Essay On Breaking Through The Great Firewall

Since early dynastic governments, China has monitored and controlled media to avoid the undermining of its authority. Some reasons for this censorship are well known by Westerners, others less so. In 221 B.C, Emperor Qin Shi Huang burned Confucian and Taoist books in order to rid the dynasty of different political perspectives. He did this not only to maintain order and unity, but also because he was impelled by other ancient Chinese values. Values that included a belief in state’s rights over human rights and the preservation of the dynasty at all costs. The more complex models of censorship used in China today were first used in the Soviet Union from 1922-1991 and are rooted in Marxist- Leninist thought. Westerners would be wise to consider China’s political history and deeply held social

No one wants to watch a video of people getting hurt and be manipulated into doing others work. That is why there are rules in place and why censorship exist, to keep the internet safe from such videos or pictures. A great example of why we need censorship is cyberbullying or cyberterrorism. If we did not have censorship in place this would get out of control and cause chaos. However, censoring to the point where people have no right to the freedom of speech is taking it to far. China has almost done this by removing almost all forms of communication besides texting, calling, and e-mailing. Their lastest move was the removal of the WhatsApp, it was a very popular app in China because of how well it was for communication and sending out information for others to see. While they did not fully remove the app from its place, they did however, reduce the usage by disrupting the videos, video chat, and picture function to the point of the app not being useful. WhatsApp is an app that was founded by Facebook and is now being censored by the Chinese. WhatsApp was Facebooks way in getting back into China, but because of government trying to get rid of it, the company has taken a major blow. Facebook only stake in the country is the Colorful Balloons app. This event has many featured articles that are relevant to the issue such as the “China Blocks WhatsApp, Broadening Online Censorship.” At first, users of the app were having disruptions when sending voice

In the book 1984, the government has control over all media “and so it was with every class of recorded fact, great or small. Everything faded away into a shadow-world in which, finally, even the date of the year had become uncertain” (Orwell 37). Due to the party’s restraint of all media, there are no actual certainty of written records. Without written records, no one knows if the government is being truthful about what has happened in the past. The citizens even question their memories and logic because there is no certainty of the past. Without records, the government can rearrange history however they please because there is no evidence to prove they are wrong. Similarly, in the article, “The Other Side Of the Great Firewall”, China has set up an immense system of “online censorship, commonly known as the Great Firewall, [which] blocks the populace from viewing material deemed dangerous to the state” (Beech etal 2). The chinese government has blocked the chinese citizens from being able to go on a variety of websites in order to protect China from western influences. Without certain websites, the government can regulate what their citizens can see and can hide what they don’t want their citizens to see. The citizens are being blocked from information that is considered dangerous to their government. The government continually will have total jurisdiction through the use of blocking websites

China today still follows a similar style of governing by blocking websites, altering news and punishing scholars (Buckley). In addition, due to the concealment of information citizens of China are living life in ignorance (Buckley). These actions might jeopardize the prosperity of China in the future just as it did during the Qin Dynasty. Ceasing media censorship now in China may benefit their society in the years a head due to all of the conflict in the apparent world around

Their system of filtering and censorship is acknowledged as the most advanced and effective in the world. The Chinese internet system includes about thirty-thousand censors, as well as having web browsers, such as Google and Yahoo, censor their results.10 For an average citizen to publish their opinions without either an elite free speech patron or a willing government publishing house, the safest method is to publicize their thoughts through an internet bulletin board system run by the Chinese government.11 However, these electronic bulletin boards are required by the law to be licensed, the posts monitored constantly, and any posts which are found to be “inappropriate” are removed. Any forums that are free from government censorship are forbidden, since the Chinese authorities refuse to recognize the rights of the citizens to publish their uncensored opinions. Furthermore, if debates over political or other issues begin to take a life of their own, they are commonly silenced by Chinese authorities.12 The Chinese authorities only permit these monitored bulletin boards both for their own benefit and because they recognize that there must be outlets for the average person to express their dissatisfaction with the government.13 Allowing the citizens to speak their mind functions to lessen the political tension, by acting as a release for their discontentment. These boards also serve as an excuse to deflect criticism by other countries, who complain that people in China do not enjoy freedom of expression. Additionally, they allow government authorities to monitor the mood of their people and to find weaknesses, both in the government and in their support. Finally, the bulletin boards allow government authorities to track those who express discontent, keeping their expressions visible, so the authorities can trace these

Censorship in China has gained much attention recently because of the conflict between Google and the Chinese government’s self-censorship policies. In fact, censorship has been practiced since ancient China and the intensity only increases by the years. Nowadays, the most notable measure of censorship is being done on the Internet. More and more restrictions have been put into actions by the Chinese government, which make the life of Chinese Internet users, the Chinese netizens, very inconvenient. With the intensity of censorship increasing and the censoring technology improving, Internet censorship has mainly negative effects on Chinese society.

