Chinese Internet Surfers Getting Fed Up With The Great Firewall?

from the just-want-to-see-some-photos-on-Flickr dept

Wed, Jun 20th 2007 1:00pm — Mike Masnick

For years, in stories about the "Great Firewall" of China reporters sometimes point out that many in China don't mind the blocks that much. However, that may be changing. In many of the stories we've seen defending the Great Firewall, the rationale is that it really does "protect" Chinese citizens from seeing harmful material. However, with the recent blocking of Flickr it appears that some Chinese citizens are finally speaking out against the blocks, claiming that it's ridiculous to censor the internet so much. Of course, the article only points to a few anecdotal stories, rather than providing any hard data (and out of the billions of people in China, it's no surprise that you can find some who are pissed off). It does include one interesting story of a guy who's actually suing his ISP for the blocks, claiming that it's hurt him financially, since he was trying to sell some software through a site that is blocked in China.

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9 Comments

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dorpus, 20 Jun 2007 @ 1:42pm

What About Ethical Firewalls?
I was at a pediatric intensive care unit today to witness a kid's death. While I was there, some other kid started screaming, the whole hospital floor could hear him, it lasted about 15 minutes, but I was not allowed to look because I was a "visitor". Based on the screams, it sounded like they were trying to cut his stomach open without anesthesia or something.

I did find out later from nurses in the lunch room that the kid was not in pain -- he was just a big brat having a tantrum. The nursing stations do have webcam-like devices to watch kids, because some of the retarded ones have a habit of pulling out life-support tubes. The burn victim kids go into wash rooms where nurses use sandpaper to scrub off all the skin until the meat is exposed and blood is flying everywhere, to prep it for grafts.

So yes, there is plenty of information that is illegal to put on the web in the USA too -- I'm not going to give more specific information than that.
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- Larry, 20 Jun 2007 @ 3:05pm
  
  Re: What About Ethical Firewalls?
  I wish someone would turn off your "webcam-like devices" for awhile so you could pull the tubes out.
  
  Idiot!
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- Sean, 20 Jun 2007 @ 4:30pm
  
  Re: What About Ethical Firewalls?
  "The burn victim kids go into wash rooms where nurses use sandpaper to scrub off all the skin until the meat is exposed and blood is flying everywhere, to prep it for grafts.
  
  So yes, there is plenty of information that is illegal to put on the web in the USA too -- I'm not going to give more specific information than that."
  
  What you describe is "debridement" it has to be done and not just for skin graphs it can aid in healing removing dead damaged and infected skin. The procedure is done under anesthesia.
  
  Pics an Vid on this are available here.
  http://images.google.com/images?tab=vi&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLJ%2CGGLJ%3A2006-26%2CGGLJ%3Aen &q=debridement
  and here
  http://video.google.com/videosearch?tab=iv&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLJ%2CGGLJ%3A2006-26%2CGGLJ%3 Aen&q=debridement
  
  So I guess that is not illegal to have on the Internet here in the USA.
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  - dorpus, 20 Jun 2007 @ 4:35pm
    
    Re: Re: What About Ethical Firewalls?
    I suppose you are referring to skin grafts. Yes, the patients are given morphine, but it still hurts a lot -- it's done behind soundproof walls.
    
    It would be illegal if I described the patient's names, hospital name, or what their parents look like. Some of them were walking caricatures of certain kinds of people, but no, I will not go into details there.
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- WarOtter, 21 Jun 2007 @ 6:07am
  
  Re: What About Ethical Firewalls?
  Ummm... what? Pretty bad analogy.
  
  Anyway, it sure did make me hungry. Think I'll go get a chili cheese omelet.
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trollificus, 20 Jun 2007 @ 1:46pm

Sagan Syndrome Suffered By Billions and Billions
Dude, there aren't "billions" of people in China. Well over A billion, certainly, but not multiple billions. And the number who have internet would be some millions but fewer than found in the US, certainly, by a factor which could easily be filled in by some hypothetical non-lazy person.

Quiblling aside, I think the Chinese government's approach, with regard to the internet, is to "Nip. it. in. the bud!" as Barney Fife used to say. Block as much as they can while affecting commercial use as little as possible, and maybe The People won't know what they're missing*.

*-I make neither claim nor judgement here.
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charlie potatoes, 20 Jun 2007 @ 2:49pm

dorpus
"I was at a pediatric intensive care unit today to witness a kid's death." dorpus...you are a total idiot. today, however, you have hit a new low. jesus, fellow, what the fuck is the matter with you?
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- dorpus, 20 Jun 2007 @ 4:14pm
  
  Re: dorpus
  It was part of my job training.
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diancangshan, 21 Jun 2007 @ 8:38am

I do not know what is greatfirewall,but I do know
I know there is an American company,what is its name?AmeriChinaB2B .
AmeriChinaB2B (www.acb2b.com; www.acb2b.cn) are the most visited US-China business to business (B2B) platforms in China. More China suppliers visit AmeriChinaB2B’s websites than any other similar websites. AmeriChinaB2B offers three levels of services to help you to buy directly from China: Free Services, Serious Buyer Services, Completed Door to Door Services.
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