China Begins Monitoring Billions of Text Messages 178
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by
Soulskill
from the that-would-be-a-terrible-job dept.
from the that-would-be-a-terrible-job dept.
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."
Monitoring is universal (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Doesn't this violate the 1st Amendment? (Score:4, Informative)
No. They live in China, they don't have your fancy 1st Amendment.
Re:Monitoring is universal (Score:4, Informative)
Those were pager messages, not SMS messages (the way pagers work, any dude with some equipment can listen to *everything*; the way SMS works, only the phone company can listen (well, and anyone who can order the phone company around)).
Re:Monitoring is universal (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:Government protest? (Score:3, Informative)
US 1st amendment corresponds to their Article 35 (Score:5, Informative)
No. They live in China, they don't have your fancy 1st Amendment.
You're right. All citizens of China have is Article 35 [peopledaily.com.cn], 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."