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Chinese Internet Censorship Operation Revealed
Stony Stevenson passed on a link to an in-depth look at the Chinese government's massive censorship operation. Reporters Without Borders put together a report on the activities of the operation, with a primary focus on the censorship of internet access and participation. "Chinese supervisory bodies often use instant messaging and text messages sent via mobile phones to communicate quickly with commercial Web sites. The purpose is to tell them which articles or comments are not to be published, and which events or issues are taboo. The Beijing Internet Information Administrative Bureau holds weekly meetings with 19 of the leading Web sites based in the capital to evaluate the subjects that Internet users find most interesting that week."
That's the message I got when I first tried to view this post, for a second I was scared Slashdot also got a textmsg.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Censorship? In a Communist nation? I'm shocked!
A Chinese fire drill...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/Voyage_au_coeur_de_la_censure_GB.pdf
Or news? Hmm...
Next up, research shows Stalin really just a misunderstood hermit who was abused by his father. Film at 11!
That is the worst first post "joke" on slashdot.
Can we all just agree that joke is lame as hell?
of the future of America.
Just disrupt the deflector shield with a tachyon burst.
SETI has yet to find any obvious intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. Apparently they have been here, seen us, and decided censorship is the correct solution. With all that red shift out there, could we have realistically expected anything else?
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
The United States is worse.
This website wouldn't exist if we had that kind of censorship here. Yes, we all know that the Chinese gov't censors internet access, but do any of us know the true extent of the censorship? This article was pretty enlightening.
"Slapping lipstick on a pig does NOT make it Natalie Portman. Paris Hilton, maybe, but not Portman." - UncleTogie
Google: "Oh, no, we're not evil. Our friends, our business partners, our customers, they're evil, but we're not."
Bet the most read book among Chinese officials is '1984'. Thank you George Orwell...
who say we can't criticize this because the west does bad thing X when it comes to privacy and freedom of expression even though bad thing X isn't anywhere remotely as bad as what the chinese are doing
look, my neighbor shot his dog, but i'm not going to criticize him, because i let my dog poop in the flower beds, and letting the dog poop in the flower beds is the beginning of an unstoppable slippery slope to murder and pedophilia and listening to cold play
pffffft
to every issue: abortion, freedom of expression, privacy, gun rights, etc., there are people who can think clearly on the issue, and then there are the raging fundamentalists
dear freedom of expression fundamentalists: where's my "troll" rating? k thx
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
... txtmsg censors YOU!
Leaving aside the obvious questions of why this either a surprise, or even news, this highlights the unintended consequences of technological advance. Firewalls and content inspection technology owe their origin to defensive uses - and continuing improvements in these have been driven largely by the increase in sophistication of the attack/penetration/exploit methods used by the bad guys. The resulting state-of-the art sudenly turns out to be incredibly powerful, capable not only of applying fine grain control based on endpoints, applications and content, but frighteningly able to provide loads of information that can be used to identify the people behind the keyboards. The fruits of defensive protection ripened to be picked by big-brother type regimes across the world - some for protectionist regulatory purposes (some countries use these to block VoIp to the benefit of state-run telcos), many for paranoiac surveillance (need I say more), some to prevent information flow across boundaries (Chine, Burma, etc.) - in short, multifarious nefarious usees of a technology suite intended to protect! Someone should list all the companies that make and sell such equipment to repressive/exploitative regimes - that would be a whos who of the industry....:(
See that long UID - that's what you get for lurking too long
What's this "revealed" nonsense? We have known for at least10 years the Chinese censor the internet. Please refrain from the false sensationalism.
Well if it was a joke, then yes it would have been lame. But it wasn't a joke (should be obvious because it was not funny), it was an observation on Slashdot's bugs/race conditions.
I would argue that you are a joke, but you are also not funny. You are possible even lame as hell.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
here
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
I find it interesting that even though the common belief that the internet is immune to sensorship is accepted pretty much by the entire tech community that the chinese are going full steam ahead anyway.
Just goes to show you that there are people who believe THEY CAN do what others say can't be done.
What will happen to our cherished belief of the invulnerability of the internet to censorship IF the chinese actually succeed?
