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Protesting China's Required Censorship Software
dinoyum writes "Censorship in China is nothing new, but the level of action taken to force Chinese citizens to comply has garnered global recognition. China marked the date July 1st, 2009 as the day manufacturers will be forced to install filtering software on all new PCs. While many have resorted to digitally lashing out against Green Dam, Chinese artist and designer of the famous Bird's Nest at the Beijing Olympics, Ai Weiwei has decided upon a different approach. '[He wants] a general internet strike — no work, no games, no email or anything else online — for 24 hours on the date the government plans to require censorship software on all new computers, he says, will be a quiet act of rebellion. Not coincidentally, July 1 is the 88th anniversary of the Communist Party of China. Though he posted the idea, Ai wants to leave the meaning to those who participate. "I gave almost no explanation about why I'm doing it," Ai said. "I just give the structure and people will fill in their own meaning. I don't want to be political first. I wanted to set up an act that everyone can easily accept, and then realize the power later. I want people to see their own power," he said.'"
Artist, government critic, blogger, Twitter pioneer. Now Ai Weiwei wants to shut down the internet for a day.
I wonder if his disappearance will be covered up as "performance art?"
It's certainly a valiant idea, I wish him the best of luck. It seems he'll need it:
... and news about the strike call has been scrubbed by censors from the most widely read sites.
I doubt it can but hopefully Twitter and word of mouth make this possible. I would probably have to take the day off and walk around town in order to avoid internet usage all day ... then again, I live under a less invasive government.
... but what is the majority feeling of the general Chinese populace? Honestly there have been other things where I know at least some of the populace supported the Chinese government's actions to "watch out for them." Ai needs to overcome those people, I have no idea if he's a lone voice or the voice of everyone's repressed thoughts.
I'm not clued into Chinese culture at all so all I know is that globally other news sources in other countries are criticizing this
My work here is dung.
China marked the date July 1st, 2009 as the day manufacturers will be forced to install filtering software on all new PCs.
The article linked to that text's story says
The notice says the software must either be pre-installed on the hard drive or enclosed on a compact disc.
The manufacturers and distributors could comply with the letter of the law and just put it on a disc. If you wanted to see true protests from them, you would burn the disc in some unknown standard or zip it up ... or put it on an HD DVD disc :)
...
Have these requirements since changed to require it installed? If they have I haven't heard
If you're a netbook manufacturer and you put it on the disc instead of the netbook (which are almost always sans disc drive) what are the odds anyone's going to bother figuring out how to move that to their computer unless they themselves personally want it. You could also provide tutorials on removing the software completely for people that have any "issues" (wink wink) with the software.
My work here is dung.
For some reason I just don't think the MMORPG junkies will be able to tear themselves away for a whole day. Or the daytraders. China has daytraders, right?
There is a war going on for your mind.
Due to all the international pressure and bad publicity gathered from the original move to mandate the installation of Green Dam on every computer, China backpedaled from the decision.
So it seems weird to me that this kind of protests are being organized. It would make a lot more sense to educate people about how to uninstall the dam(n) software out of their machines, or why people should not willingly accept to install it under the usual "think of the children" argument.
Having said that, it's a free country, and he can protest whatever he wants... Wait, no... I'll be back to you on that one.
It's been tried before.
1. Ai Weiwei want you to get your ass behind a proxy, for the July 1st raid of critical government sites.
2. ???
3. Shit bricks!
i read that Green Dam has an exploit, just search Google_News
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
...from the ancient history records of Guoyu . In the dynasty of Zhou, a king (King Li) was so corrupt and cruel that the people began criticizing him widely, in public. The King tried to suppress the dissidents by strong censorship measures with harsh punishment attached. As a result, the people *stopped speaking* at all -- no public speeches, no private talking, not a single word said by anyone. Shocked by the situation, an advisor of the King told him "To censor the speech of people is even more dangerous than blocking a flooding river" and advised the king of cancelling the strong censorship. The King refused to listen, and finally was overthrown in the inevitable revolt of an angry mob under his oppression. He was exiled by his people, leaving the kingdom in a state of power vacuum (the "Gonghe" period in Chinese history).
OK so much for stories.. I'm not suggesting that Ai's proposed protest should be expected to result in similar consequences, but I wonder whether he was having the story in mind when he got the idea. On one hand I admire his stand on the matter of censorship; on the other hand I doubt whether this is able to deliver a message strong enough. Individuals in this society have been so dependent on communications that it is no longer possible to do as the ancient Zhou people did. Look at what's happening in Iran -- we can *still* hear the voice of dissidents because they actually tried their best to take advantage of the Internet instead of burying their voices in a silent protest.
Unless you produce a *really* massive and well-coordinated voluntary silence. Which I think, given the diversity and decentralized nature of the Internet, is no longer possible.
Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
Both Iran and China show dramatically how the Internet has become a tool of political change. This was already happening much earlier but not reported by main stream media.
For instance, web-based activists have been hitting politically in Europe since 1999, to prevent software patents. I've argued that Obama was the first "Internet president" since his campaign was heavily driven by Internet communities.
