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Behind China's Great Firewall
DigitalDame2 writes "In light of the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing, more scrutiny is being placed on China's Web-filtering practices. In May, China's technology minister, Wan Gang, told Reuters China he would 'guarantee as much [access] as possible,' defending Web limitations as necessary to protect the country's citizens. Truly understanding this cat-and-mouse game means taking a close look at what exactly the government filters out, how the Great Firewall works, and how others have found ways around it."
Who's to say it's not distributed among many (possibly hundreds) of gateways. It seems a bit impractical to think that China's internet connectivity funnels through one single geographical point, much less through one physical device. That, or you were being sarcastic...
Until the USA starts filtering my access to the BBC, I don't really know why they even brought that up -- its just like workplace filtering at any other job.
I have a feeling that, with the censorship being taken mostly at the ISP level in order to avoid governmental scrutiny/sanctions, that it occurs at the ISP's servers. So rather than any one piece of hardware doing all the work there's hundreds (I presume, I have no idea how many ISPs operate inside of China, though I'd expect there to be quite a few).
This is an illustration of the slippery slope and we all should show this to anyone who wants to censor or regulate the internet for obscene material or to "protect the children".
As a matter of fact, here's a perfect illustration how the "think of the children" rhetoric can be and is used for oppression of a people.
Protect them?
PROTECT THEM???
From WHAT??? Other than finding out what a murderous bunch of thugs run their craptastic fascist gov't?
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Now that I think about it, the way China is right now is strikingly similar to how view an Internet in which Net Neutrality has been soundly defeated and one can only visit approved sites. There are, of course a few differences...govm't approval vs. corporate sponsorship. But the end result of a strictly regulated Internet experience remains the same. Or I could be completely full of it.
.-.
I really think that they feel they have a reason to censor the net for places where most foreigners are going to be hanging out during the Olympics. Most of those places aren't going to have your average Chinese citizen just looking for a way to get around the firewall.
The government cares about their 'face' and they aren't going to want to the rest of the world seeing what they do control. They'll just let those places have access and then after the Olympics, restrict it again.
Physics is imagination in a straight jacket. ~John Moffat
What's wrong with blogs?
They're hard to control.
The truth is the Chinese govt. faces a very real terrorism threat w/ the upcoming Olympics and are doing everything including monitoring the Net to keep it from happening. I'm sorry, but this doesn't hold water. They do this daily, and have for years. It's not about protecting their citizens or infrastructure from terrorist threats, it's about protecting their privileged status and controlling their populace.
Do you care to provide a source that isn't a right wing website?
Perhaps one that doesn't include statements like this: in a country with Sunday shopping, abortion rights and same-sex marriage...[h]uman rights commissions are vestigial organs, a historical correction that no longer serves any useful function. in attempts to prove a point. I mean, to say that just because women have the right to reproductive freedom (if they live in a major city), gay people can get married and everyone can go shopping on Sunday (if they live in a large city) doesn't mean that human rights issues are a thing of the past.
I'm also missing the part where this website is being filtered out by a repressive government. The fact that this site is up and running and I can view it from Canada despite the fact that it criticizes the current state of affairs in this country indicates that censorship isn't nearly as bad as in China.
what's that now?
china is obviously a great power in this world. when you are a great power, you get criticized. with great power, this kind of criticism is a natural occurence
a true great man can take lots of criticism in stride. an immature powerless man meanwhile freaks out every time someone suggests the slightest negative thing about him. it shows a lack of confidence, an insecurity
han ultranationists: do you believe that china is a great power? if you do, then start acting as that great power status dictates: have more confidence. china will be criticized more and more every year since it is so powerful now. if you cannot handle that criticism, then you are in danger of destroying your own greatness with your own insecure behavior
to defeat the creation of insecure people in china, you should foster a healthy amount of internal dissent and self-critical thinking in china. if you do not, if you censor anything that remotely criticizes the chinese government or the chinese nation, then what you do is make the chinese people permanent children. you incubate chinese who are unable to handle criticism without freaking out in insecurity and a lack of confidence
and thereby diminishing the greatness of china
china is a great nation. i believe that as an american. so start acting like a great nation, and grow some thicker skin when foreigners criticize china. being criticized is a natural product of being powerful. get used to it. believe me, as an american, i know something about being criticized on the world stage! and mostly, i just shrug it off. you should to
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it