China's censors tighten grip on Net

A Chinese technician details the secret and increasingly sophisticated workings of the country's censorship machine.

The story "China's censors tighten grip on Net" published October 10, 2007 at 10:05 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[mzs_biteme]

..and who's helping Chinese gov. do all that???

Article fails to mention that some of the biggest US companies like Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Cisco, and others are all lending Chinese government a "helping hand" by suppliying equipment and software to do all that monitoring... Business as usual, and hypocrisy at it's best....

[PzkwVIb]

You fail to take in to account

That if you wish to do business in a Country you are obligated to obey that countries laws.

Many people believe that giving the Chinese information about Western culture, even with strict censorship, is still better than refusing to do business there and alienating them from the all outside influence. This gradual battle for the hearts and minds, and increasingly the checkbooks of the Chinese people is the only chance these people have of eventually throwing of the yoke of their Communist oppressors and living free.

Isolating them from the world will not lead to change, or at least not any positive change.

[gggg sssss]

DMCA same thing

How is this different from DMCA takedowns, kiddie pron busts, phishing takedowns, hate speach takedowns, spam shutdowns, YouTube takedowns, homeless security montoring etc etc. $220,000 fines for putting music on the net. Just a different set of people claiming they are right and others are morally wrong. It can, is happening here too.

Now, I hapoen to agree with some of our censors mor ethan theirs, but that is just different shades of teh same thing.

[georgescott]

I agree

US Federal agents monitor forums and chat rooms, post the wrong thing and you end up on the no-fly list, doesn't matter if you are American or not there is no such thing as free speach, everything has a cost (sometimes the cost is not realized till later)