China's Censorship 2.0 (Green Dam update)

Chinaʼs Censorship 2.0: inside the “great ﬁrewall” Rebecca MacKinnon Journalism & Media Studies Centre, University of Hong Kong rmack@hku.hk Friday, June 12, 2009 1

2 (or 3) kinds of censorship Friday, June 12, 2009 2

2 (or 3) kinds of censorship • “Outside the great ﬁrewall” • Filtering of websites outside of China Friday, June 12, 2009 2

2 (or 3) kinds of censorship • “Outside the great ﬁrewall” • Filtering of websites outside of China • “Inside the great ﬁrewall” • Deletion of content on domestic commercial websites • Takedown of domestically hosted websites • Shut-down of data centers Friday, June 12, 2009 2

2 (or 3) kinds of censorship • “Outside the great ﬁrewall” • Filtering of websites outside of China • “Inside the great ﬁrewall” • Deletion of content on domestic commercial websites • Takedown of domestically hosted websites • Shut-down of data centers • New 3rd category: PC-level (“Green Dam”) Friday, June 12, 2009 2

The “Great Firewall” in action Friday, June 12, 2009 3

Filtering research: Open Net Initiative Friday, June 12, 2009 4

Human Rights Watch: search engine censorship research http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/china0806/index.htm Friday, June 12, 2009 5

Nart Villeneuve: University of Toronto See: http://www.nartv.org/writing/ Friday, June 12, 2009 6

Censorship by Chinese blog-hosting companies Blog post about “Tiananmen Mothers” Friday, June 12, 2009 7

Your post “Tiananmen mothers organization publishes a website” has been successfully submitted! Because it contains sensitive words, please wait for the community editors to approve it. Please donʼt re-post. Thank you. Friday, June 12, 2009 8

15 blog hosts tested, 108 valid tests Company A 60 B 44 C 34 D 31 NOTE: Company names have been replaced with E 27 letters due to concerns that companies who censor F 26 less will be subject to repercussions. Blog services G 24 H* 22 PUBLISHED PAPER: “Chinaʼs Censorship 2.0: How I 20 Companies censor bloggers.” First Monday. Vol. 14, No. 2 - 2 February 2009 J 19 URL: http://ﬁrstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2378/2089 K 17 L 13 M 9 N** 3 O*** 1 0 27 54 81 108 Number of blog posts tested Friday, June 12, 2009 9

Main ﬁndings • Censorship across 15 BSPʼs varied even more than expected • A great deal of politically sensitive content survives in the Chinese blogosphere despite censorship • Censorship methods vary greatly from company to company, implying companies have at least some choice Friday, June 12, 2009 10

Bao Tong essay blasting 1-party system (with his name removed): censored by only 2 of 15 Friday, June 12, 2009 11

Xinhua: Hu Jintao pep talk to Olympic athletes censored by Mop.com and Blogbus Friday, June 12, 2009 12

Xinhua: Hu Jintao pep talk to Olympic athletes censored by Mop.com and Blogbus Mop: “Sorry, your article has been sent to the recycling station, please revise it then publish again.” Friday, June 12, 2009 12

Conclusions • Network-level ﬁltering (“the great ﬁrewall”) is only one part of Chinese Internet censorship. • Domestic host-level censorship is not centralized. • Domestic host-level censorship is outsourced by government to the private sector. • Censorship is inconsistent - itʼs usually possible to post your content somewhere, for at least a while. Friday, June 12, 2009 13

Common Western view of Chinese censorship: “Great Firewall” is only part of the picture Friday, June 12, 2009 14

“Iron curtain 2.0” (h/t Lokman Tsui) Photo courtesy “PC ﬁsh” on Wikipedia at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Point_Alpha_Ostseite.jpg (GNU Free Documentation License) Friday, June 12, 2009 15

“Net nanny” Photo courtesy “merwing” at http://ﬂickr.com/photos/merwing/2569326878/ (Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license) Friday, June 12, 2009 16

Chinese web management: Hydro-electric engineering metaphor Photos: LEFT: “noelinthebahamas” on Flickr at http://ﬂickr.com/photos/noelinthebahamas/2417798169/ (Creative Commons BY-NC-ND) RIGHT: “yunmeng” on Flickr at http://ﬂickr.com/photos/yunmeng/323886547/ (Creative Commons BY-NC-SA) Friday, June 12, 2009 17

“Green Dam” software mandate: likely failure? Friday, June 12, 2009 18

Anti-censorship Protest video: “song of the grass mud horse” “cao ni ma” “grass mud horse” (alpaca sheep) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3tPA_Z_MT0 Friday, June 12, 2009 19

Anti-censorship Protest video: “song of the grass mud horse” “cao ni ma” “grass mud horse” (alpaca sheep) * Same sounds, different tones = “F***your mother” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3tPA_Z_MT0 Friday, June 12, 2009 19

Friday, June 12, 2009 20

Anti-censorhip meme: “River crab wears three watches” Friday, June 12, 2009 21

Anti-censorhip meme: “River crab wears three watches” “He xie” “Harmonious” “Harmonious Society” Slogan of President Hu Jintao Friday, June 12, 2009 21

Anti-censorhip meme: “River crab wears three watches” “He xie” “Harmonious” “Harmonious Society” Slogan of President Hu Jintao “san ge dai biao” “Three Represents” Slogan of fmr. Pres. Jiang Zemin Friday, June 12, 2009 21

Anti-censorhip meme: “River crab wears three watches” “He xie” “Harmonious” “Rivercrab” “Harmonious Society” Slogan of President Hu Jintao “san ge dai biao” “Three Represents” Slogan of fmr. Pres. Jiang Zemin Friday, June 12, 2009 21

Anti-censorhip meme: “River crab wears three watches” “He xie” “Harmonious” “Rivercrab” “Harmonious Society” Slogan of President Hu Jintao “san ge dai biao” “dai san ge biao” “Three Represents” “Wears three watches” Slogan of fmr. Pres. Jiang Zemin Friday, June 12, 2009 21

freedom vs. control Both photos in public domain via Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:T_Jefferson_by_Charles_Willson_Peale_1791_2.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alexander_Hamilton_portrait_by_John_Trumbull_1806.jpg Friday, June 12, 2009 22

Battle on the Chinese Internet Friday, June 12, 2009 23

China's Censorship 2.0 (Green Dam update)

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