Internet closely supervised to keep communism safe -- Ascending Light

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 04:16:00 07/28/05 Thu
Author: Weird_Enigma
Author Host/IP: 172.156.166.139
Subject: Internet closely supervised to keep communism safe
In reply to: Weird_Enigma 's message, "Three Gorges dam forces water to fill with sewage, junk, chemicals" on 12:36:11 05/03/04 Mon

Internet closely supervised to keep communism safe

TIM JOHNSON
Knight Ridder

SHANGHAI, China - To get an inkling of how China controls and sanitizes the Internet experience, it helps to step into any Internet cafe in Shanghai.

Each incoming user must give a name and address, then hand over identification to a clerk. Closed-circuit TV cameras monitor from overhead. Every computer terminal is loaded with software to track all activity. If a user heads toward a prohibited Web site, cafe employees know right away.

"A blinking light goes off," said Lin Fusheng, owner of the sprawling Shigong Network cafe, off Shanghai's main pedestrian walkway.

The software also alerts authorities at a Shanghai municipal security post across town, and inspectors may drop in to check on the infractions.

These are only a few of the security measures that have created what some call a Great Fire Wall around the world's fastest-growing population of Internet users. China pours huge resources into filtering online content, stifling anything that might threaten Communist Party rule.

Sixty-four Internet users languish in prison for their writings. China blocks access to tens of thousands of Web sites, restricts Web searches and demands that all domestic Web sites and Web logs register with the government or face closure.

Even so, Internet usage flourishes. About 100 million Chinese are regular users, and the number is climbing rapidly. Drawn by gaming, Web logs, online forums and news sites, urban Chinese view the medium as a livelier alternative to tightly controlled newspapers and television newscasts.

"Certainly, people cannot access information as freely as in the U.S.," said Yan Xuetong, a professor at Tsinghua University. "But it's much better than without it."

In the 1990s, China veered from the path of other authoritarian nations, such as Cuba, where access to computers is severely restricted; or Saudi Arabia and Iran, which ban Web sites of a sexual or political nature. Instead, China saw the Internet as a necessary vehicle for economic growth -- but one that had to be tightly controlled.

So China decided to funnel all Internet traffic through six hubs, or electronic backbones, to maximize monitoring capabilities. In addition, multiple layers of security filter where one browses. Thousands of routers -- many bought from U.S. companies, such as Cisco Systems -- are programmed to block certain global Internet sites. Other software intercepts e-mail or bars users from Web pages containing certain key words.

Internet searches inevitably yield "error" messages when they're for information on the banned Falun Gong religious movement, Tibet or Taiwan independence, the Dalai Lama, anti-communism, the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and corruption in China.

A user who searches for such topics is put in a virtual "penalty box" that temporarily locks up a computer's browser. A second infraction triggers a longer lock-up.

"If you type my name into Google, you'll get a lot of links," said Yu Jie, a writer who's critical of China's political system. "When I click on one of the essays I wrote years ago, I can get it. But if I try to get one of the speeches I made in the States (last year), it freezes up. The whole thing freezes. I have to reboot the computer."

Many Chinese Internet users barely notice the restrictions; they're grateful to have expanded sources of information and entertainment. Millions of Web sites exist in Chinese, satisfying the estimated 80 percent of users who stick to regulated Chinese-language sites and rarely venture into the freewheeling global Internet.

But advocates of an unrestricted Internet say China has dashed hopes that pro-democracy, human rights and religious groups might find an avenue of free expression. Instead, they say, China is a model for other countries bent on censorship.

China's rulers foster the impression of an all-encompassing ability to monitor Internet usage. Arrests of Internet "subversives" are widely reported. And no one denies persistent but unconfirmed reports that as many as 30,000 government employees toil at monitoring Internet traffic.

"They want you to think that every bit of your activity is tracked. That's what has everybody nervous. If they say something in a chat room, will they get in trouble?" said Anne Stevenson-Yang, who until recently headed the U.S. Information Technology Office, a nonprofit trade group in Beijing representing U.S. information technology businesses operating in China.

China Rising

ABOUT THE SERIES | In coming months, Knight Ridder will examine China's mounting demand for energy, its military buildup, its environment, and the growing political and economic "soft power" it wields abroad.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Russia sells weapons to China -- Weird_Enigma, 12:56:14 10/03/05 Mon