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Joining Apple, Amazon's China Cloud Service Bows To Censors (nytimes.com)

Days after Apple yanked anti-censorship tools off its app store in China, another major American technology company is moving to implement the country's tough restrictions on online content. From a report: A Chinese company that operates Amazon's cloud-computing and online services business there said on Tuesday that it told local customers to cease using any software that would allow Chinese to circumvent the country's extensive system of internet blocks (Editor's note: the link could be paywalled; alternative source). The company, called Beijing Sinnet Technology and operator of the American company's Amazon Web Services operations in China, sent one round of emails to customers on Friday and another on Monday. "If users don't comply with the guidance, the offered services and their websites can be shut down," said a woman surnamed Wang who answered a Sinnet service hotline. "We the operators also check routinely if any of our users use these softwares or store illegal content." Ms. Wang said the letter was sent according to recent guidance from China's Ministry of Public Security and the country's telecom regulator. Amazon did not respond to emails and phone calls requesting comment. The emails are the latest sign of a widening push by China's government to block access to software that gets over the Great Firewall -- the nickname for the sophisticated internet filters that China uses to stop its people from gaining access to Facebook, Google and Twitter, as well as foreign news media outlets.

51 comments

  1. Ms. Wang by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    chinese msmash lol

  2. Didn't see that coming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Is there a particular reason any of us should be surprised by this? China has been the way it is for longer than most of us have been alive, and looks to be that way for many more.

  3. Sad state of affairs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Money and power is more important than freedom and liberty to these people.

    1. Re: Sad state of affairs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If democracy dies we all lose.

    2. Re:Sad state of affairs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They rally for freedom here with their social justice bridges, punishing businesses and people they feel aren't "tolerant" or "free" enough, yet they continue to do business with gross rights abusers like China and Saudi Arabia.

      Fuck those hypocrites.

    3. Re:Sad state of affairs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      eh, brigades, not bridges..

      captcha: leftward....

    4. Re: Sad state of affairs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Its cute that you think the US is actually a democracy

      Its been a plutocracy since long before you were born

    5. Re: Sad state of affairs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My standard of life is higher than anyone else in this world. My freedoms are greater than anyone else in the world. I am lucky to be born in the USA.

  4. Re:Is Wang Wong? by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 0

    Not to be confused with Wang Wi, San Francisco.

  5. Re:Jesus May Come Today by amalcolm · · Score: 1

    Well, it's 3:15 here and he hasn't arrived yet. He'll have to hurry or I'm going to lock up and go home

    --
    Time for bed, said Zebedee - boing
  6. And By "Illegal Content" She Means... by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 1

    ...emails to a cousin in San Francisco reading "Get Me Outta Here! Get Me The Hell Outta Here...!"

  7. Howzat go? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh, right.

      PUSSIES!

  8. Joining Apple? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Joining Apple?

    If I remember correctly - and I do - Google has been "bowing to censors" for ages.

    If anything, these companies are joining Google.

    1. Re:Joining Apple? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Last I heard from people in China, most google services are not available there. I guess Google didn't want to bow that much.

      I think it is as much competing with their home grown versions of these services as it is censorship.

      Most services we have here, like google, facebook, etc have downright ripped off equivalents in china, run by Chinese companies and get preferential treatment from the govt since they are home grown, i'm sure the Chinese spooks have taps right into all the data centers for these services as well.

    2. Re: Joining Apple? by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Google left China. They are in HK, but they are uncensored there. China blocks Google, not the other way around.

      They DID censor in China. Then China broke in and read emails from dissidents. Google left. China has blocked all Google services since, pretty much.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  9. Solution? Better circumvention tools of course! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let's get our shit together and defeat this! And, let's hear more stories about people who succeed instead of this depressing 'Typhoid Mary' stuff about more blockages everywhere you look.

    1. Re:Solution? Better circumvention tools of course! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let's get our shit together and defeat this!

      And "let's", I of course mean "you guys". I couldn't code my way out of a paper bag.

    2. Re:Solution? Better circumvention tools of course! by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Keep using the best VPN products on real computers.
      That connecting from within China will be followed to the server outside China so the use of a VPN will be detected.
      The user will be discovered and what VPN service thy used will be detected.
      A US company will have to accept and support the rule of law in China for that brand access.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    3. Re:Solution? Better circumvention tools of course! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, then they have to scramble the signals better so nobody can tell which ones 'go outside'. It will always be a game of cat and mouse. And screw the 'law'. It is fickle and corrupt, written by old bald chimps on typewriters. The 'Brand' can just go underground. It's the transfer of fundage that needs to be protected from the tyrannical authorities.

