Internet Censorship in China Essay

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

The article advances its ideas by explaining each individual aspect of the censorship touching upon the groups and methods used to censor, the exact restrictions in each category, and the effect of the suppression on the citizens. Beina provides details about both sides of the restrictions, giving accounts from both the government and civilian side in order to give comprehensive coverage about the true situation in China. The Golden Shield Project also known as “The Great Firewall,” is the Chinese government’s way of placing immense internet restrictions on its citizens. The firewall applies methods such as keyword filtering, deep packet inspection, and blunt website blockage to ensure that western ideas do not make it to the minds of its citizens. This is comparable to the Fahrenheit 451 society where literal fire is used to block these ideas. In both societies the goals are the same; prevent values that are considered unideal from reaching its citizens. The similarities between these two societies continue into the ways that they restrict press. The CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) states, “the [Chinese] government employs a

This source relates to my research topic because I will be explaining how China is an example of a country using Internet Censorship. This article states the pros/cons that come with Internet censorship.

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.

In China, the Internet may not seem too censored, but it is. Nobody has access to anything unless it wants to be seen by somebody high up in the new government.

Now, many Chinese citizens are attempting to access these applications and searches without censorship by “connect[ing] to virtual private networks that provide them with communications channels to servers outside the Chinese mainland” (Bradsher 4). Though, many citizens have found loopholes in order to post their messages to these websites. For example, on Weibo (the Chinese version of twitter), if a user were to post using a specific keyword, the post would automatically be deleted, if not manually by a superior on the site if it slipped through the system. However, because the use of “abbreviations, neologisms, homophones, and homographs” by users, many political satirists, revolutionists, or regular citizens find themselves sliding through the cracks thus escaping the censoring governments reach (Wang and Mark 5). In addition, because the government also changes from time to time, a man named Yu Jia, a government critic stated that “Today's China is very different from Chairman Mao's China. I think then, it used to be like an iron slab, and there was only really one idea. It was completely impermeable. But now, it's more like a fishnet, and there are holes” (Jia, Han and Fu 4). This further proves the argument that legislation in regard to behavior online is too varied in

The Freedom of Speech is granted to every American citizen and has been since it was founded in 1776; however, not every nation grants that right. China, as a communist nation, retains most individual freedom rights from its citizens. Although in the Peoples Republic of China’s (PRC) 1982 constitution, people are guaranteed Freedom of Expression and Press; it is often violated by the current corrupt government. The government demands the news to be 80% positive and 20% negative, altering the facts n occasion. In contrast to that, America has recently become more involved with the pressing issue as well because of the involvement of Google. Thus it has shined the light on government censorship and corruption. China’s government corruption

The Worstall article discusses the strategy to end censorship of the internet in two ways. The first is to switch the Chinese search engine and then redirect users to a mirrored version (Worstall, 2015). Google’s settings are precise and competitive with numerous search engines such as Ask.com, Bing, Yahoo, to name a few. To bring down the China firewalls, Google has the capability to do so without interference from Chinese authorities, however, this is a big gamble for Google. Services such as Gmail have been difficult to access in the past, nevertheless, Google is used globally and “blocking the company entirely would have immediate and disastrous economic consequences” (Smith, 2013).

In the article entitled “China Congress: How authorities censor your thoughts,” it evaluates how the Chinese government has high control over the thoughts and actions of their citizens. In other words, China, being the communist country they are, authorizes the control of the media and does not allow certain things to be expressed, such as “a message featuring the name of this country's ever-more-powerful leader and his sometimes-used nickname Winnie the Pooh” would not go through. This censorship does not only affect social media platforms but extends almost everywhere, from Tv programs to texting, acting and to the press. Citizens in China aren't even safe with their very own texting device, WhatsApp, as it is monitored and “reported to relevant authorities due to new regulations”.

Corporations that move into China have long recognized that internet censorship is a fact of life. In 2006,

Google entered China in 2006 with high hopes of taking over the Chinese internet market. In order to become a major player for internet search engines in China, however, they had buckled and filtered search results according to the Chinese government. When Google.cn was launched, a loud public outcry over its giving in to the Chinese government on censoring and filtering search engine results, the company faced a communications crisis. Since Google had always been known for its free thinking, this seemed a vast contradiction. From a communications standpoint, Google’s greatest vulnerability in this crisis lay with a tarnished public image.

My research project explored the extent of internet censorship and its necessity to China as a form of societal protection. It discussed the advantages, disadvantages and impacts of censorship on Chinese society. As I researched the topic, I determined that censoring parts of the internet was more than just about protecting the young Chinese children from online predators and distressing content. My initial intention was to highlight the wrongfulness of widespread censorship however, as I researched, I was able to understand that censoring parts of the internet improved the Chinese economy, prevented cybercrimes from occurring while concurrently offering online safety. I discovered this by analysing several different websites, YouTube videos and conducting two interviews with people with expertise in the Chinese internet. My outcome, presented in the form of a feature article, explained that censoring parts of the internet benefits society more than it harms.

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 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.