So About That Plan To Drop The Great Firewall For Olympics Reporters? Yeah, Forget That...
from the whoops dept
Back in February, there were some rumors making the rounds that the Chinese gov't was planning to drop its "Great Firewall" of internet censorship, to make sure that reporters had full access to the internet as necessary. Then, in April, the International Olympic Committee specifically asked government censors to drop the filters during the Olympics. Even that request seemed sketchy, as the IOC said that leaving the filters in place would "reflect poorly" on China. I would think that having the filters in the first place (and putting them back after the Olympics) would also "reflect poorly" on China, but that's a separate discussion.However, what really does reflect poorly is the news that China hasn't dropped the filters at all. Journalists are complaining, but apparently the Chinese censors and the IOC have come to a compromise: China won't censor any Olympics websites. Unless they mention Tibet or something. In other words, China hasn't really loosened the Great Firewall at all.
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Filed Under: censorship, china, great firewall, olympics, reporters
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Idiot government bs
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re: China hasn't really loosened the Great Firewall at all.
I mean its a fricking dictatorship for crying out loud, censoring is part & parcel of what dictatorships do.
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Re: re: China hasn't really loosened the Great Firewall at all.
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Sharing the plight of Hapless Chinese!!
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It's easier to tell people that foreigners are making stuff up than it is to tell them why you felt you had to censor them.
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censorship
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Re: censorship
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fchina.org
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- point made!
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Re: censorship
If not, I don't see the censorship... (on the internet)
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Olympics in China?
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Re: Re: censorship
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Re: Re: censorship
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Re: Re: Re: censorship
I found this 2 links away from your wikipedia link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_United_States
"Personal Internet access in the US is not subject to technical censorship but can be penalized by law for violating the rights of others"
The "violating the rights of others" portion deals with piracy (software, music, etc)
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Re: Censorship
But nope, we get smog, censorship, and oppression. WTFG, IOC.
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Re: Re: Re: censorship
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Up next
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Re: Re: Censorship
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The smart move for the press...
Of course this could have bad effects in the eyes of pointy haired bosses that don't want employees surfing at work, since TOR blows through most firewalls. However, since news lately is 95% plagarism, and 5% brick pounding (sad), publishers shouldn't have a problem with this.
If you are reading this from some place with a bad wall, get over to http://www.torproject.org/ and get equipped.
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Going out on a limb and guessing you have never lived in China. Nor studied it. Nor have a clue what "dicatatorship" means.
I believed they would relax the filters for the Olympics, as did Mike, if I recall correctly. Even the cynics can understand how a lower presence of state control during the Olympics would be good for China's international perception, which is something the party is deeply concerned with. But even if not for self-interest, I saw for a year how on an almost monthly basis the party was making reforms which brought it closer to Western governments.
The easiest changes to spot are in the business sector where the government is making efforts to reduce corruption and enforce rule of law. If you're actually interested in knowing more about China here's a great blog to start with: http://www.chinalawblog.com/
"I guess someone in China finally realised that if they drop the firewall, even for a short while, then citizens are going to realise just how much censorship is going on."
They realize quite a bit, they just don't care. Why the Great Firewall is so effective. It doesn't stop them from getting up, going to work, and coming home. Just like Americans keep on trucking with only minor annoyance when they are restricted from buying alcohol during certain hours, ticketed for fishing without a license, or arrested for verbally "assaulting" someone.
Immediately the American reader cleaves a difference in these personal freedoms and the right to political expression because that value of free speech is engrained in us in every mandatory history, government, and social studies class we take in k-12 and college. Chinese people have other values ingrained in them, and this accounts for why they don't understand why Westerners won't shut up about the "oppressive government" they love so much. China's Loyal Youth.
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US censors a lot more than many think...
First of all, that alt.* Usenet block that all the major ISPs are getting strongarmed into is a lot worse than it sounds. Usenet has 8 formal categories of groups, and then alt, which is basically the "everything else" category. As you might expect, there's quite a lot of everything else - about 100,000 groups in all. Each group acts independently, so to put that in web terms, 100,000 entire forum sites are being blocked, due to the lawbreaking actions of 88. That's not trivial by ANY standard. It's true that there are hundreds of small Usenet-only services you can sign up for, including some that are very cheap, but the simple fact is, most people don't realize this. Experienced Usenet users all have a favorite newsreader (program written specifically to access Usenet) and a dedicated server they use, but more casual users generally do not, and NEW users almost never do - and remember, if the only way you know of getting to the network is blocked, and you've never used it, you'll never see the value of having access to it... and certainly won't pay for a good feed.