Just because you believe in something does mean it is actually true
then you criticize the most egregious trangressors of those principles first and foremost
you do not criticize a molehill to the same extent you criticize a mountain
because, if you do, you have an unspoken principle you are not owning up to, that ranks more importantly in your mind than your so-called concern for freedom of expression and privacy: "i am an ethnocentric turd"
oh my god! i need to show my receipt when leaving walmart! man the cannons! cue the battle hymn of the republic! it's worse than nazi germany!
what, they have no freedom of the press AT ALL in china? well, that's ok, because as soon as you cross the ural mountains/ straights of bosporus/ rock of gibraltar/ rio grande/ pacific ocean, suddenly human rights don't matter as much to me
to those who criticize minor transgressions in the west to the same extent you criticize major trangressions elsewhere, you care less about your so called principles, and more about self-absorbed navel gazing. thereby, nullfiying much of your so-called principles
the only morally and intellectually defensible position on any point of view is global one. national ones are simply invalid. nationalism does not trump true global principles of human rights
or at least it shouldn't
in reality, it does, in plenty of dim ethnocentric minds in the west (and elsewhere)
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I am shocked and appalled that the Chinese would stoop so low as to adopt censorship policies. Their long and proud history of freedom has been sorely tarnished by this scandal!
How dare you be so modest!! You conceited bastard!!
except you always see people whine about the despotic usa UNDER AN ARTICLE ABOUT CHINA
in the context of a us domestic discussion, i would be wrong to disagree with you
in the context of an international discussion, only relative size of the trangression towards rights matters, not the location of the transgression of rights
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
"...The Beijing Internet Information Administrative Bureau holds weekly meetings with 19 of the leading Web sites based in the capital to evaluate the subjects that Internet users find most interesting that week."
So, a bunch of guys come together every week and discuss what was hot on the web and what wasn't for that week?
It sounds kinda like VH1's "Best Week Ever", but for communists. And instead of airing the goods on tv, they just censor it.
from TFA "elaborate system for Internet censorship that employs tens of thousands of censors and police" Why can't our wrongheaded government programs be more like the Chinese? Theirs employs tens of thousands. We use our fancy computers to silently monitor everyone, reducing labor need, and thereby keeping us unemployed and under scrutiny. Wow! Wow! Chairman Mao! Gooooooooo China!
let me see if i understand you:
you go after the shoplifters, and you ignore the murderers
with this plan, you will ensure we don't wind up with a bunch of murderers
(falls out of chair)
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
The "Great Firewall", authorities texting website admins, and regular meetings with a few dozen major websites aren't going to solve the PRC's information control problem. IP blocks can be circumvented. Filters can be tricked. And even if they have 10,000 'Net police texting website owners, they won't be able to remove more than a handful of messages from the millions of forums and comment threads that have been created. There's only one solution that *might* work for them if Internet discourse gets too uncomfortable, and that's pulling the plug on the Internet, just like their Burmese pals did a few weeks ago. But China has a far more developed 'net infrastructure and industry, a huge SMS network that has been used to spread news of protests, and stronger business and personal connections with the outside world. They may have to batten down the hatches for the upcoming party congress, but they also have to look open and friendly in the runup to the Beijing Olympics.
Because our new Chinese overlords are not in charge of GUNDAM!
Someone please explain to me how the "Great Firewall of China" can really be all that effective at denying their citizens access to Western media and news and then suck so horribly at preventing these same citizens from doing illegal activity? The various servers that I administer 75 to 85% of the hacking attempts come from China alone. I also know a large amount of spam is generated within their borders. So I ask again, if they can't or aren't preventing this kind of illeagal activity, what makes Bejing think they are successfully preventing the flow of information from getting in?
Just like the idiot from Mattell decided to apologize to China because they're trying to poison our kids with lead paint on toys over and over, obviously somehow this is our fault. We clearly need to apologize to them for this as well. After all, it can't possibly be their fault, can it?
create a nice hi-res logo in chinese which means:
Free the Knowledge
F--- the Chinese Censors
to post on web sites and print up tee shirts
Nice and pretty like so non-chinese ppl would buy it and not know what it means.
That would be a cool social experiment.
er, they don't care?
I still don't get how this is different from what happens in the US. In the US both corporations *and* the government control what you see / read.
Hey everyone, come checkout this mirror...
They get to see newsstories before they reach the front pages??? And they decide what shows and what won't?
Those pesky Chinese!
I bet they found a way to avoid anonymous posts, er, I mean, letters from non-identifiable readers...
I live in China and such take-down notices by phone are well known, though I have never got any myself as I'm not a webmaster. Censorship issues aside, I wonder how the "security officials" can authenticate themselves. It will be incredibly insecure if a webmaster just listens to a random guy over the phone.
I always post this one when someone mentions china these days: http://420.thrashbarg.net/beijing_2008_olympics_logo_story_vincentchow_animated.gif.
(put together from these)
"...to determine the subjects that Internet users are to find most interesting that week."
My Suburban burns less gasoline than your Prius.
How exactly is this news?