Slashdot Mirror
How Chinese Evade Government's Web Controls
Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "China is moving to 'centralize all China-based Web news and opinion under a state regulator,' the Wall Street Journal reports, but determined citizens have found a way out of previous restrictions in what has become a cat-and-mouse game: 'Many Chinese Internet users, dismissing what they call government scare tactics, find ways around censorship. The government requires users of cybercafs to register with their state-issued ID cards on each visit, but some users avoid cybercaf registration by paying off owners. In response, the government has installed video cameras in some cafs and shut others. ... While certain words such as "democracy" are banned in online chat rooms, China's Web users sometimes transmit sensitive information as images, or simply speak in code, inserting special characters such as underscoring into typing.' Also noteworthy is that major portals seem to be cooperating with authorities' restrictions: 'Insiders who work for the big portal sites say they are already in regular contact with authorities about forbidden topics, such as the outlawed Falun Gong religious group, which their teams of Web editors pull off bulletin boards.'"
Don't let him get you mad. He's a typical liberal.
The Chinese government can put people in jail for speaking
The Chinese government can put people in jail for going to a website
The Chinese government can torture people for protesting
The Chinese government murder people for disagreeing
But OMFG! GEORGE SHRUBA BUSH wont get close enough for me to throw a rock at him!!!111!!! The USA is teh EVIL just like ChinA!!! OMG OMG!
You are correct in saying that the comparison doesn't hold up. But people like him live in a fantasy world.
To the people who will flame me:
Are things perfect in the US? No. I am fully aware that they are not. But we aren't even in the same order of magnitude as China. Yes, I am also fully aware that we have to fight every single day to hold on to what we've got so that we don't become like China. No, I didn't vote for Bush (I'm a libertarian). Yes, I know he's a terrible president. None of that changes this simple fact: here in the US, I can come on Slashdot and say these things. In China, I cannot.