Chinese Invasion

There was a recent article on CNN.com titled “China Bloggers surpass 30 Million”. Following this, there was another one titled “China ponders giving blogs a name”.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/10/22/china.blogs.reut/index.html

The Internet Society of China has suggested that in order to standardize the blog industry, it should be required that bloggers register with their real names, using pseudonyms to post their writings. The article suggests that “a real name system is inevitable”. The reasoning for this is that bloggers who publish untrue information have a negative effect on the society in China.

Well if you are in China, a suggestion like would not be received as a revelation! China has always exerted control over information channels.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1999/09/99/china_50_years_of_communism/454345.stm
“In China, the media is looked on as a tool that the government must control in order to keep the country and the economy stable.”

Cnn.com put up this interesting bit about what’s going on in China. CNN.com

Here are a few key points:

1. China has developed technology to intercept and block information that is deemed sensitive or controversial. Content in web pages, blogs, email are all filtered by state agencies. “The Central Propaganda Department makes sure content providers stick with material that is consistent with Communist Party ideology.”

2. Western corporations provide the services to fulfill China’s internet system requirements. Yahoo and Google have reworked their search engines to go along with Chinese filtering policies.

3. Internet providers and cyber cafes maintain a log of the user’s activities and are required to report any misgivings to the authorities. “ISPs can be held legally responsible if customers use their systems to violate laws.”

4. “Every Chinese person who signs up for Internet service must register with his or her local police department within 30 days.”

5. In order to filter, the technology is used to scan emails to check for objectionable content. Well if a user requests for banned content or URL, they are automatically disconnected or simply blocked!

There are bunches of ways to circumvent these filtering systems (at the above link). I mean sure where there are rules there are rule breakers.
China has been condemned by human right agencies and organizations like Reporters Without Borders. “China is the world's second-largest Internet market. It employs an estimated 30,000 people to trawl Web sites for subversive material and is a leading jailer of journalists, with at least 32 in custody, and another 50 Internet campaigners also in prison, according to Reporters Without Borders.”
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/10/31/china.web.freedom.reut/index.html
As the article states, the western agencies that provide China with technology to support its filtering practices, have received much heat over web freedom.
Google too has been at the receiving end. The activists argue that by making available technology to filter content, companies such as Google are encouraging China’s conservative policies.
http://news.com.com/Google+to+censor+China+Web+searches/2100-1028_3-6030784.html
Reporters Without Borders refers to China as the "world's biggest prison for cyber-dissidents." Probably quite rightly. Any journalist is bound to be bothered by this. This level of control should seem absurd to even students of media and journalism. Where do concepts of freedom of speech and right to information come in? What I am wondering is (in keeping with the content of this blog) where are concerns of privacy?
Well one thing is that China is a Communist state where all agencies are fairly controlled. Then it is not unusual for such measures. Democratic states like America, India, wouldn’t be able to get away with it as it violates the very essence of democracy. Freedom of speech, right to information, right to privacy, then are largely governed by well… the nature of the government in place? If America wasn’t a democratic state, would it also be as assertive?? I wonder though if they don’t have their own control systems…
Well as they say, ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans’, so if you ever plan to surf while in China, here are some keywords you should probably stay clear of... :)
Revolution
Equality
Freedom
Justice
Taiwan
Tibet
Falun Gong
Dissident
Democracy
STD
Human rights