Chinese government to Web companies: No porn allowed
In what amounts to a thinly veiled legal threat, the Chinese government has intensified its campaign against sexually explicit material online by instructing companies, including Google, to curb the availability of pornography.
Monday's announcement from a collection of seven government agencies singles out 19 sites as unlawfully providing access to "vulgar content." On the list: Google's Web search and image search, Baidu.net and the company's blogging site, and Sohu.net. (Google has denied any wrongdoing.)
The announcement from the State Council Information Office is billed as a "nationwide anti-crime" initiative, and urges the public to report illicit posts and Web sites. The state-controlled China Daily said that the companies named on the list "have been found to spread pornography and threaten youth's morals." It also warns that a regulatory crackdown may be coming.
While politically themed Internet censorship in China has received most of the attention--news sites and human rights sites are frequently restricted--the country's ruling Communist Party has long been interested in stamping out smut too. A CNET News article from as far back as 1996 said that Chinese Internet users were asked to "sign a set of rules that makes it illegal for users to produce or receive pornography."
More recently, the public security ministry said in 2007 that it would target porn, online strip shows, and even erotic stories. Some of the electronic barriers came down during the Olympics last year, only to reappear in the last few weeks.
Along the way, Chinese officials have made some bizarre statements. At an international Internet summit in Athens, a government representative told an incredulous audience: "I've heard people say that the BBC is not available in China or that it's blocked. I'm sure I don't know why people say this kind of thing. We do not have restrictions at all." (That statement would come as a surprise to Falun Gong practitioners.)
If this were simply political speech, no doubt members of the U.S. Congress would be tempted to convene ritual hearings where China, Google, and various other companies could be ceremoniously denounced in front of the cameras. But because we're talking about porn, a Senate resolution applauding China's censorial policies is probably more likely.
Declan McCullagh, CNET News' chief political correspondent, chronicles the intersection of politics and technology. He has covered politics, technology, and Washington, D.C., for more than a decade, which has turned him into an iconoclast and a skeptic of anyone who says, "We oughta have a new federal law against this." E-mail Declan. 
They claim free speech. As saying "In the United States we have free speech except for threatening and few others." By further analyzing this with the rules we have here, "In the United States we have free speech except for threatening, libel, slander, copyright violation, commercial regulated, spam regulated, child porno, cyberbullying, etc. etc. etc." It's probably better to say, "In the United States we don't have free speech, except for a few acceptable exceptions that meet the government standards."
The difference between China and United States is that China is explicit in their stance and actively block information to prevent crimes. The United States does not explicitly block and rave about free speech but when it gets to court, it is always in favor of the attorney general. For every 1 successful free speech case in the United States, there's 7 that was criminalized.
Bless American's free speech. Blah ....
That's what is wrong with 99% of American educated or lack therefore. Free speech is not about someone listening and reacting to the speech, it is about speaking of ones own idea.
There is nothing in free speech that says anything about the person receiving the speech. It's like blaming the author who wrote how to commit suicide. When someone picks up his book and use the method in it to commit suicide. Is the author to be blamed for his speech?!?
We have so many people who lack the forethought and education to understand the meaning of free speech, and always run to the government to create more laws to restrict the rights of a free man.
We have a long way to go educate the mass about free speech. Not only our people but the people of other countries.
Just like any corrupt government, they crack down on others that are circumstantial to the real problems that plague the corrupt system within.
Tho I understand your sentiment, I think you underestimate the sacred nature of free speech in this country, even among religious conservatives. It is true that many conservatives believe pornography to be morally debasing for both the participant and the viewer. For this reason, they strongly support censorship of explicit material in public places, and restrictions on access by minors. But if you ask most Americans, religious or not, conservative or not, if they support free speech and freedom of expression, you will receive a resounding "yes." If you then remind these same people that such freedom makes porn possible, they'll accept that fact grudgingly in view of the greater good. In short, tho there are those in the Senate who would willingly outlaw porn, the Bill of Rights prevents it, and human rights in China is what this is really all about. China are still commies and porn is apple pie. ;)
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=19031
25% said ?the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees,? well below the 49% recorded in the 2002 survey that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, but up from 18% in 2006.