The fight by political elites to retain power, and the use of ever more sophisticated communications to break their grip, is a worldwide pattern.
So far, the Net has proven it will win such fights.
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The Chinese government is not a government that takes well to public protests (Tiananmen Square massacre or the June 4th incident as the Chinese call it). I'm not saying these people should back down but I wonder if a better approach might yield better result. You have to take culture into consideration when dealing with politics. Culturally, the Chinese react very, very poorly to public confrontations, especially if one party will be humiliated by backing down. (Before anyone asks, I come from a Chinese family. This is experience from dealing with other Chinese, especially parents.) There's this concept of "face" and the Chinese will practically do anything to save it. Generally, to get compromises or change someone's declared public position you have to do it in a subtle way that doesn't threaten anyone's public image if he changes his position. Best of luck to him because he might actually succeed in changing the government's mind by showing them public anger, but the government will punish him simply for his public confrontation. This is actually quite heroic of him. He might be surprised by how many Chinese would care, despite his own blog post to the contrary, because of the very practical impact the Internet has on their day to day lives. The Chinese tend to be practical rather than idealistic.
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The same can be said for every national government. You don't rise to power without a lifetime of struggle and by the time you get there you'd hardly be considered connected to anything or anyone but the people who got you there. Just because the Chinese power class lets it all hang out while Western powers play the cloak and dagger game doesn't make them any different underneath all the bullshit. Remember that the media is part of this game too. Don't let yourself be distracted by troubles in one part of the world when there is plenty of trouble brewing elsewhere.
mmmm...forbidden donut
Will visiting foreigners (tourists, businessmen, etc)be obligated to install this software at the customs desk at the airport when entering the country? Would be a good reason not to go to China..
The situation is different in USA, Iran, and China.
In the USA, there is an established venue for a democratic vote to oust the established government. Voting works in the USA. All the internet has to do is convince people to go out and exercise their right to vote in order to oust people from government.
Iran also has voting, but the results don't match the votes, so it's back to revolution for them. They haven't succeeded (but hopefully it's just a matter of time). The internet has to convince people to go out and possibly die. It remains to be seen if they'll continue to protest against the hard line that their government has started to take. This morning's news seems to say that they're faltering.
In China, they don't have voting, and they don't have a revolution either. Some may not like it but they put up with it. The Internet needs to first get people to care.
The internet caused the incumbent control over the USA's executive and legislative branch to switch from one party to the other...in a two party system.
The internet is having some effect, but it can't be credited for the overthrow of governments yet.
Now I'm not advocating cyber-terrorism in any way, but how long will it be until someone turns all of these computers against the Chinese government?
Also, for conspiracy theorists out there, the North Koreans are planning a ballistic missile "test" shortly after the July 1st date. They have also forbidden foreign ships in their waters because of a naval "test." With the possibility that China is converting its entire nation into a botnet, this is slightly alarming. Could they be gearing up for war against the US?
But then I realized the cable was blue, so I only gave it one star. I hate blue.
I've wondered lately, how does this censor/"antivirus" software fit into Linux PCs offered by manufacturers? Does it run under those options? Or can no one in China any longer buy or use a Linux PC to go online?
If the internet really had that much power, then Ron Paul would be the president right now, the executive cabinet would consist entirely of /b/tards, and we'd all have dates!
Quick survey of the Beijing internet cafe I'm in now: most Chinese don't know who he is, at least among the computer/wang ba/internet cafe crowd. If they do, it's as an artist/saw his name on the list of Bird's Nest designers. And they don't care. They're not installing the software, mandate or mandate, and if it comes preinstalled, they don't care as long as they can still play games/surf the net/etc. They were more pissed by the idea that this schmuck (artist and designer though he is, once you tell the youth to get offline, he's a schmuck) would tell them to get off the net for 24 hours. A few pointed out that any protest would be a drop in the bucket of hundreds of millions of internet users.
If there's 400 million people online, and a few million dont log on for a day, does anyone notice? Or even care? Just an annoyance for those participating, proposed by some artist who is now meddling with government shtuffs. If you're gonna protest this, this isn't the way to go- it harms the participants and achieves nothing (unless the software uninstalls itself if not used in the 1st 24 hours on that one day). Demonstrating the flaws of the program would change the government's mind more than anything- but Chinese computers as so full of holes it hardly matters (Xunlei, ubiquitous unpatched pirated windows running IE6).
You guys that think China gives a hairy rat's ass what you or anyone else thinks about thier censorship policies are just so damn cute.
Is buying a Harley Davidson as your first motorcycle since you were 16 at age 49 a midlife crisis issue?
As software, and not on-chip instructions, (ROM firmware or BIOS), is this not trivial to defeat? Or do I misunderstand? Also, is this going to be deployed for all architectures and operating systems, or do users working with more esoteric hardware / OS combinations get a pass? Also, why do this at the user level at all, when any filtering could be enforced at the ISP level? How effective are Tor, proxies and encryption at evading filtering measures in China? Is there any access (via satellite or other source) to internet feeds outside of Chinese government control?
Steve
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