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Behind China's Great Firewall

Posted by timothy on from the draws-attention-to-what's-blocked dept.

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."

3 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Wow... by Jor-Al · · Score: 5, Insightful

    defending Web limitations as necessary to protect the country's citizens. Yes, without filtered internet, who knows what untold damage might sweep through the populace!
  2. errrmm.... by bsDaemon · · Score: 5, Insightful
    FTA:

    Even the good old U.S. of A. has restricted access in some cases. In May 2007, just a few weeks after placing restrictions on soldiers' blogs, the Department of Defense blocked access for soldiers to 13 "social networking and recreational" Web sites such as MySpace and YouTube, claiming that they took up too much bandwidth and presented operational risks. Ultimately, the ban severely limited the ability of soldiers overseas to communicate with loved ones at home, especially since the sites couldn't be accessed throughout much of Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm not sure once can draw a moral equivelancy between the Army blocking what soldiers do over Army internet connections from war-zones and the Chinese blocking internet access for regular citizens.

    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.
  3. Silver lining... by Hankapobe · · Score: 5, Insightful
    ...these measures are put in place to protect children and other Internet users from illegal and offensive content.

    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.