If the government controls all the data links in and out of the country, and the top-level servers/routers all have backdoors monitored by the intelligence services, then doesn’t that scotch the idea that the Internet is a libertarian dream come true?
Most everything based on technology can be controlled by an oppressive dictatorship. You may as well say that because Cuba brutally censors books and newspapers that a free press doesn’t work. It doesn’t necessarily invalidate anything regarding the concept of the Internet. And as soon as some provider starts supplying satellite internet access to most of eastern Asia (IIRC there are at least 3 schemes to do so) it’s going to be much more difficult to block, other than a blanket jamming program, which has many technological problems as well.
Obviously the Internet can be free, I was thinking of all the claims that a decentralized system of packet-routing must be free; the famous quote of “the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it” for example. As for satellite internet access, I’m reminded of back in the Cold War: the USSR threatened some communications satellite company that if they allowed the footprint of their signal to overlap Soviet territory, it’d get blown up with an ASAT. The comsat company decided not to try their luck. Now satellite Internet is different because it would be a constellation in lower orbit, with the satellites constantly moving around. But the Chinese government could “suggest” that the satellites only respond to government approved access codes. If not, well guess which country is pushing to become a major space power in the 21st century, and demonstrated an anti-satellite weapon last year?
Despite having a massive department that deals with this stuff, The Middle Kingdom’s still doing a pretty piss-poor job of total censorship, considering that many sites that criticize them are wide open, and I can still access any site I want via proxy servers (very easy to set up). Sure, the majority of Chinese internet users will not make the effort to go around the simple barriers, but I know a surprising number of folks that do.
That number seems to be increasing…
Interesting. You would think that they would allow visiting businesspeople unfettered internet access in hotels, etc, and perhaps they do allow it, but how to block internet websites from some people and not all?
Also, since China has a flourishing black market, as countries governed like theirs tend to, it is really not surprising that people with internet access and a little computer knowledge are surfing wherever they please, as they should.
China has a different writing system than we do, so it would actually be possible to take China off the world internet by adopting domains that use Chinese characters. Nobody without a knowledge of Chinese and appropriate software could even type in the URLs. The same is true for Russia and their different writing system.
This could take Russia and China off the global grid and effectively establish stand-alone internets there. How they would keep computer-literate Chinese or Russians from surfing out to Latin alphabet domains is another problem, of course.
Not even close. URLs are just mnemonics to make it easier for humans to navigate the internet. Fundamentally, however, every domain resolved to an IP address. You wouldn’t need to type fancy Chinese or or Cyrillic characters to get to those sites, you need only point your browser to the IP address in question.
There is a website that will show you which sites are banned in China. It’s called the Great Firewall of China and can be accessed here. Oddly, I cannot seem to make it work now.
Thailand censors a lot of websites, but using a proxy is easy. But you have to get the proxy before the proxy’s address is banned! YouTube was banned for several months last year in Thailand, because of videos disrespectful to the monarchy, but I could still watch it through proxies. I didn’t think the Great Firewall site was banned, so maybe it’s not a working site anymore? Anyone else have any luck with it?
It is crazy to me as an American to think about the websites that are banned in other countries…it’s so…non-internet.
I hope and pray that everyone eveerywhere with internet access can surf wherever they please…
The tool that is the internet has done mankind a great service…it has literally made the world smaller and a more interactive place on a human level than any other transportation medium before it…
We can all communicate our thoughts and ideas on an unprecedented level throughout human history…this should not be disallowed by ANY government ANYWHERE.
It’s infuriating that other countries’ governments out of paranoia feel the need to “harness the masses” by exerting the type of oppressive control over their thinking that goes against every basic human concept of freedom of expression.
I hate it.
The internet is really an on or off proposition. Look at recent events in Burma for an example. The juanta had to shut down the internet, not censor it.
Living in China for many years now, I just don’t see internet censorship as being onerous. Let’s put it another way, I don’t bother to keep up with proxy servers that could allow to access all the blocked sites.
Granted that I don’t care about accessing information on falonggong, Chinese democracy movements, minority independance sites, etc. Some Asia specific porn sites are blocked, but at least to a casual purveyor there are *plenty * of unblocked porn sites.
I think at best that China has proven they can make some specific set of internet sites difficult to access. Censorship - not in a broad, over reaching, sheltering society kind of way - nah.
Or kinda off. Iran (which has copied much of China’s censorship program) did them one better by banning high-speed Internet access. So the Internet is still there, but if you want the BBC in farsi you have to find a mirror site and then wait an eternity for it to download.
Humorously enough, when I looked at that great wall site a long time ago it was Iranian sites that I had the most luck with in finding things that were banned in China.
I think you’re misinterpreting this quote. “The Internet” is free, and seems to be routing around China just fine to the extent that China censors what people within their borders can access. China can block themselves off from certain sites as much as they want, but they haven’t succeeded in censoring those sites, only in keeping some people from seeing them.
Well, it definitely happens, and in more countries than you might imagine. Here, it’s mostly porno sites, but some that are anti-monarchy or otherwise insulting to Thailand. Those latter are always from Thai-American citizens outside the kingdom; no one inside the kingdom would dare start up something like that (15 years in a Thai prison for each count of insulting the monarchy is the standard penalty).
Still, I don’t really surf that much for porn. I did use a proxy to see some YouTube videos when YouTube was banned, but I’m not really into YouTube. If I wasn’t told sites were censored, I’d probably not know it. I agree it should not be done, though.