China, Online Censorship, Tank Man photo

The Diminishing Returns of Tricking China’s Online Censors | MIT Technology Review: "... Censorship has forced Chinese activists to use increasingly obscure language on social media, isolating themselves from those they hope to reach.... Obviously, censorship and the subsequent ignorance it breeds hinders the effectiveness of these anticensorship tricks. For instance, the enforced silence of state media and China’s education system no doubt leaves many young people unaware of what happened on June 4, 1989. In a recent informal survey of 100 college students, only 15 recognized the Tank Man photo. Without a shared base of knowledge, what use are memes like the big yellow duck for reaching the masses?... (read more at link above)

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China trying to silence Dalai Lama in Tibet

China vows to silence Dalai Lama in Tibet - FRANCE 24: "China's ruling Communist Party aims to silence the voice of the Dalai Lama in his Tibetan homeland by tightening controls on media and the Internet, a top official said on Saturday. The party's top-ranking official in the Tibet region Chen Quanguo vowed to "ensure that the voices of hostile forces and the Dalai group are not seen or heard," in an editorial published in a party journal called Qiushi. . .." (read more at link above)

For more info about the Dalai Lama: http://www.dalailama.com/

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China, free trade zone, freedom for some

Facebook, other banned sites to be open in China free trade zone: report | Reuters: Facebook, Twitter and other websites deemed sensitive and blocked by the Chinese government will be accessible in a planned free-trade zone (FTZ) in Shanghai, the South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday.

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China, Internet Censorship

At Sina Weibo's censorship hub, China's Little Brothers cleanse online chatter | Reuters: ""FREEDOM MEANS ORDER" The Communist Party keeps an iron grip on newspapers and television but has grappled to control information on social-networking platforms. Internet firms are required to work with the party's propaganda apparatus to censor user-generated content. Lu Wei, director of the State Internet Information Office, said in a speech this week that "freedom means order" and that "freedom without order does not exist"." (read more at link above)

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Eric Schmidt calls for Internet Freedom in China

Kudos to Eric Schmidt!--

Eric Schmidt calls on Internet save China from itself - SlashGear: " . . . executive chairman of Google Eric Schmidt let it be known that he’s fearful of the control China keeps over its citizens in regards to the internet – and has called upon the rest of the world to have a discussion about what that country’s handling of the web means for us all. Saying China’s censoring and control of the internet is currently “the most egregious example” of a country keeping a fierce grip over its citizens access to the web, Schmidt made it clear that the recent hacking of the New York Times was an example of a very negative pre-cursor to Chinese citizen fear. This chat occurred at the Big Tent Activate Summit in New Delhi, India, this week with Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger. . . ." (read more at link above)


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Internet Fells Chinese Official

Tell-All on the Internet Fells Chinese Official
New York Times
While it was the party leadership that ultimately tossed Mr. Yi overboard, it was the Internet that sealed his fate. Over the past two months, a parade of corrupt officials have been exposed by enterprising journalists, anonymous tipsters or, in Mr. Yi ...

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China tightens Internet restrictions

The following must make the ITU and WCIT really proud--

China tightens Internet restrictions - Salon.com: "China has further restricted Internet usage, legalizing the deletion of posts or pages that contain illicit information and requiring all users to provide their real names to service providers. The new rules, issued on Friday, make it harder for businesses to protect commercial secrets and for individuals to access websites from abroad that the Chinese government believes are politically sensitive, The New York Times reported. The estimated number of Internet users in China has grown to more than 500 million, about 40 percent of the population, the Bangkok Post reported. While netizens are allowed to use pseudonyms, under the new rules they first must provide their real names to service providers, which is expected to stifle conversation on microblogging websites. China’s biggest Internet firm, Sina Corp, reported that the move would reduce traffic to websites like Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. Chinese authorities and Internet companies have always monitored and censored what citizens can say online, but now the government has actually put in place measures that would make deleting possibly controversial posts into law, Reuters reported."

Remember it was China (among other repressive governments) that supported the ITU's attempt to take over the internet at WCIT 2012.


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2 kinds of government oppression: China and the FTC

While the US Government (FTC) supposedly is going to sue Google (the only tech company to stand up to Chinese censorship), China has been busy censoring and cutting off Google from Chinese users--

Chinese government blocks Google.com, Gmail, Google+, Maps, Docs, Analytics, Drive, more  - The Next Web: "first reported by Chinese web monitoring site GreatFire, which summarized its findings like so: The subdomains www.google.com, mail.google.com, google-analytics.com, docs.google.com, drive.google.com, maps.google.com, play.google.com and perhaps many more are all currently DNS poisoned in China. Instead of the real IP addresses, any lookups from China to any of these domains result in the following IP: 59.24.3.173. That IP address is located in Korea and doesn’t serve any website at all. This means that none of these websites, including Google Search, currently work in China, unless you have a VPN or other circumvention tool. Using a DNS server outside of China doesn’t help. A lookup of www.google.com to 8.8.8.8 is also distorted, by the Great Firewall. So far you can still access other country versions of Google such as www.google.co.uk."

Why don't we send the whole FTC--commission and staff--to China!


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Internet Censorship in China

Wonder why so many oppose efforts by the UN to take control of the internet and impose censorship? Here's what is happening in China:

The Great Internet Firewall of China - Businessweek: "This time it’s the New York Times that has Chinese Internet censors raising the digital gates. Shortly after the publication of a lengthy article on Oct. 26 asserting that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s family members “have controlled assets worth at least $2.7 billion,” the media company’s English and Chinese websites were blocked within China. Then came the official government condemnation. “Some reports smear China and have ulterior motives,” foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular press briefing when asked about the censorship of the story. China’s Internet is managed “in accordance with laws,” the spokesman said. This follows an earlier online clampdown on Bloomberg LP, which owns this website and Bloomberg Businessweek magazine. Both its website and that of Bloomberg Businessweek have been blocked since Bloomberg News published a report on June 29 detailing how the extended family of Vice President Xi Jinping came to control assets worth $376 million. Xi is expected to take over from Hu Jintao as China’s next top leader at a once-every-five year Party Congress, opening Nov. 8 . . .  The rise of the vibrant Chinese net—with 538 million Chinese Internet users and 274 million individual weibo or microblog accounts—has certainly complicated things for China’s censors, however. That has led to something of a game of cat and mouse between Chinese who post comments and link to articles that have been blocked elsewhere, and censors who quickly scrub them from the Internet after finding them. With the publication of the latest New York Times article on the premier’s family wealth, the censors seem to be winning: All Weibo posts related to the piece are quickly being removed from the Web."

Every totalitarian regime in the world resents the openness and freedom of the internet--and the UN is guilty of being a tool used by the most repressive governments.  Keep the internet free!


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