  10. China will evolve a totally different technology by SysEngineer · · Score: 2

    When a species lives isolation, it evolves differently. With China blocking Google and the technology answers Google answers, China's technology will evolve differently. Because technology is changing so fast this evolutionary process to will happen very fast.
    While I lived in China, I used a my own private VPN to access Google for technology searches. Baidu may be good for searching the latest pop song in Chinese, but useless for technology searches. Right now I am programming in Vue, a very popular web framework in China, But I could not program in it if I did not have access to Google search to answer questions. The lack of technology searches and answers in China will limit the advancement of world standards there, because the average developer can not get answers.

  11. Not a Law by Phil06 · · Score: 2

    Except that it is not a law if it was written by a totalitarian dictatorship, it's a diktat. This is calculated posturing by Apple.

    --
    "...and yet, I blame society" Duke - Repo Man
  12. Re:Jesus May Come Today by volodymyrbiryuk · · Score: 1

    I really hope you typed all of it, beacuse if you copy pasted it you're going to hell. You know that right?

    --
    sudo rm -r -f --no-preserve-root /
  13. Shut down by handbagsmsn · · Score: 0

    If users don't comply with the guidance, the offered services and their websites can be shut down. http://www.bagswalletsfr.com/

  14. China Still a Nation State by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good to see China still has nationalism and force internationals to bow to her elites' will. In America, our elites are for sale to the highest bidder, Muslim, Jew, Oriental, or Latino, just come with some $$$ for donations and a library.

  15. Re:China will evolve a totally different technolog by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I know you think this is the problem, but the chinese officials want that isolation. It will force you to use chinese tools and frameworks that ARE documented locally.

    What you see as the problem is the expected and hoped-for outcome.

  16. Wow, big ass companies follow the law! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Next you'll be bitching that Amazon and Apple delete kiddie porn.

  17. Re:Jesus May Come Today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Jesus came

    I cleaned-up afterwards with a hanky

  18. Re:China will evolve a totally different technolog by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

    I know you think this is the problem, but the chinese officials want that isolation. It will force you to use chinese tools and frameworks that ARE documented locally.

    And then their homogenization will make them horribly, pathetically vulnerable to attacks. Sounds fine to me, I guess.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  19. Business as usual by Dorianny · · Score: 1

    There is always a tightening of censorship before the twice-a-decade party Congress. The upcoming one is particularly sensitive as President Xi moves to consolidate power and is expected to replace practically all of the Politburo Standing Committee, China's highest governing body

  20. NyTimes by crafoo · · Score: 2

    It's a NY Times article. Has an actual reputable news organization checked the sources?

    1. Re:NyTimes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I find it ironic that to access the article we have to use alternate-sources... exactly the sort of behavior this article is saying is bad in china :-)

    2. Re:NyTimes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your post history is all serious, not funny, bitching.

      Does the stick in your ass have an off switch?

  21. Censors in the East, Propagandas in the West by AnthonywC · · Score: 1

    Pick your poison.

    1. Re:Censors in the East, Propagandas in the West by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah, but in soviet democracy, the choice is voluntary...

      And there's plenty of censorship in the west, with libel/slander and copyright law, etc...

    2. Re:Censors in the East, Propagandas in the West by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As if they were mutually exclusive.

  22. It started with Google and Tiananmen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The precedent was set when the U.S. government didn't put Googlers in prison for violating the human rights of the Chinese by facilitating their government's whitewashing of the Tiananmen Square Massacre history (lets not quibble about whether the machine guns mowed down the democracy protesters within the square, or within 2 miles of the square. Because as we all know, that is what the Chinese government thinks makes all the propagandistic difference)

    1. Re: It started with Google and Tiananmen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Winding people up by saying no one got shot at tianmen square is my favorite way to wind non-Chinese up. The indignant looks on their faces.... and then you end it with, yeah, it was a couple of streets down ;-)

  23. Sad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What's the point of being a part of the "leader of the free world" if you continuously bow to dictators and communists?

    1. Re: Sad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We're cool with other countries as long as they don't threaten us militarily and let us trade with them.
      We couldn't care less as long as we are making $$$. And people get mad at IBM having sold the Nazis tabulating machines... as if selling Communist China stuff to control their population is so different. It's just business.

  24. Re:Jesus May Come Today by a+hanky · · Score: 1

    I cleaned-up afterwards with a hanky

    No way dude, you're on your own. I told you I'm not touching that stuff.

  25. Re:And By "Illegal Content" She Means... by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1

    That only works if she has green eyes.

  26. The only thing than corporate responsibility by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    is the all mighty dollar.

  27. Re:Is Wang Wong? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Somebody wang the wong number?

  28. Hypocrites by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How it made such a fuss for the protectionism of privacy against the FBI, when it suited them to side with the public.
    China OTOH, fuck the public because it suits them to be sided with the government.

    I love the "safer" ecosystem internal to iDevices, but it is a game of capitalism, profits, and fuck the people all the way to the arse-line.