China's Battle to Police the Web

What_the_deuce writes "For the first time in years, internet browsers are able to visit the BBC's website. In turn, the BBC turns a lens on the Chinese web-browsing experience, exploring one of the government's strongest methods of controlling the communication and information accessible to the public. 'China does not block content or web pages in this way. Instead the technology deployed by the Chinese government, called Golden Shield, scans data flowing across its section of the net for banned words or web addresses. There are five gateways which connect China to the internet and the filtering happens as data is passed through those ports. When the filtering system spots a banned term it sends instructions to the source server and destination PC to stop the flow of data.'"

Censorship

[alohatiger]

But of course, that's nothing compared to the terrible censorship we endure in America!!

(I'm just tired of people complaining about this place becoming a police state)

Freedom!

[Anonymous Coward]

And a billion Chinese looked at the BBC website, and asked: "What does it say? I can't read English."

Remind me again, why does China have MFN status?

[Scareduck]

I don't get why China gets as many breaks as they do, including Most Favored Nation status (permanently!). The 2008 Olympics are looking more and more like the 1936 edition.

Re:Censorship

[webmaster404]

I know you are sarcastic, but really although China has a ton of censorship, the US though says it doesn't have censorship and for the most part people believe that, China on the other hand most people know that it censors and will find ways around it. For the US most are blissfully unaware....

"Great Firewall of China"

[downix]

Such a system is inherently weak in that even crude encryption techniques render it worthless. Imagine, if you will, a basic anonymizer service using a 128-bit key system. Almost immediately, the robots and spiders would find your communications gibberish. Even the url visited would be garbled and useless. And to attempt to shut down the anonymizing service would be problematic should such a service be switched to a P2P setup, rendering it next to impossible to break.

Absolutely pathetic come to think about it.

Re:Just Like

[ashridah]

Actually, given that china's been doing this for a lot longer.... Comcast is just like China, I'd say.

Re:encryption?

[moderatorrater]

Unfortunately there are a few orders of magnitude in the difference of power between the Chinese government and the RIAA.

Government not entirely to blame

[sakdoctor]

Read the comments by Chinese net users

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7313998.stm [bbc.co.uk]

They don't think that their media is at all biased. They believe "western" media is biased and has an anti-Chinese agenda.
Too much fucking national pride is what it is. When I talk to Chinese people, in China, I often get this weird apologetic "our country is crappy in a socio-economic way", but "our morals and cultural values are superior to your hedonistic, non-family oriented foreign ways".

It's creepy. Take a look at the China-daily forum if you have morbid interest. It's full of the craziest ranting racists I have ever seen...and I visited 4chan once.

Bottom line is, I don't think the government oppressing the people with censorship should be looked at in such a simplistic way. There seems to be a need for the censorship for many people on some level. Like they can't take a single bit of criticism of their precious middle kingdom and it's 5000 (actually 50) year great history.

Re:Remind me again, why does China have MFN status

[Bryansix]

It's time to sever that tie. Chinese products even for consumer electronics are typically low quality, full of lead, and made by slave (by US standards) labor. Why companies get away with exporting all of their manufacturing over there when they get crap (literaly) in return is beyond comprehension. I don't mind stuff manufactured in Taiwan. At least that stuff doesn't break in a week. I'd like it even better if high tech manufacturing was done in the US but with equipment effecient enought to make it economical even when compared to China. I know it can be done. We just need some forward looking companies to jump on the bandwagon.

Re:Government not entirely to blame

[Joe the Lesser]

And where do they learn this?

From government sponsored schools and press releases.

They are victims of sweet sweet propaganda, so yes, you can blame the government. This is how totalitarianism works. China wants to block the internet to prevent it's people from finding the logical holes in their education.

Re:"Great Firewall of China"

[glop]

You are looking at it from a technical standpoint. There is also a human standpoint: people in China know that they are being watched, so they self censor the websites they go to in order to be sure that they stay out of trouble.
It's a bit like when you are at work and you see some headline about the recent security problem at Facebook. You see Paris Hilton mentioned, so you stay clear from the link because you are not sure the article will be purely technical and not embarassing.

No need for a 100% efficient filtering system to frighten people and cause them to self-censor.

Re:SSL? Freenet?

[nurb432]

And in many places in the world, suspicion can be all it takes to ruin your life ( or even end it ), even if you are innocent.

Re:Remind me again, why does China have MFN status

[MacDork]

I don't get why China gets as many breaks as they do

Because they hold over $1.4 trillion dollars in US debt? Because they could crush our economy by unloading that paper [telegraph.co.uk] and their dollar reserves on the open market? Because the US is still going to China to beg for handouts because we can't balance our budget? Because their population of men available for military service exceeds that of the entire United States? And possibly, because our leadership, world famous as staunch defenders of civil rights themselves, really doesn't give a shit about Chinese human rights abuses?

But what do I know? I'm just guessing here...

Too bad

[Anonymous Coward]

(I'm just tired of people complaining about this place becoming a police state)

Some things may not be *as bad* in America as they are in China, but they can still be *bad*.

In fact, we are seeing a slow but stead erosion of various civil liberties.

Yes, things could be worse, but that is no reason to avoid making them better now.

Re:Censorship

[Sancho]

There are different forms of censorship, and you're only focusing on one of them.

One form is not allowing people access to content by blocking it. That's what China does.

Another way to censor is to fine people who display unwanted content. The US uses this to keep "bad language", images of a sexual nature, etc. off of non-premium television stations.

Another form of censorship involves controlling the media. The current administration does this primarily by blacklisting reporters who don't play nicely. Ask a question that's not on the list of safe topics, and good luck interviewing anyone in the government again.

Banning demonstrations are also a form of censorship, and another form that the US engages in. Search for "free speech zones" for a better understanding.

It's about shame

[microbox]

Like they can't take a single bit of criticism of their precious middle kingdom and it's 5000 (actually 50) year great history.

They can't take criticism, because they are suppressing so much shame. It's the natural human condition - when you feel that pain inside of you, you reach for pleasant dreams and feelings of superiority to make it go away. The louder the racist/nationalist, the bigger the mental image they are attached to. People create that mental image for a reason.