The most common censorship method used by the Chinese government is IP blocking. This means that when a user requests certain IP addresses, access is immediately denied. A Harvard study, discovered that more than 18,000 sites are blocked; many of them top websites in the United States. A government sponsored news organization states that only “superstitious, pornographic, violence-related, gambling, and other harmful information” are blocked but critics have been quick to point out that many sites that do not fall into these categories are also blocked. Another Harvard study found that 13% of social media posts were blocked. These were posts by political activists that promoted or could conceivably incite collective action (such as riots or protests). Popular American social media sites like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook have been completely blocked, as have news organizations such as the New York Times. These websites have been recreated for the Chinese internet with censorship restrictions put into place.

China is one of the most controlled countries in the world. The Chinese constitution states that the people of China have freedom of speech, of the press, and of demonstration. However, this article in the constitution also states that the Chinese government has the authority to censor anything in the country when freedom of speech or of press could potentially be harmful to the country. So, in China, you are free to speak, but only about what the government says is okay to talk about. Also, protesting in China is a very dangerous task, as shown in the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989. But, in August 2009, Chinese Internet users were able to “indefinitely postpone” the use of censorship software on all new computers in China, called the

The Internet’s continuous advancement has produced the need for an on-going debate on whether or not the government should have the power to control the Internet. The idea of the government having control over what each country’s citizens can see on the Internet is also called Internet Censorship. Internet Censorship “is the control or suppression of the publishing of, or access to information on the Internet.” Internet Censorship varies from country to country depending on each country’s current usage and philosophy of how it should be used. (toptenreviews.com) Currently, there are ten countries including

In Egypt we saw the blocking of Twitter and Facebook happen; this seemed all too common and even fueled the emotion driven actions of the people not only of Egypt, but in Tunisia, Libya, Syria, and even into China later on. We saw countries pay their way out of the Arab Spring, block social media, and force propagandized local and international news. In the book The Dictator’s Learning Curve by William J. Dobson, there is a chapter where he visits China during the Arab Spring and states that CNN was blocked throughout China to stop any threats, and to stop the Chinese citizens from seeing the outside world with the current situation unfolding. Dobson talks about in his book how on edge some of the governments were when he was visiting; stating that Omar Afifi had several cell phones at which he could be contacted on and skype where officials kept him informed about the unfolding uprisings in Egypt.

In Communist China, thought confining and regulation for access to banned book are existing. The authoritarian government controls all the knowledge, spiritual and cultural disseminating channel, for example, media, publishing, films, drama, etc. (Chen 2006 p.5)

Autocrats suppress or censor information regarding the possibility of collective actions that disestablishes the regime, this process can be made disallowing website from operating in the country, blocking banned words and phrases, “hand censoring” (King et al., 2013), having their own social media (King et al., 2014) among other

In the United States, every child, teenager and adult uses Wikipedia, YouTube and Facebook, among numerous other sites, regularly. The internet is open and uncensored for the most part, other than parental controls. In China, most, if not all of those types of sites are or have been blocked. As in, you could not go to them, unless you found some way around the web filters and firewalls the Chinese government runs in their country. While China defends their practice of internet censorship, based on “protecting” the people, heavy internet censorship is a block to free speech and impedes economic and social development in the 21st century.

In, 2001, the Internet censorship laws went to the ultimate extreme. If state secrets are exported from China, the government can impose harsh penalties such as imprisonment and confiscation all belongings, and in extreme cases, the death penalty. In 2002, China banned those under the age of 18 from using Internet cafes. Internet cafe users are banned from viewing websites pose threats to “state security” i.e. websites with violence, sexuality, or heretic messages.

By having complete control over the few entities and their network connections, the Chinese government is able to monitor and regulate the Internet more effectively. Sherman, co-author of “Red Wired: China’s Internet Revolution”, explained that “China is not on the Internet, it's basically an intranet. Everything is banned by the Great Firewall”. Although Internet is accessible outside of China, the vast majority of the population refuse to use it because it is so inconvenient (Herold, 2012). For instance, recurrent time-outs, very slow Internet connection, and the content