Usenet was created pretty much with the sole intent to democratize the internet. This was especially important before the public web, but it still matters now. It costs absolutely nothing to start a group. If you have a topic, no matter how obscure, and can find even a handful of people that will announce they'd be interested in a group for it, one will be created, at 0 cost of money OR time for the person making the group, and other than the initial drive to get the group up and running, the creators don't have to do ANYTHING to keep the group alive, so long as some activity remains. I know of one group that's over 15 years old, likely doesn't have a single original member. The group is literally older than the web, yet it's still active. This is by no means a unique case. Modern forums may have far more features than a Usenet group, but they simply don't have that kind of staying power... if the admins stop having the time or money to maintain their site, it dies... and if they never get the money in the first place, they can't run their site.
The mandatory use of blocking software in schools and libraries is further censorship, and a lot more direct. Keep in mind that for many poor users, they may not have 'net access outside of libraries and schools, as it's one more bill they simply can't afford to pay. No matter how much people want to think otherwise, blocking software doesn't just stop porn, it blocks many, many things it shouldn't, and in almost all cases, was written with a political agenda, as the programs have very, VERY few voluntary users. If you don't believe this, head to the nearest censored library and try loading up major websites for a few random religions. I'm sure you can guess which 2 aren't blocked.
With each passing bogus law, we've slid a bit further down that slippery slope, and what right now might be an amount of blocking that most people won't encounter most of the time can rapidly spiral into our own Great Firewall. The precedents that are being set now are what politicians in the future can build on with politics that rely entirely on isolated moral outage and plain old FUD.
So yeah, compared to China, we really are the land of the free, but if we don't fight the attacks on those freedoms that are occurring NOW, it's going to be much, much worse if we wait until Great Firewall comparisons really do become valid.
Two really useful sites are eff.org (for actually fighting the laws, as well as staying current on whatever BS is currently being proprosed) and peacefire.org (for helping specific people get around censorware.) Groklaw and of course Techdirt are extremely useful for info as well.
As for China and the Olympic thing, this one can be filed in the "well, duh" section. The reporters also better make sure they stay in officially sanctioned areas when reporting on the games, so they don't get into any "unfortunate accidents."
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Re: Re: censorship
Now they just shut down, but for a while you could get to it if you weren't in the US. Same with www.demonoid.com, but they are back up now.
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Last Chinese games
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Amen Number 23
Perhaps they are ethical right now, perhaps they might be ethical in 5, 10, maybe they will be ethical in 20 years. But how long before its expected, and the next president takes it an inch further, just another inch, inch, inch, inch. Back to the 1500's.
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Same as it ever was
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Re: Re: Re: Re: censorship
Nah, just the threat of constant legal harassment by an out-of-control government official.
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3 and 29
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Re: censorship
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Freedom of speech? Nah!
The staging of a Games is a simple business contract. If China attempts to break that contract it is up to the IOC to enforce it.
Gosper - an IOC member from Australia - has the responsibility to oversee the communications network serving the Games. Gosper is a self-aggrandising wannabe. Nobody in Australia has forgotten Gosper pulling rank to get his daughter to lead off a leg of the Sydney torch relay and bumping aside another very disappointed torch carrier.
This gambit is lost.
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Olympics
Can you honestly tell me no one considered these problems years ago.
This is what the IOC gets for electing to hold the games in a country which censors their people.
Honestly, it is to the point I think national leaders and unfortunately, the great athletes, should reconsider whether they should even attend.
I have always looked forward to the Olympics, the competition, the comraderie, but this year I may boycott.
Guess what China, it is my RIGHT!
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Sports Or Politics!
In addtion, some media and people keep saying that China government is taking advantage of this Olympics event to boost China image as a modern China,however, do they understand that the Chinese people wants to showcase the new and rapid chaning China to the world through this event as well? It is obvious to see that when the pro-Olympics demonstration in China and other places took place in the Olympics torch relay.
Please talk about the politics in the political arena!
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Charming Charlie
I enjoyed your comment. You captured the mindset of both the Chinese and Americans. If you take an ordinary day like the one you just described...that is exactly what happens in both China and the US. Work, eat, play, and sleep. Nobody is concerned with how "bad" their own government is doing as long as they feel safe, secure, and have all the necessary public services they think needs to be provided by their government.
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China is China, not U.S.A.
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Prevention
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