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

Possible Profit?

[tierra]

I dunno if any research has been done, but is it possible that they are taking offers from Chinese companies to block competitors' sites? I'm probably wrong on this, but it seems like one of 2 main possible reasons to do so.

In Other News...

[akiaki007]

The US passes laws without much trouble that lets the gov't snoop on all citizens and arrest them at will.

Is the US that much better? At least in China I wouldn't be arrested (because I wouldn't be able to find the site).

Lets see

[HanzoSan]

If all of these sites China was censoring were protected by the DMCA, and there was source code or illegal files on them, suddenly its ok to censor it!

Are we complaining about China because they are Chinese or because of their so called censorship?

China isnt the country locking people up for sharing files, in fact up until recently it was perfectly legal to share your files, they had freedom of speech in that area until WE the so called freedom loving Americans forced them to adopt our censorship laws to protect our intellectual propery from the evil warez pirates of China who cant afford to buy our software anyway.

Its funny how we complain about every nation, China, Afganastan, Pakistan, Iraq, everywhere but if anyone dares complain about the USA they are unAmerican.

I expect to get flamed by a bunch of patriots who will tell me that America is not a country of hypocrites but if you look throughout history, this country was founded by hypocrites who said it was all about freedom, freedom to enslave millions of people and rob the natives of all their land?

So should the masses have absolute freedom of speech? No more DMCA? Or should the elite few people who happen to have some kinda intellectual propery, should these people have freedom to protect it?

I think considering 95 percent of us dont own any intellectual propery, why should we try so hard to protect it? It reduces our freedom.

Re:Lets see

[circletimessquare]

dude, blood is on the hands of every nation on earth. hypocrisy is equal opportunity.

does america suck big time on some issues? sure. no one is denying the obvious criticisms you have pointed out.

but surely you can see that america has more freedoms when it comes to the press, speech, etc., then china, which actively seeks to control these things. or the other nations you mentioned: pakistan, iraq, afghanistan.

does this make america better than china or these other nations? of course not. that is just nationalism. nationalism stinks like racism or sexism stinks. so maybe we, and this includes you, can move beyond the america sucks/ america is better rhetoric and focus on the issues at hand: basic freedoms, regardless of where in the world we are.

because no one else is talking about these issues in this thread as an "america is better" or "america is worse" kind of way except you. who cares about that. china censors these sites. that sucks. all by itself that sucks. whether america is the center of all evil in the universe or all americans walk around with haloes of purity and innocence on their heads. either way, this censoring of sites by china still sucks. period. end of story. get it?

so i'll make you a deal: we'll move beyond the nationalist rhetoric as soon as YOU move beyond the nationalist rhetoric, capice?

geez. ;-P

Understanding != Agreeing

[Daetrin]

I can understand why the Chinese want to block Taiwanese sites.

I can understand why Hitler wanted to kill all the Jews and other "undersirables."

I can understand why Britain wanted to keep the American colonies under their control.

I can understand why Bush ended up president.

I can understand why my ex-girlfriend broke up with me.

I can understand why the police officer doesn't cut me any slack when he pulls me over for speeding on an empty highway at 3 in the morning.

In more than one of those cases that understanding involves realizing and accounting for the fact that the people involved were immoral nutcases (you can try to guess which is which if you wish =) but that doesn't prevent me from understanding why they choose to do the things they did, given their view of the world.

Re:Such Hypocrites Americans are.

[Rommel]

Is it now unacceptable to criticise anything unless the critic is perfect? If so, I suggest you stop expressing your opinions, because I am sure you have some flaws, too. That aside, I think you are missing the difference in scope and degree that exists between your examples.

USA:
Miniscule control of contested content as part of an on-going struggle over intellectual property. This control is almost entirely public, and any punishment is delivered openly after proper trials. An open and energetic debate is taking place within the USA regarding the correctness of these actions.

China:
Sweeping control of political expression. This control is as covert as possible. Much of the punishment is delivered in an arbitrary and concealed manner. Public debate within China is limited because people fear arrest if they complain.

Neither situation is ideal, but equating the situation in the USA with the situation in China diminishes the situation the Chinese people must endure.

Re:Huh?

[kwerle]

Filtering of taiwanese sites 'understandable'?

Never mind that you can't understand why China would block taiwanese sites.

Filtering is bad, PERIOD.

I don't have children, but if I did, you'd better believe I'd set up a mandatory web filter until they reached a reasonable age.

Filtering is bad, PERIOD.

I *do* have a proxy that blocks ads.

Filtering is bad, PERIOD.

I have an email spam filter.

Filtering is bad, PERIOD.

My browser does not display ads when they're obvious.

Filtering is bad, PERIOD.

I use google with the lowest level of filter (that isn't off) just to avoid the crap.

Filtering is bad, PERIOD.

I use killfiles when reading usenet.

Filtering is bad, PERIOD.

Finally, I imagine I'll add you to my "enemies list" (hate that term - it's just a kill file) here at slashdot.

If I drank coffee, I'd use a filter there, too. Have a nice life - look out for the grinds...

Re:Michael Sims.. You are an enemy of freedom

[Arcturax]

Actually... They both point fingers at each other. Look at http://censorware.org/ or http://stalkedbyseth.com for Michael's side of it.

Personally, I think it this battle is an utterly childish act on both parts and its disgusting to see a perfectly good URL (censorware.org) used for this rediculous Michael vs Seth soap opera.

At this point, no one cares who is at fault, but many slashdotters would be very happy if one or both sides would just fucking grow up and quit furthering this war of egos and blame throwing.

Peronsally, I'd like to see censorware.org turned back into what it was supposed to be. Michael owns it, so he should be able to do what, even without Seth on the project. If he can't then he should turn it over to more capable hands, such as the EFF or Amnesty International or someone who actually wants to create a nice site which educates about censorware instead of pushing a personal grudge against someone else.