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China Cracks Down on Non-Compliant Internet Bars
phreak404 writes: "According to this article on CNN.com, over 197 bars were closed for apparently violating licensing laws that require bars to censor content."
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Many people would be angered about this story because China is screwing it's people and blocking things they don't feel good for thier people. At least in China they aren't bitching about freedom of speech \and at the same time writting crap like DMCA/CIPA/LOL/CPA/PATRIOT. Understand I still don't think this content blocking is good or correct I'm just lossing faith in all governments as of late.
SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- Shanghai police have shut down almost 200 Internet bars that operated without licenses requiring them to block Web sites deemed subversive or pornographic, a city official said Monday.
Police in China's largest city confiscated 965 computers in a sweep that began April 26, said the official in the Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administration Bureau, which ordered the crackdown.
The 197 bars closed in the sweep were located in residential neighborhoods overlooked in previous crackdowns, said the official, who refused to give his name.
The crackdown underscores the communist government's desire to encourage the Internet as a commercial medium without creating a forum for political dissent.
Called "wang ba," or "net bar," in Mandarin Chinese, Internet bars have appeared in almost every Chinese city and even large villages. Most are nothing more than one- room shops with a dozen personal computers.
Some 30 million of China's 1.3 billion people now log on, up from 4 million just three years ago, according to government figures.
Beijing requires Internet bars to install software to block restricted Web sites and record user activities.
The banned Web sites are run by democracy advocates, outlawed religious groups like Falun Gong and some foreign news organizations. Web sites containing pornographic material are also blocked.
Last year, Chinese authorities reportedly shut down 17,000 Internet bars that failed to install the site-blocking software.
Perhaps the goal is to identify those who are dangerous by leaking just enough that only those who would like basic human rights for the citizens access it so you can send out the death squads more effectively? Makes you wonder how many people no longer exist due to weblogs...
Sig under construction since 1998.
It's too bad that China's official government is so fearful of alternative ideas. Everyday Chinese have got to figure out sooner or later that the reasons for this are no more complicated than the government has no inherently optimal basis for existence - the existing government just wants to retain power and control whatever the case.
Dissidents will have to go to greater measures to communicate with one another. Let the Internet Bars install official blocking software that is probably as porous as a moquito net. Then, communicate via a commercial and politically-correct sounding language.
"Enemies of the people" could refer to the government of China. Etc. Turn their own doublespeak back on them.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
... is Chinese, living in Beijing. He claims that his internet access is not blocked in any way (he's got a computer at home, so doesn't use Internet Cafe's, and he doesn't drink so doesn't go to 'bars'). I think he is probably very niave. He pretty much sucks up the party line; to him, Falong Gong is a subversive, dangerous mob, just like the boss wants him to think. I haven't conversed with him about the crack-down on non-complying internet cafe's yet, but I suspect he think's their, at best, in the wrong and, at worst, criminals. Hey, he's been steeped in this stuff all his life, I'd be kinda surprized if he took an opposing [the government] view. It's taken quite a number of years to get my wife to see her old government's policies as anything other than benevolent.
All things in moderation.
I wonder if this has anything to do with me responding to every spam I get from a .cn domain with: "The weapons you paid for are on their way. I'm more than happy to support the Falun Gong. Free Tibet!"
[o]_O
How much do you really know about the Falun Gong? This is from a site that seems legit - check out their page about the greatest pyramid scheme of all time.
There's no such thing as human rights in China? This is breaking news!
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
Errr... it is actually the law, you know. The places that were shut down were unlicenced. It's seems like a non-story. CNN - in a typical display of its 'unbiased' reporting - seems to have melded a few facts together.
Look at it this way: In most of the US you can't brew and serve alcoholic drink publicly without some sort of licence. In the Republic of Ireland you have to have a licence to own a TV. In China, you need a licence to run an internet cafe.
In the US you don't need a TV licence if the TV is for private use. In the Republic of Ireland you can brew alcohol if it's for private use(maybe you can in the US as well - I don't know). In Ireland and the US, most internet cafes aren't required by law to restrict access to sites. But a good few places - whether by law or by a policy mandate - do restrict access to porno sites and certains sites with a 'speciality' interest(aren't US libraries required to restrict access to certain sites?). In China, all public internet terminals(including internet cafes) are required to have filtering software. From what I've heard on the 'net, the myth of 'the Yellow Firewall' is just that - a myth. Chinese PC users can access the entire internet from their homes.
8)
Concrete analysis...
Factnet.org links to the Chinese governments homepage at the ITU as their first source of information. That website calls gathering "illegal" and the organiser of the demonstration to be "guilty". What is he guilty of? Demonstrating is a basic right in every modern nation. Anyway, I stopped reading at that point. Please provide more objective material, I'd be eager to read that.