CyberLaw Blog

Archive for the ‘China’ Category

CN – China tightens Internet controls in the name of fighting porn, piracy, and cybercrime: “(Rebecca MacKinnon)
China’s blocking of overseas websites – including Facebook, Twitter, and thousands of other websites including this blog – is more extensive and technically more sophisticated than ever. Controls over domestic content have also been tightening. The past few weeks have seen four new moves which are not officially or overtly aimed at political content, but which have implications for the way in which the government controls all conveyors of all kinds of speech. First, late November saw the launch of a mobile porn crackdown. The draconian way in which this crackdown is being implemented involves a great deal of collateral damage for non-pornographic content. Second, Chinese the state-run media is going after the search engines again for turning up smutty results when users search for smutty information. Third, last week the government shut down more than 500 file-sharing websites as part of an anti-porn and anti-piracy crackdown, on the grounds that these websites don’t have proper licenses. Fourth, CNNIC, the organization which runs the .cn top-level domain has announced that it is no longer accepting domain name applications from individuals.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

CN – Website porn tip-offs surge as China offers cash rewards to informers: “(Xinhua)
Tip-offs on Internet and mobile WAP sites containing pornographic contents have surged in China as authorities announced to give each qualified informer with up to 10,000 yuan (1,465 U.S. dollars) in reward. Since the announcement, the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center had received more than 13,000 online tip-offs and more than 500 phone calls, 10 times the usual daily number. The center, together with ministries and the National Office against Pornographic and Illegal Publication, issued a circular encouraging the public to report on websites and mobile WAPsites that contain obscene information or put on illegal advertisements of sex products. China has launched several rounds of crackdowns on online pornography. In mid-November, the crackdown was extended to WAP sites that can be accessed by mobile handsets.

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(Via QuickLinks Update.)

Opera plugs hole in Great Firewall of China: “

Facebook withdrawal ‘upgrade’

Opera has sealed the hole its Mini browser tunneled through the Great Firewall of China.…

Web threats: Why conventional protection doesn’t work

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(Via The Register – Comms.)

CN – China's Censorship 2.0: How companies censor bloggers: (First Monday)
by Rebecca MacKinnon. This study explores an under-studied layer of Chinese Internet censorship: how Chinese Internet companies censor user-generated content, usually by deleting it or preventing its publication. Systematic testing of Chinese blog service providers reveals that domestic censorship is very decentralized with wide variation from company to company. Test results also showed that a great deal of politically sensitive material survives in the Chinese blogosphere, and that chances for its survival can likely be improved with knowledge and strategy.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

IGF censors for China: “

Nice work lads, nice work

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has made a right mess of the opening day of its meeting in Egypt.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

China Bans ‘Pornographic’ Online Literature: “Chinese authorities have banned 1,414 works of online literature, saying all of it was deemed obscene.”

By Rhett Pardon, Tuesday, Oct 27, 2009

BEIJING — Chinese authorities have banned 1,414 works of online literature, saying all of it was deemed obscene.

Official news agency Xinhua said that the banned works either “included pornographic content,” “used provocative or privacy-violating titles to draw attention” or “blatantly talked about one-night stands, wife swapping, sex abuses and violence that disregarded common decency.”

The ban, authorized by the General Administration of Press and Publication and decided by 50 “experts,” affects about 30,000 links, Xinhua said.

That agency, according to Xinhua, also plans to establish laws and regulations on the publishing of literature online.

(Via XBIZ.com | News & Articles.)

China strengthens Great Firewall ahead of anniversary: “

Tor users targeted

The Chinese government has used its unrivalled net censorship apparatus to attack parts of the Tor network ahead of the 60th anniversary of communist rule, according to activists.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

China: Blue Dam activated: “

Beijing government has recently required all Internet service providers (ISPs) and data centers to install a software called Blue Dam in all their servers. According to todays Taiwan Apple Daily News, the Blue Dam has to be activated by today (September 13) or the companies have to subject to punishment.

The Blue Dam software can be downloaded from here. The Blue Dam is developed by Shanghai Andatong Information Safety Technology Company and ccording to a report back in July 2009, the Blue Dam is 20 times more effective than the Green Dam as it is a combination of software and hardware.

The Blue Dam system is consisted of the following features: a graphic-filtering system, administrative-management system, internet-behavior manager, VPN client. The developer said that the business version of the Blue Dam can help company to stop their workers from visiting websites or hanging around in the Internet on non work related activities.

Back in June, the Beijing government required international PC makers to equip their PC shipped to China with a filter software called ‘Green Dam-Youth Escort’ by July 1. The plan was finally dropped as the internet public opinion has strong reaction against the filter.

Now that the Blue Dam is installed at the ISP level without much open discussion. Netizens will be subject to censorship and online behavior control with little self-awareness.

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(Via Global Voices Advocacy.)

U.S. tests system to break foreign Web censorship | U.S. | Reuters

Thu Aug 13, 2009 7:09pm EDT

By Jim Finkle

BOSTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government is covertly testing technology in China and Iran that lets residents break through screens set up by their governments to limit access to news on the Internet.

The ‘feed over email’ (FOE) system delivers news, podcasts and data via technology that evades web-screening protocols of restrictive regimes, said Ken Berman, head of IT at the U.S. government’s Broadcasting Board of Governors, which is testing the system.

The news feeds are sent through email accounts including those operated by Google Inc, Microsoft Corp’s Hotmail and Yahoo Inc.

‘We have people testing it in China and Iran,’ said Berman, whose agency runs Voice of America. He provided few details on the new system, which is in the early stages of testing. He said some secrecy was important to avoid detection by the two governments.

The Internet has become a powerful tool for citizens in countries where governments regularly censor news media, enabling them to learn about and react to major social and political events.

Young Iranians used social networking services Facebook and Twitter as well as mobile phones to coordinate protests and report on demonstrations in the wake of the country’s disputed presidential election in June.

In May, ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, the Chinese government blocked access to Twitter and Hotmail.

Sho Ho, who helped develop FOE, said in an email that the system could be tweaked easily to work on most types of mobile phones.

The U.S. government also offers a free service that allows overseas users to access virtually any site on the Internet, including those opposing the United States.

‘We don’t make any political statement about what people visit,’ Berman said. ‘We are trying to impart the value: ‘The more you know, the better.’ People can look for themselves.’

In addition to China and Iran, targets for the FOE technology include Myanmar, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, he said.

Berman, however, said there would be modest filtering of pornography on the system. ‘There is a limit to how much (U.S.) taxpayers should have to pay for,’ he said.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle, editing by Matthew Bigg and Paul Simao)

China scales back censorship plans: “

Green Dam to now be voluntary

The Chinese government is scaling back plans for compulsory net filtering for all citizens.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)