SurveillanceChina clamps down further on Internet to prevent unrest
The Chinese government has eyed the protests sweeping across the Middle East and North Africa with growing unease; to quash the prospect of wide spread protests at home, the government has increasingly clamped down on the Internet and other forms of communication; access to Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have been blocked while government agents are more carefully monitoring cellphone calls, electronic messages, and emails; residents say they have never seen such high levels of censorship before
Te Chinese government monitors and blocks traffic // Source: chinaislame.com
The Chinese government has eyed the protests sweeping across the Middle East and North Africa with growing unease. To quash the prospect of wide spread protests at home, the government has increasingly clamped down on the Internet and other forms of communication.
China already maintains a strict policy that limits freedom of speech, but to prevent unrest from spreading the government has taken more extreme measures. Access to Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have been blocked while government agents are more carefully monitoring cellphone calls, electronic messages, and emails.
Duncan Clark, chairman of BDA China, said “We have never seen this level of control in the time I have been here, and I have been here since the beginning of the Internet.”
Google recently announced that the Chinese government had disrupted service to its Gmail service and falsely made it appear as if it were simply a technical problem with Google’s servers rather than government censorship.
Gmail users started experiencing service interruptions at roughly the same time that anonymous messages began appearing online urging people to join in mass protests against the government. After receiving several complaints, Google engineers investigating the service outages determined that there were no technical difficulties and that the Chinese government was interfering.
In addition several virtual private network services (VPNs) have also been shut down. These networks allow users to browse the internet freely without censorship or “opinion guidance,” which limits what a person can read or write online. VPNs are widely used by researchers, expatriates, and students.
WiTopia, a popular VPN, recently apologized to its customers in China citing “increased blocking attempt.” The network did not specify who was responsible.
According to Hu Yong, a media professor at Peking University, the long list of keywords that is banned on the Internet has grown in recent months. For the past six months, users have had the word “freedom” blocked on their search engines.
“The technology is improving and the range of sensitive terms is expanding because the depth and breadth of things they must manage just keeps on growing,” Hu said.
The New York Times reports that two members of its Beijing bureau had telephone calls cut off after mentioning the word “protest.” Members of the press often face closer scrutiny, but the incidents suggest tighter government censorship.
It is uncertain how much more the government will do in terms of censorship, but analysts say that the government has the technology to do even more.
Bill Bishop, an Internet expert in Beijing, said, “There’s a lot more they can do, but they’ve been holding back.”
