In 2000, President Bill Clinton said China’s attempts at internet censorship were “like
trying to nail Jell-O to the wall”.
But actually, China’s authoritarian government has proven very adept at censoring the internet
and other media.
So what do they restrict?
Well, anything that questions or threatens the ruling Communist Party of China, including
any political, religious, and cultural information.
This applies to free speech, state and foreign media, in print and online.
Internet search results for terms like “democracy”, “revolt”, or “student strike” are
allegedly blocked.
Even information about politically-charged events like “Tiananmen Square” is restricted
because it shows a side of history that the government wants to suppress.
Chinese internet doesn’t look like the rest of the world’s internet.
It’s more like a closed-off bubble where only state-run websites and a few heavily-censored
foreign sites are allowed to operate.
Facebook and Twitter aren’t allowed in China, because of their alleged ability to “spread
rumors”.
Western news websites like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have also been
blocked for their reports mentioning Chinese officials.
Even Google search is currently blocked in China, after struggling with their censorship
rules for years.
Additionally, all pornography has been illegal since 1949, including online.
China has nine government censorship agencies, employing a reported 2 Million people as of
2013.
Programs which block IP addresses, reset connections, and filter web addresses are part of an overarching
blockade referred to as the “Golden Shield”, or, “the great firewall of China”.
The system works so well because, unlike American websites with Internet providers all over
the country, Chinese websites have a few major “bottleneck” points, which the government
can switch on and off at will.
News agencies are required to report only state-approved news.
And any reporter who covers a breaking story WITHOUT getting that approval, can lose their
journalist license, and even go to prison.
International books and movies are also edited before being released to the public.
In a recent James Bond movie, violence towards Chinese people and suggestions of government
corruption were removed.
Although censorship in China has largely prevailed, there are some signs that this will change
as opposition grows.
A prominent Chinese dissident and recent Nobel Peace Prize winner denounced China’s censorship
policies on a global stage.
Recent student protests in Hong Kong also illustrate some of the youth’s disillusionment
with their government.
Microblogs, which are a cross between twitter and blogs, have become popular places for
them to voice covert discontent.
And with the number of China’s online users ballooning from around 20 million in the 2000,
to more than 600 million in 2013, China’s “net of censorship” is reportedly feeling
the strain.
Freedom of the press in the United States isn’t really as free as you might think
either.
You can learn all about it in our video here… or if you want to learn about what free speech
really means in the country, take a look at the video from AJ+ below.
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