The Great Firewall of China - Samples of Filtered Sites

Loligo writes "Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society has released a study listing some of the sites filtered by Chinese internet connections. Sites about Taiwan are maybe understandable, but Red Lobster?" We've mentioned the ongoing Berkman study before; one of their interesting findings is that the list of blocked sites is a moving target, and some sites are blocked only intermittently. Here are summaries from The New York Times and MSNBC, by way of The Censorware Project. Update: 12/04 21:03 GMT by T : Seth Finkelstein points to his report "Searching Through the Great Firewall of China," which "describes a simple technique which can be used with some search engines to bypass censorware bans on searching for forbidden words. Particular emphasis is placed on the situation of the Great Firewall Of China."

Comments

Such Hypocrites Americans are.

[HanzoSan]

China blocks and censors the net? Look, in the USA we have the RIAA tracking people down, raiding colleges, shutting down file sharing networks, and censoring websites, software, music, movies, art, and everything else which they make a profit out of.

So its ok for the USA to censor in the name of Capitalism, but its bad for China to censor in the name of Communism?

I hate looking at such hypocritical stories, stop picking on China's government and fix ours. Lets talk about the fucked up DMCA, lets talk about the RIAA, lets talk about IP and the fact that none of us here have IP yet we all must sacrafice our freedom to protect something only 5% of our population owns.

Its pathetic, leave China alone for a moment and whoever is moderator of Slashdot, please post an article comparing China and the USA's censorship and see that we are just as bad.

True but why should people be critical of China?

[HanzoSan]

I see people bash China left and right, constantly, but I never see anyone of these people Bash the USA.

We all know the USA is not perfect so what gives us the right to Bash China as if we are better or something?

Ok I understand us Bashing the taliban, but China?

Re:Historical rationale for blocking the website..

[pyrrho]

I like the part in the bible where the Easter Bunny is hopping allong and runs in to Jesus and says, "Hey... I'm a pagan symbol, can I join your church so that you can market to my demographic? I stand for fertility and chocolate."

Jesus says, "Show unto me a bunch of free eggs."

Re:Historical rationale for blocking the website..

[pyrrho]

I just love the "religious implications" of the "Easter Bunny". I mean... religions cross breed is the implication.

Same with the Christmas Tree. Pagan rituals embraced for purely practical marketing reasons.

"Paul, we can't seem to get anyone to celebrate Jesus' birth day."

"Um, ok, take a memo, move his birthday to the Winter Soltice and tell everyone they're celebrating his birth, they won't know the difference."

"But what about the Spring Fertility festival, we can't get them to stop having that, it's just toal mayhem, it's bunnies, it's well, you know, evil fertility related stuff, terrible!"

"ok, let's see... I know... 'Easter' Bunny! Yeah, that's it, tell them that's one of ours too. Say that the chocolate like, I don't know, represents the wood of the cross* or something. Now could you leave me alone, I have an Inquisition to plan."

* stolen from Izzard.