Behind China's Great Firewall 148
DigitalDame2 writes "In light of the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing, more scrutiny is being placed on China's Web-filtering practices. In May, China's technology minister, Wan Gang, told Reuters China he would 'guarantee as much [access] as possible,' defending Web limitations as necessary to protect the country's citizens. Truly understanding this cat-and-mouse game means taking a close look at what exactly the government filters out, how the Great Firewall works, and how others have found ways around it."
Re:Firewall tech (Score:4, Insightful)
Wow... (Score:5, Insightful)
errrmm.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Until the USA starts filtering my access to the BBC, I don't really know why they even brought that up -- its just like workplace filtering at any other job.
Re:Firewall tech (Score:4, Insightful)
Silver lining... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is an illustration of the slippery slope and we all should show this to anyone who wants to censor or regulate the internet for obscene material or to "protect the children".
As a matter of fact, here's a perfect illustration how the "think of the children" rhetoric can be and is used for oppression of a people.
Re:errrmm.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Hell with them... (Score:4, Insightful)
Protect them?
PROTECT THEM???
From WHAT??? Other than finding out what a murderous bunch of thugs run their craptastic fascist gov't?
RS
Hm... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Silver lining... (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't worry. (Score:1, Insightful)
The government cares about their 'face' and they aren't going to want to the rest of the world seeing what they do control. They'll just let those places have access and then after the Olympics, restrict it again.
Re:Blogs (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:errrmm.... (Score:1, Insightful)
I'd argue that all a soldier really needs in order to communicate with loved ones is email, but they're getting a lot more access than that.
Oh, they're so repressed!
Re:Blogs (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Silver lining... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Silver lining... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's like how America is still looked upon favorably in parts of Eastern Europe, like Georgia. When you've experienced REAL dictatorship, REAL secret police, and REAL oppression, then you look at things differently than does the college kid who had his feelings hurt, so he blames it on whatever boogyman is popular to blame.
When you've spent your entire life wondering where little billy went after he said "i think mao sucked," you're going to be warry of saying those things and probably go out of your way to make sure that anyone else who heard it knows YOU didn't endorse that statement so that nothing happens to YOU.
We may be run by a bunch of retards and jackasses, but no matter how bad we have it, we still have it a lot better than the majority of people in the world.
Just something to think about.
Re:errrmm.... (Score:1, Insightful)
What???!!! They blocked our soldiers access to pr0n!!! Oh, my dear God, now it is time for a revolution! What they gonna do next? Take our right to watch American Idol???!!!
Re:Hell with them... (Score:4, Insightful)
They don't want people reading how all their peasants are moving to cities into sweat shops, they don't want there people to ahve a tool to use to organize rallys. The last thing they need is another tank man;which most people under 20 in China have never even heard of.
Re:Deal w/ it every day (Score:2, Insightful)
The truth is the Chinese govt. faces a very real terrorism threat w/ the upcoming Olympics and are doing everything including monitoring the Net to keep it from happening.
Re:Silver lining... (Score:5, Insightful)
No, that isn't a joke either. I really do.
But the government also isn't rounding up Americans off American streets and sending them to secret prisons (if they are, they're doing a good job keeping it secret).
They're rounding up foreigners that they get in foreign countries, who are (allegedly) in the act of doing stuff.
FDR made up the whole "enemy combatant" thing, lest we forget. And most of the interned Japanese were citziens or legal residents. I have yet to see DHS going around picking up taxi drivers and 711 clerks on suspicion of aiding and abetting the enemy.
I don't like Bush either, but can we please at least keep the accusations to things that he's actually done?
Re:Firewall tech (Score:3, Insightful)
Perhaps one that doesn't include statements like this: in a country with Sunday shopping, abortion rights and same-sex marriage...[h]uman rights commissions are vestigial organs, a historical correction that no longer serves any useful function. in attempts to prove a point. I mean, to say that just because women have the right to reproductive freedom (if they live in a major city), gay people can get married and everyone can go shopping on Sunday (if they live in a large city) doesn't mean that human rights issues are a thing of the past.
I'm also missing the part where this website is being filtered out by a repressive government. The fact that this site is up and running and I can view it from Canada despite the fact that it criticizes the current state of affairs in this country indicates that censorship isn't nearly as bad as in China.
Re:Silver lining... (Score:4, Insightful)
dear han ultranationalists: (Score:3, Insightful)
a true great man can take lots of criticism in stride. an immature powerless man meanwhile freaks out every time someone suggests the slightest negative thing about him. it shows a lack of confidence, an insecurity
han ultranationists: do you believe that china is a great power? if you do, then start acting as that great power status dictates: have more confidence. china will be criticized more and more every year since it is so powerful now. if you cannot handle that criticism, then you are in danger of destroying your own greatness with your own insecure behavior
to defeat the creation of insecure people in china, you should foster a healthy amount of internal dissent and self-critical thinking in china. if you do not, if you censor anything that remotely criticizes the chinese government or the chinese nation, then what you do is make the chinese people permanent children. you incubate chinese who are unable to handle criticism without freaking out in insecurity and a lack of confidence
and thereby diminishing the greatness of china
china is a great nation. i believe that as an american. so start acting like a great nation, and grow some thicker skin when foreigners criticize china. being criticized is a natural product of being powerful. get used to it. believe me, as an american, i know something about being criticized on the world stage! and mostly, i just shrug it off. you should to