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=20534
62% would require an equal allotment of time to conservative and liberal broadcasters from newspapers, which never have had content regulated by the government.
31% would not permit musicians to sing songs with lyrics that others might find offensive.
The 2008 survey says that 39 percent of Americans believe that the press has "too much freedom." Only 32 percent strongly agree that people should be able to say things publicly that may offend religious groups.
While the U.S. is not nearly as free as it's people have been led to believe, at least you don't get tossed in jail or hung for telling our leaders what complete and utter buffoons we think we are; or get tortured for getting caught with a copy of Maxim.
I still cannot believe that we do any business with them at all. I really think we should put them on the do not trade with list. But that will never happen. The labor over there is too cheap.
I agree. There are other nations who also have cheap labor, but dont steal our secrets or train for war against us. We could speed up their collapse greatly if we limited trade with China. But, alas, there's too much money being made over there by westerners for that to happen.
maybe our goverment should do the same or something simliar and stop this amazing sinful scene. no wonder the us is being so attacked. it's just like the bible times. this is just another reminder of the end of times. unfotunately, this is NOT going to happen and evil and dirty things among all the people will continue and that's ok because it is also prophecied in the scriptures, it's going to happen. i remember reading somewhere in the scriptures about the people -not us the white people- will grow like the rose, and will become stronger than us. that's scary!
free speech or not, i guess we have here free agency to choose whatever we want but... that's it... but! that is a diferent story.
anyway, bottom line is this, chine is doing good but when you are forcing people to obey is another thing and afterthat, things get worst. and when you give the people too much 'freedom' also people abuse of these things. good luck to China and good luck to us in this country too.
But google is not a Chinese company, therefore China's state has no right to dictate to google anything. I could care less what China does to their own people or companies as long as its confined to their own borders. When China buys out google then its ok for it to say whatever. If they don't like it, they can block google and create a state sponsored search engine for China.
You still don't get it. China is not telling anyone what to do outside it's borders. They don't care what US or EU or anyone else does on the net. They just don't want unlawful content distributed INSIDE China. Many in the US would happily do the same thing if not for that bothersome first amendment.
Why would you want to see flag draped coffins? If I get killed in Iraq I don't want my coffin to be displayed for people to see, and I'm sure there are many others who would agree.
Gov't does not sensor mass media, mass media sensors itself based on political viewes of a specific network.
I'm not afraid to speak. Perhaps you're too paranoid to think that someone is listening on your phone conversation, but I know no one really cases about what I say on mine.
If you hate this country so much, why not move elsewhere? Seriously.
China knows what it's doing, it knows porn is not evil and it knows it can't stop it, it just putting on a front that it can, they don't dare do anything rash anymore, HEY China do you remember when you try to limit HOW LONG PEOPLE CAN play Video games?? Yeah, I remember you were scare s* less, when 100k people came out in the government offices huh.....Yeah you remember... So I tell all these people that don't know.... I know what your doing, it's cool, go block sites, whatever, You go change at your own pace, not like most of your people know how to use the internet anyways more less computers....
Still, unless I misunderstand the article, how can China tell google what to do and what not to do?
China can tell Google or any company in the world the same thing. 'If you want to do business in China, you will do as we say, period.' Why is because they have the power to enforce it and the people have little to say about it.
Google is perfectly free to stay out of China if they wish. They also have the technology to adapt their programs to the rules of whichever country they are in. Even some EU countries have stricter rules than the US, ie. selling Nazi paraphanelia on Ebay is banned. These rules only affect people within the specific country.
In that case, a country has the right to do whatever they want to do as a soverign nation.
Matthew 23:27-28 27 ¶ "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. 28 "Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Matthew 23:4 4 "For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
- by 3rdalbum January 7, 2009 1:36 AM PST
- It's pretty bad that China is doing this. I installed the China Channel plugin for Firefox and tried to go to The Hun, and the commies blocked my access through the China Channel proxy. So yes I can confirm that porn is already being blocked in China.
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(26 Comments)What's even worse is that the Australian government is planning to install a China-like filtering system this year. For more information see nocleanfeed.com. While I would expect the inhumane Chinese government to filter out everything, I would not expect the Australians to do so.