Illustration by Jeffry Tupa
The government-owned Chinese television, CCTV, deludes its viewers by broadcasting an interview of a college student who was appalled at pornography on the Web. CCTV was successful at criticizing and damaging Google’s reputation for its search terms suggesting Chinese pornography.
Once again, Chinese authorities use mass media as a tool to manipulate both its people and U.S. companies.
Google belongs to a growing group of U.S. Internet companies like Yahoo and Microsoft, who are pressured and forced to censor and cooperate with Chinese government efforts.
In 2005, Microsoft deleted the blog from political activist Michael Anti and China Yahoo (mostly owned by Alibaba.com) provided journalist Shi Tao’s information to Chinese authorizes which ended up putting him in prison for 10 years.
Chinese version of Skype has been modified to allow storing of user data on servers belonging to Chinese partners like Tom, a wireless and internet company.
“Companies are in constant tension with Chinese authorities, in which they have to distinguish between legitimate law enforcement/policy aims and ones that violate fundamental human rights of privacy and expression,” said Colin Maclay, managing director of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and works with Global Network Initiative (GNI).
Because of GNI, a non-governmental forum, Internet companies have become much more proactive in developing good practice with academics, human rights groups and investors, says Maclay.
China has the most sophisticated Internet filtering system. Five censoring methods that used in China are one-way Internet flow points, “packet sniffers” that inspect chokepoints, self-censorship from Web site managers, propaganda to intimidate users, and outside assistance from U.S. Internet companies.
Cartoon police, JingJing and ChaCha, are used on blocked sites to connect users to real police officers, which China has about 30,000 to 40,000 Internet police.
The government began enforcing surveillance of Internet cafes on the pretext of stopping prostitution, so that they can wire cam recorders to the nearest police station, making easier to trace Email messages. Chinese authorities have used the same tactic before in 2006 when China tried using online threats and vigilantism as a pretext to set restriction on users and search engines like Google and Technorati.
A new method China is trying to implement is preinstalled filtering software, Green Dam/ Youth Escort, in all computers. OpenNet Initative, lead by Toronto, Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford universities, found out that software causes Web browsers to shutdown without warning and would greatly increase the impact of China’s firewall.
U.S. officials told China’s internet agencies not to preinstall the filter because it would set trade barriers and violate agreements with the World Trade Organization (WTO).
“Green dam has been a reminder to all companies of the need to be proactive and coordinate responses to inappropriate demands,” said Maclay.
“Searches on politically sensitive topics such as Tiananmen and Taiwan and Tibetan independence are the most censored on Chinese search engines,” said Cynthia Wong, a staff attorney for Washington-based Center for Democracy & Technology.
On June 4, 2009, China blocked blogs and social-networking sites like Twitter to stop dissidents from organizing protest for the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
A great way to experience China’s filtered network is to download the China Channel ; works by using a Chinese IP address to run your Internet browser.
U.S. Internet companies have great potential in affecting people in China. According to the World Almanac and books of Facts 2009, only 222.5 million, 12 percent of China’s total population have Internet access.
“There are choices that technology companies can make to mitigate the potential human rights harm to their customers. For example, Google did not offer a localized Gmail service to people in China because they thought the risk to privacy would be too great,” said Wong.
As for Google, despite the Chinese government trying to damage its reputation with mass media, more and more Chinese are considering circumvention tools like proxy servers, Tor, PGP, Psiphon, Freegate/Dynaweb, or OpenDNS to bypass the Great firewall of China.
