The Importance Of Internet Censorship In China

Censorship is the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security. There are good reasons why censorship is used, such as some information might have to be censored for the content it might display and which in turn might cause a disturbance in peace. Countries try not abuse the fact they are allowed to do this because they are the ones who create the rules. However, China is abusing this fact and has been doing it to the point people are fearing what they can post or use on the internet. This issue was brought up in recent years because it has many different types of medians that were found in the New York Times. Firstly, the discussion

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

China is best known for its “Great Firewall in China” for blocking its citizen access to certain sites including: Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, The Pirate Bay, The New York Times, and Dropbox. Many have been able to get around this by using a VPN, a Virtual Private Network, and using services like Private Internet Access, a paid VPN. These act as a middleman, encrypting and sending your internet data to servers in the US, to see uncensored websites, allowing censorship to be destroyed

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.

This issue is very concerning for all of China because the government will not allow any opposition to itself. The government is not moderated and therefore has indefinite power. There is nothing to stand in the way of the government doing whatever they want. There are 420,000,000 Internet users in China. That is more than the entire population of the United States. Also, recently there have been some rally cries on the Internet in China that are similar to those of the Middle East/Egypt. China is becoming even stricter on the Internet usage policies because they do not want what happened in Egypt to spread to China. The government has also said that if any reporters come to the supposed rally sites they will either be deported or arrested and sent to jail.

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

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

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

The Chinese government had enforced these rules and regulations through blocking, filtering and shutting down Internet cafes. According to Amnesty International, the Chinese government routinely blocks news sites, especially those with dissident views or banned groups. Anniversary’s such as the 1989 pro-democracy protests are heavily guarded days that see increase Internet blocking. Internet blocking of major search gateways is also

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

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.

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.

An article, Google vs. China’s “Great Firewall”: Ethical implications for free speech and sovereignty states, "We should consider that Google is a private company, and thus it has to pursue profit maximization to survive in its fierce competition with other companies." Google in an effort to expand their markets and demonstrate prevalence over competitors offered their services to the lucrative Chinese market, and ultimately accepted to operate under China's government censorship. Thus demonstrated that the laws, regulations and circumstances of a country can affect the way an organization can communicate. In this case, Google’s decision to profit from this market weighs more than the censorship imposed by China.