China To Disable Great Firewall For The Olympics?

from the firewall,-what-firewall? dept

While the Chinese government has, at times, been known to deny that it censors the internet, it's a well-known phenomenon. In the last year or so, more and more details have come out about how the process works. Last fall a disgruntled censor explained the massive bureaucracy that goes into determining what is and what is not appropriate. There have also been reports noting the tens of thousands of people who are involved in censoring the internet, and how the system also relies on "volunteers" to both look out for "bad" content while also adding good content.

However, most of those reports focused mainly on the people side of the Great Firewall. Reader Jon now points us to James Fallows' more detailed look at the technological side of the Great Firewall, and the different methods that are used to block sites. Apparently, China has gotten a lot more sophisticated over the past few years in blocking sites. All traffic in and out of the country is monitored, of course, and it's now possible for the system to ban specific pages or articles that have objectionable content, rather than blocking an entire site (as it used to do). There are times when it will still block entire sites, but they can be a lot more narrowly focused. Another interesting point is that China is now using that same Firewall in two directions: if it doesn't want outsiders to be able to access certain documents, it will block foreigners from reaching certain sites within the country as well.

Perhaps the most interesting revelation, however, goes back to the ridiculous denials by Chinese officials that the Great Firewall exists. According to Fallows' sources, during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the Great Firewall will be mostly turned off, so that visiting foreigners won't notice any problems accessing foreign sites, and will (or so officials hope) tell people that the concept that China is blocking many popular sites is simply a myth.

Filed Under: china, great firewall, olympics, technology

Chinese Gov't Scolds Baidu For Not Doing The Impossible

from the you-must-block-all-of-these-pictures dept

Over the last few weeks, there's been a big scandal in Hong Kong concerning photos of certain celebrities caught in various states of undress and various "adult" activities. The police in Hong Kong have had some trouble dealing with this, apparently first claiming that anyone possessing these images was breaking the law and then bungling an investigation into who leaked the images. Now, to top that off, the Chinese government is "censuring" the popular search engine Baidu for allowing people to find these controversial images. It's not entirely clear how the government expects Baidu to simply know that these pictures are illegal and to stop people from finding them, but as we've seen, that's the method by which the Chinese government enforces its censorship -- not by explicitly stating what needs to be banned, but by telling search engines and ISPs that they'll get in trouble if they allow anything "bad" to get through. That leads to aggressively blocking anything that the ISPs or search engines feel might get them in trouble. Of course, to make that work, the government occasionally does need to publicly scold some of the firms for failing, even in doing the impossible, as that gives increased motivation for everyone else to just keep on blocking stuff.

Filed Under: censorship, china, great firewall, hong kong, sex scandal
Companies: baidu

China Likely To Ignore Its Own New Rules For Video Hosting Sites?

from the don't-want-to-scare-off-the-money dept

Just last week we wrote about China's new laws for online video sites that would require those sites to be government owned, as well as actively censor any content the government would prefer not be online. There was some fear over what this meant for all of the Chinese YouTube wannabes out there. However, it appears that most of the companies aren't all that worried, as they believe that China won't do anything to scare off venture capital money coming in to the various startups. If anything, those firms may need to "partner" with state-owned television stations, but otherwise should be allowed to continue moving forward. Of course, that same article says that the reason for this policy is that China is upset that people are watching online video rather than state-owned TV. If that's true, then it doesn't seem to mesh with the idea that the government will let things slide. Perhaps it just comes down to which is more important to the Chinese government: bringing outside venture capital into China, or trying to get more people to watch official government propaganda?

Filed Under: china, great firewall, video

Chinese Gov't Not A Big Fan Of User-Generated Video; Expands Great Firewall To License All Video Sites

from the bureaucracy-and-user-generated-content-don't-mix dept

It's well known that China goes to tremendous lengths to censor and block certain types of content online through a combination of tens of thousands of "internet police" combined with vague rules that are left up to various ISPs to enforce or face sanctions (meaning they tend to be even more quick to block than they may need to be). It appears that even that wasn't enough to deal with the rise of user-generated video sites in the country. The Chinese government has a new policy demanding that all video upload sites must get a license from the government, must be state-owned or state-controlled and (of course) must not allow any video that "involves national secrets, hurts the reputation of China, disrupts social stability or promotes pornography." As the article notes, this likely effects most Chinese YouTube clones (who are mostly private, rather than state-owned), though it's unclear how it will impact foreign sites, such as YouTube itself. The most likely outcome is that ISPs will soon start banning those sites completely in favor of the limited state-owned sites. Such is life on the internet behind the Great Firewall.

Filed Under: china, great firewall, video

The Bureacracy That Goes Into Censoring The Internet In China

from the tuttle-tuttle-buttle-tuttle dept

It's no secret that the process for censoring the internet in China involves a huge bureaucracy of people. Earlier reports had it at 30,000, though we've seen some reports that put it at 40,000 (yes, internet censorship is apparently a growth business in China). So, perhaps it should come as no surprise that there's quite a bit of bureaucracy behind Chinese internet censorship. Apparently a disgruntled censor leaked out the details behind the bureaucracy. Apparently, there are three agencies responsible for different aspects of online censorship: the Internet Propaganda Administrative Bureau, the Bureau of Information and Public Opinion, and the Internet Bureau. There's also the Beijing Internet Information Administrative Bureau to handle all the internet firms located in Beijing. It's all very organized. The Propaganda Agency is in charge of licensing news agencies -- but the licenses aren't to report news or do any, you know, reporting. The licenses are to report propaganda provided by the government. The Public Opinion group basically watches over what public opinion is saying and lets Party leaders know about it, so that a response can quickly be generated. The Internet Bureau, then, is where the real censorship takes place. As for the Beijing Internet organization, it meets with the big internet firms and tells them what news stories will be allowed or not allowed that week. There are a few other organizations involved as well, but the whole thing looks quite organized in trying to snuff out anything it doesn't like online. Of course, that doesn't mean it's particularly effective, but that's an entirely different story.

Filed Under: bureaucracy, censorship, china, great firewall, propaganda