China Censoring Flickr

An anonymous reader writes "It would appear that the Chinese government is currently censoring all photos on the site Flickr. A notice has been posted in a Flickr help forum about this, but the service currently doesn't have a fix for this. It would appear that China has turned on their Golden Shield Project to censor the site. 'Jain Hua Li, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said he hadn't heard of Flickr until told about it in a conversation with a Chronicle reporter, and then suggested that the blocking may be because Chinese authorities are trying to protect children from racy images. Lucie Morillon, the U.S. representative for Reporters Without Borders, a French group that promotes free expression, said that the Beijing government often censors Web sites under the guise of protecting children or national security. She called the blocking of Flickr "one more blow against the free flow of information online by Chinese authorities" and added that it is particularly lamentable in light of promises by China to loosen restrictions before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.' Thomas Hawk has a well-considered opinion to offer on this issue."

Come on China,

Stop giving dictatorial US law and policy makers new ideas!

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Do you really believe that our leaders have not thought of this already?

Re:Come on China,

Not only have US leaders thought of this, but they've already tried putting it into practice. Does no one remember the Communications Decency Act [wikipedia.org] which passed into law and was eventually shot down by the Supreme Court? Every couple of years there's something new that they want to ban from adults due to "for the children" arguments.

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Yeah, because banning pornographers from advertising to children is *totally* the same as China's suppression of all political or anti-Communist speech. Totally.

Re:Come on China,

An amendment to CDA banned all discussion of abortion on the Internet. Remember that they first came for the Communists because everybody hated Communists. Hopefully somebody will speak up when they come for you.

Re:Come on China,

I notice the moronic mods are out in force.

I actually thought the first post was quite funny but I suppose anyone suggesting that the US govt might like to censor anything is offensive to some people. The reality is that the US goverment and certain states in particular have a long history of censorship.

As usual, wikipedia has a pretty decent page on the subject:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_the_Uni ted_States [wikipedia.org]

I am not saying that the US is as bad as China, but no government is above trying to censor things they dont aggree with for any number of reasons.

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I try and avoid buying Chinese produce but this is bloody difficult nowadays being that the seem to make everything.

If you mean this as a small crusade to economically punish the Chinese state into your way of thinking, I'd view it as counter-productive -

Thank God that wouldn't happen in the US

Censorship under the guise of protecting our children or national security. Thank god that stuff only happens in China and not here in the United States...
Oh... er...
...nevermind

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Bad mouth a corporation and you can get hit with a SLAPP lawsuit.

That's how it's done in America: they don't use guns. They use lawyers.

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Example please?

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Think you are cute, do you? Well, frankly, I'm sick and tired of how people like you so quickly - no later than the fucking first post?! - hijack this thread to "how bad it is here in the US". I'd be glad to join you on Bush-bashing over there [slashdot.org], but this

Not News

China censors the internet. It's what they do. How about an article of what China is *not* censoring?

The great Firewall

China: Turning off one website at a time until there is no more internet. Problem is, that could take a while...

Quick everyone make flickr clones! Oh wait...

Olympics will be exempt

That area of the country, for the time period of the games, will be treated differently. It'll look great. You'll be able to sit in your hotel room and view all the stuff you want. (pro-Tibetian Falon Gong porn, whatever...)

The rest of the country? No.

A month later? No.

BTW, don't check your business email or log in to the corporate VPN from China. You know the story: "all your trade secrets are blong to us".

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BTW, don't check your business email or log in to the corporate VPN from China. You know the story: "all your trade secrets are blong to us".

Uh, isn't this what encryption is for? (God help you if your company doesn't encrypt it's VPN)

So let me get this straight

You guys want us to buy all the stuff you make, and you don't want to allow your people access to the ideas we make.

How much longer are you going to let this authoritarian bullshit go on? Do you realize how powerful China could become if it embraced c

How much longer?

How much longer will we ( the world ) continue to ignore their own moral issues with China in return for cheap goods? A long long long time.

A fix?

Umm nothing is broken, its Chinas right to block whatever they feel is right.

Techincally if fickr circumvents this, they are violating China's wishes, and could be sued charged with treason and extradited.

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Your legal knowledge is astounding.

there is something greater in importance

than the wishes of a bunch of technocrats in beijing

namely, it is the wishes of the average chinese person

your words are basically "shut up and respect the guy in charge"

no, fuck you. the guy in charge needs to respect the guy on the street. in china, he d

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your words are basically "shut up and respect the guy in charge"

Yes, evil China. In the west, we never let the guy in charge decide, we always look for what the average person wants. There will never be a war that isn't supported by a vast majority... Err...

that's not wrong according to western values, that's wrong period, according to all human values

According to western human values. The human rights of the U

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Every war starts out supported by a vast majority. It isn't until about two years in that the protests start. It's like that with every war, from Vietnam to WWII.

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all people SHOULD BE equal?

That is the current consensus in western society, yes.

is there another way to look at this issue?

Hundreds. In fact, mankind has lived 99% of it's existence subscribing to non-equality. The very same way we would call someone antisocial or insane if he claimed that group X is more or less valuable

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slavery still exists. it always will, under the radar, in some form or another. does this mean you stop fighting slavery? furthermore, at some point in the past, slavery was more prevalent than it was today. so is this proof of progress in the world?

