Whenever Internet censorship is mentioned, the first country many people think of probably is China. Perhaps most Chinese people would feel mortified and helpless when it comes to the Great Firewall that is filtering everything online.
Four years ago, when western people talked about the strict Internet control in China, some Chinese would just shrug, because the situation was actually not as bad as western media exaggerated. Chinese users living in China mainland could still browse most of the foreign websites. Now, in 2009, the situation has completely changed: some Chinese popular literature websites have to close up regularly to avoid trouble; many websites either close up certain sections or invent some creative ways for users to register (so that it will be difficult for the Internet police to register); service providers have to stay alert all the time—once your users post something the government doesn’t like, you are dead! But even so, most users could still endure all mentioned above. The thing that really upset a huge number of people was that Google was asked to stop linking to all foreign websites—Chinese users cannot even see a snapshot of foreign web pages. At the era of web 2.0, when knowledge is supposed to be shared by the entire humankind, the Chinese government has deprived its people of the right of seeing the rest of the world.
It’s difficult to believe such thing happens in a society where around 300 million people are using the Internet. The question everyone would want to ask is why? The Chinese government said they have justifiable reasons. Chinese Central TV and related administrations accused Google of disseminating obscene information that are harmful to the harmonisation of the Chinese society. On Sina.com (the biggest Chinese news portal), 1256 people replied to an article saying Google is “fooling Chinese people and the government”, but only 40 feedbacks can be displayed—of course all the 40 feedbacks are supporting the argument of that article. Any one who has read the article would wonder if it was the same person—an Internet police perhaps—who wrote all those feedbacks.
Ordinary Internet users in China would definitely choose to enjoy the borderless information sharing. Who wants to be constantly constrained and monitored anyway? But unfortunately, the Chinese government choose not only to block the rest of the world out, but also to silence alternative views from its own people.
After the Nation Day on 1 October, the Chinese government promoted new filtering softwares to tighten its Internet control and most anti-filtering softwares became useless. Meanwhile, the US-based IT companies continue to release updated softwares like Freegate to allow users in China to breakthrough the Great Firewall. The technological war between the filtering and the anti-filtering softwares has risen to a higher level. However, when can the Chinese government realise strict internet censorship is driving its dream of building a harmonised society further and further away?
Interesting post.
ReplyDeleteAs I've mentioned in my blog: matt3010.wordpress.com, the nature of the Internet means that if there's a will there's a way.
Having not been to China and seen the firewall in action, I cant comment on how strict or successful it actually is. But the Internet is a mamoth realm of online opportunities, where individuals can pretty much access whatever they like.
Sure, governments, like China and now even Australia, put in place firewalls which aim to restrict access to sites deemed inapporpriate for whatever reason.
But how are effective are these measures? Certainly with the Australian example several well-known Internet and technology experts have spoken out labeling the Aussie firewall as a complete waste of tax payer money. If users want to access a website, they can and most likely will through proxy servers and by other means.
On the other in the lead-up to the Tiananmen Square anniversary a few months back it was widely publicized that a majority of the Chinese population either thought it didn't happen or that government action on that day was entirely justified. Whether these opinions are as a result of the Great Firewall of China, or a result of years of mass-media censorship, is difficult to contend.