Not Since the cultural revolution has the Chinese government worked
seemingly so hard to control the flow of information.
But as technology, especially the Internet, continues to connect the
world, censorship in the most populous country has managed to keep
up with rapid changes in technology, university researchers said in a study
this week.
“China’s Internet filtering regime is the most sophisticated effort of
its kind in the world,” said the report conducted by the OpenNet Initiative
(ONI).
ONI, comprised of researchers from Harvard University, the University of
Toronto and Cambridge University in England, said the Chinese government has
employed an elaborate system of government agencies and public and private
citizens to control access to information on the Internet.
The study found China, which has the second-largest population of
Internet users behind the United States, has gone to great lengths to clamp
down on the flow of “restricted information.”
The filtering takes place primarily at the backbone level of China’s
network, with individual service providers implementing their own blocking
systems, the study said.
The report also said that, unlike filtering systems in other countries,
China’s “filtering regime” is carried out at numerous control points and
appears to be dynamic in nature, “changing along a variety of axes over
time.
“China’s filtering regime is pervasive, sophisticated and effective,”
said the study.
Testing conducted by the group identified efforts to prevent access to a wide
range of “sensitive” material, including pornography, religious material and
political dissent.
At the government’s disposal in its battle are often its own agencies, as well as independent ISP who chose to restrict access to information on the Falun
Gong, the Dalai Lama, Tiananmen Square and other topics deemed sensitive,
the study finds.
Netizens seeking Web access to sites containing information relating to
Taiwanese and Tibetan independence, opposition parties and anti-communist
movements also found themselves blocked to the information, according to the
report.
Curiously enough, the report says, most American media sites such as CNN,
MSNBC and ABC were available in China. However, access to the British
Broadcasting Company (BBC) remained blocked.
The filtering process is also implemented in growing online communication
trends such as blogs, the study finds.