It is an excellent argument against your "universal human rights". Because for millenia slavery was perfectly acceptable in most human societies. How do you dig that? By claiming "progress"? That the "universal human rights" have only been discovered rece

Re:i think i'm beginning to understand your proble

universal human rights always existed, exists everywhere now, and always will exist

Is that a belief or a fact?
If it is a fact, please point me to the evidence of universal human rights, say, 200 million years ago, when there were no humans.
Ok, that's an invalid argument you say, so let's kill your second all-quantor. Please point me to

again, your essential problem: asperger's

science and logic. ha!

you want to reduce humanity to a math problem

"Compassion is an emotion evolved through natural selection to facilitate the survival of the species. The same goes for all of our primitive moral instincts. They are nothing more than tec

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fundamentalism is my enemy

That is weird, you know? Because usually the position of absolute moral values is the position of the fundamentalist. Actually, that's pretty much what the word means.

at the same time, i hew to moral equivalency: that humanity has more in common in values than differences.

Now we're getting somewhere. Thanks. Yes, humanity has lots in common. If more or less

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Ummm, the chinese have a *right* to live however they want as a independent society ( until they try to force it onto other countries, or become a danger to the rest of the world ). As do we. Dont forget that there are people on this planet that thing dem

Re:there is something greater in importance

Ummm, the chinese have a *right* to live however they want

Exactly. The individual Chinese have every right to live however they want, until they try to force their preferences onto others, or make threats against them. If some (or all) of them don't want to be censored, they have every right not to be.

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No offence but who gives a fuck about violating the "wishes" of human rights violators.

Do you feel the same way about the US government. They also violate peoples human rights. The two most current examples are Gauntanamo Bay and the rendition torture expr

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Curiousity.

Sue a website?

No, you sue / charge the owners/operators. Much as you would do with a corporation that has overstepped its boundaries.

Now, i agree its hard to get somone transferred out of the country to face charges, but it DOES happen on occasion, and it doesnt mean t

If you don't like the Chinese Government...

... Don't watch the Olympics. Let the media carrying the Olympics know that you're boycotting them, and will try to get others to join the cause vs. Chinese censorship. Try to avoid purchasing goods made in China, or from companies with close relationships with China. Otherwise, they'll continue to do what they want with all the money the West sends them...

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Try to avoid purchasing goods made in China, or from companies with close relationships with China.

They still exist?

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Yes, however at this point it'd require a 40% tariff to get more variety in, and publicly shredding any economist's letter that comes in.

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Economics, the only science where ethics and morality are thrown out the window.

I believe the word you were looking for was "politics". Economic science is predicated on ethical behavior, although I will admit that it -- like all other forms of science

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Of course, you failed to mention that they got kicked out of the Olympic Village and the Olympics higherups threatened the USA(and Australia, who harbored the second-place winner evil for supporting their protest) with ostracision from the Olympics if they

Not Surprised

Since Yahoo learned what "Roll over" means in all the Chinese dialects, and how to say "Yes, sir" as well.

I've yet to know if they know what human rights means.

Shorter list

Let's compile one of things China won't censor and save time

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Money, and any of those "free trade" agreements put forth that end up taking jobs.

The Reason is Obvious

A couple of days ago was the anniversary of the Tianenmen Square Massacre. Several major sites were carrying a story about a Flickr album depicting the event. No doubt the Chinese Communist Party censors picked up on it and decided to block.

We are the ones blame

Is a shame Occident is supporting and sponsoring an oppressive regime, we are the ones that are doing business with them betraying ourselves, freedom, democracy and our occidental roots and values. We are the ones blame, not China; they just found is easy

OK, Fess Up

Which one of you upload the picture of the tank man [wikipedia.org] onto Flickr? Boy, that must have been an embarrassing moment for the party and they don't like to be reminded of it. That and pictures of shooting hundreds and thousands of college students demanding wh

Using Censorship against them

Seems if you want something not to be pirated in China, how about adding extras like the Dalai Lama, Falon Gong or Tiananmen Square? Software makers, be sure to feature a Falon Gong extra in the tutorials. Movie makers: How about a cameo by the Dalai Lama in the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie? Google Maps: when you zoom in on Tiananmen, show perspective mapped photos of what really happened.

Seriously: I have a friend who just got back from a visit in China. He said the Communist Party is very scared about losing its grip on society. They've very, very worried about losing control. Something you haven't heard in the mainstream media: Chinese, particularly the poorer ones, are really sick of the rich getting richer. When the Chinese Government wants to build a road, they pick a poor area, flatten it and kick the poor locals out. Increasingly, people are getting sick of it and the government is worried: This is why they're banning things left, right and center: http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/2275.asp [indiadaily.com] http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK165285 .htm [alertnet.org] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/21/world/asia/21cnd -china.html?ex=1337400000&en=578ee101ec63e955&ei=5 090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss [nytimes.com]

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Is there a group somewhere consisting of people who know computers using their skills to attack computer systems run by oppressive regimes and shut down their ability to do this sort of thing?

China has a group of hackers that do nothing but make viruse

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China has a group of hackers that do nothing but make viruses, spyware, to try and infiltrate and sabotauge foreign computers.

In the real world, or just in Command and Conquer Generals?

I thought that most spyware originated in the US where you could sell m

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Actually, both the US and China are producing "hacker militias". Code Red, for example, was sanctioned by the Chinese government.

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I would tell you that the world is large enough for several evils, but that wouldn't do your point justice, which... well, if you had a point, it wouldn't do it justice.

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His point is: "We're better than Hitler, so we're okay!"

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Your point basically comes down to : my allegations about bush are a conspiracy theory, so they must be right !

But the real situation is much less spectacular (obviously). Bush, and the American public, actually listen to your self-important dribble, and g