Slashdot Mirror
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."
private text messages are being recorded in the US as well, by the government and possibly private enterprises too. Recall the text messages sent on 9/11, which was posted anonymously on wikileaks.org. The only difference between the west and china is that they act upon the monitored data more extensively, the breach of privacy is the same.
Ok, exactly how Evil is the Chinese government? I'm all for trade with them because it keeps our relationship stable so we don't actually start killing each other but my opinion of their government style is that it has to go. Their government is Evil from my value system and I would love to see the Chinese people do something about that. Hell, I would even provide material support electronically but I wouldn't go there.
Shh.
Score:-1, Facepalm
Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
No. They live in China, they don't have your fancy 1st Amendment.
It's a similar procedure, but when you go down to the local public security bureau with your letter of guarantee they shoot you in the head and harvest your organs.
China and the US both need to upgrade to Constitution v2.0
Remember all those laws the US passed? Communications Decency Act....
With the right party in power (unfortunately), I could see the US having gone down the same path.
There's already much precedent in this area.. think FCC regulations and TV/radio broadcasters, talk shows, etc.
The reason would be the same as usual.... think of the children!
But in the us you don't go to jail for being a part of the religion that is not the one the sate forces you to be in.
When people are willing to give up sovereignty of their sex lives, they'll give up pretty much anything. That is why the emphasis is there. It's not like the state gives a shit about what people do with their naughty bits. It's just a test to make sure people comply with the absurd. Those who resist are likely to be troublemakers elsewhere.
Here are some examples:
Down with CCP
Free Tibet
Free Xinjiang
Rule of law
Down with the Great Firewall
Human rights
Multiparty sytem
Accountability
Melanine
Children crushed by crumbling schools
Forced abortion
Chapter 08
You have nice pecks baby.
Just think of the children!!
before the people revolt and the blood of these assholes runs in the streets. Sadly, i'm leaning towards the believe that the people will probably take it. They know no other way.
Ethical concerns aside, it would be extremely interesting to see how censorship on this large of a scale is implemented.
I wonder how effective automated modern systems will be at filtering, and how much of the censorship will have to rely on human employees. Total cost? Effectiveness? Cultural implications?
I think it'd be hard enough for computers to decipher English LOL-speak, much less Chinese.
Sooo, who is going to offer the first hardware encryption in handsets...and how soon would THAT be forbidden?
... by the parallels between the Chinese and American right wingers' war on pornography. I'd think that the Chinese would be more intent on stamping out possible challenges to Communist rule (Falun Gong), independence movements (Tibet) and threats to national security. The American conservative logic is more understandable. The economic conservatives don't care about porn per se (its just another business after all), but in order to assemble a viable voting block, their 'deal with the devil' (the religious right) requires that they adopt their position that every ejaculation must have a name. The Chinese don't suffer from the same political pressures as the GOP does. There's no opposition party espousing sexual freedom that could benefit from the circulation of porn. Sitting at home wanking in front of the computer screen is not an activity around which groups tend to organize.
Although the battle cry of our right wingers has been "Godless Commies", it seems that these two groups share quite a bit of ideology.
Have gnu, will travel.
Cutting naughty or unacceptable words out of daily conversation is their endgame.
Look. What they are doing is persuading people to censor themselves, and to think conservatively. The endgame is behaviour modification.
You don't actually have to read every message. You simply tell people that everything they write or say is monitored.
It's literally FUD.
Deleted
Anyone who doesn't think every SMS in the US (for example) is passed into the NSA is naive beyond belief. The difference is that in the west doing this snooping is still a 'dirty secret', while in china they see value in the people knowing they're monitored. Keeps everything calm. In the west being open about this would have the opposite effect, and we all want everything to remain calm, right? They all do it "for the people" of course.
The EU as a whole isn't there yet, but the infrastructure is coming up as fast as the laws can be pushed through.
Even if your local government quite dislike the idea of Total Interception, they'll still do it because information is the currency in the global military industrial information complex. If moscow will trade you information about Al-Qaeda for information about some chinesee dissident in your country...
Sheesh, nowadays you can't talk about the world we live in without sounding like a friggin nutcase.
Belief is the currency of delusion.
No. They live in China, they don't have your fancy 1st Amendment.
You're right. All citizens of China have is Article 35, translated: "Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration."