms, but to compare China with the US in terms of controlling information is simply demonstrating a lack of education.

    Have you looked into what China did to US reporters during the Tiananmen square uprising? Contrast that with the US media in President Clinton's face demanding to know what exactly he had or had not done with "That woman, Miss Lewinsky."

    The government having the capacity to screen emails at ISPs may be unpleasant to you. If so, encrypt your email. Carnivore _may_ be something that we need to stop, but it is NOTHING like the opression suffered by the people of the PRC.

    Get off your self-righteous horse, and live under martial law at the hands of a despotic dictator for a while. Then come whining to me about "oppression" in the US.

    --
    But Herr Heisenberg, how does the electron know when I'm looking?
  6. Yeah, exactly like the U.S. by Gannoc · · Score: 4, Insightful


    Because if I sent an email saying "I think President Bush is doing a bad job." to someone, the secret police are going to bust in and put me in a labor camp.

  7. Somebody please be rational by Lord+Ender · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Threre is a HUGE difference between censoring people's emails (what china will do) and simply reading people's emails. In my opinion, anything sent in plain text over the internet should be considered public anyway!

    I can't believe you got a +5 for say reading email and censoring an entire population are the same thing. My God!

    --
    A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
  8. I Don't See a Huge Difference by Greyfox · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The US has become a country where I can go to jail for writing or talking about a piece of software that lets me access a piece of media I paid for. Simply publishing a math paper now requires consulting with high paid lawyers. Laws are being drawn up that will mandate the control of information on all consumer devices and bypassing those controls will buy you jail time. Foreign nationals are kidnapped on a daily basis both for these crimes and others, and secret courts are being discussed to "Try" them.

    Thus far it's true that for the most part the government doesn't kill its citizens. Well, unless they're black and pulled over by a jumpy cop doing racial profiling or something. Or they live a lifestyle the government doesn't like. But apart from that, the government doesn't kill its own citizens! Truly!

    And it's true that the media will keep them honest! Nevermind that the media is mostly owned by the same corporations which have been steadily lobbying for the removal of your rights for the past several decades.

    But true, we're nothing like the Chinese and we don't really have anything to worry about!

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    1. Re:I Don't See a Huge Difference by 90XDoubleSide · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I can go to jail for writing or talking about a piece of software that lets me access a piece of media I paid for.

      Has it? Last time I checked, when a huge corporation tried to go after someone for practicing free speech there was a huge public outcry and the case was dropped. This is the difference between democracy and totalitarianism, which is what the original poster was trying to point out. In our country, unjust laws like the DCMA are fought tooth and nail, are currently not being enforced very rigidly, and will probably be struck down in court or repealed in congress, or at least amended, in the near future. Want to go over to China and try to get them to change the law to allow freedom of religion?

      --
      "Reality is just a convenient measure of complexity" -Alvy Ray Smith