China Begins Monitoring Billions of Text Messages

eldavojohn writes "The Telegraph is reporting that China has begun monitoring 'billions of text messages' in order to increase censorship. However, a People's Daily article claims they only monitor users who have been reported, and only shut down their message service if the complaints are true. Anything considered pornographic will require the user to bring a letter of guarantee to the local public security bureau promising to never again send such messages before service can be reactivated."

Comments

Re:Monitoring is universal

[Kanel]

The european SMS "culture" appears more widespread and mature than the US one. It has been a killer app since the late 90's, when prices dropped. I recall being surprised around 2002 when talking with US friends and realizing that many of them had cellphones with no SMS capability. "surely your cellphone is broken or something?" I asked.

As for cheap, in parts of Africa there's almost a whole "language" based on the messages you can send just by calling and hanging up before it answears. the time of day or no. of missed calls forms a code that can be transmitted for free.