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Free Tools To Evade China's Web Censorship

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the just-in-case-you-are-curious dept.

narramissic writes "The Global Internet Freedom Consortium (GIFC) offers a set of free tools that can be used to circumvent Chinese Internet censorship. The group claims approximately 1 million people in China use its tools to access the Internet. And, says Tao Wang, director of operations for GIFC, 'it's a very good time to remind Western reporters that there are such tools.'"

5 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Like they won't just block the site? by Daimanta · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Call it silver-backing, that will be a smashing buzzword.

    --
    Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
  2. Will you be caught though? by derekw · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The big question is will you be caught circumventing the censorship.

    From what I understand, it's not that hard to break through the censorship. But will you leave any tracks behind--however small--for the government to see? That's the big question.

    If you just want to read one NYT article, go ahead and chances are nothing would happen to you. But if you plan on doing this day in day out, from your home connection, then a few months down the road you may get a knock on your door in the middle of the night.

  3. Re:Like they won't just block the site? by Spikeman56 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yeah, but they don't. I'm surfing this right from behind the Great Chinese Firewall.

    The Great Chinese Firewall recently has been quite erratic. Surprisingly searching for a lot of open source software will set off Google, and lock me out for a few minutes. Maybe it's got something to do with being 'free'

  4. Re:Like they won't just block the site? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The new way to block a site is to abusively register it as malware-ridden. Take a look at the results of a Google search on site:tibet.com (the Tibetan gov in exile)... http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atibet.com

    Pauvre Tibet (French)

  5. Re:Like they won't just block the site? by mrogers · · Score: 3, Interesting

    One of the things that I have found in my travels to China is that they do not regard their govt the same way we do (I'm assuming the parent and GP poster are Americans, b/c I'm American, and that's what we do :-) ). Chinese do not identify their country with their govt, they're two separate things.

    I'm intrigued to hear that, because I'd started to form the opposite impression: whereas Americans consider it patriotic to criticise their government (attacking the government == defending the people), Chinese seem to consider it unpatriotic (attacking the government == attacking the people). But I've never been to China - perhaps the crucial difference is whether the criticism comes from inside or outside the country?

    I must admit I find it hard not to get defensive about my country's actions, even when I disagree with them, if I feel I'm being blamed. If Chinese people feel the same way then maybe it's more productive to focus on tools that help them organise resistance within their own country, than on tools that help them access Western media (with the implication that they should aspire to be more like the West)?