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Beijing's censorship of the internet
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| 03 February 2006 |
By John Hill
The issue of internet censorship and monitoring in China came to the fore once again in mid-January 2006 when, at the behest of the Chinese government, Google launched a self-censored version of its search engine.
A few other states apply filtering to the internet - for example, the US monitors usage for security purposes - but the scale of the effort is different in China. Despite the huge and complex network of information accessed by the internet being almost impossible to police, Beijing has instituted a programme that comes close to accomplishing the task.
An OpenNet Initiative study reported consistent blocking of certain websites, such as those relating to the Falun Gong, the BBC, or Tibetan or Taiwanese independence. They considered that their results "demonstrate that China's blocking of sensitive content…. is extensive". The study noted the sophistication of China's blocking, which unlike in some states that seek to censor internet content does not usually result in any message that the site is prohibited, making the intervention easy to spot. Instead the Chinese approach delivers timed-out messages or http error codes, disguising the state's intervention.
These measures have proven effective in restraining some forms of internet usage, but in reality the internet is just too diverse to be able to censor it completely. Websites are likely to be shut down after a length of time to prevent long-term political proselytising. However, in the wake of major events, commentary often appears on web logs or entire sites dedicated to describing those events. For instance, following the uprising in Taishi, Guangdong province, several websites were created to follow the story.
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