Is CNN trying to get itself blocked too? They are like the last one (besides Fox News) that aren't.
Great Firewall rising: How China wages its war on the Internet
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Re: Great Firewall rising: How China wages its war on the Internet
#12Honest question: what is it that Chinese officials fear would happen, if they let their citizens have free access to the internet?
At the very least it would undermine the leadership's ability to mould Chinese society (culture, thoughts, values) how they see fit.
Have a read of this recent article by the BBC to learn the silly (by our standards) lengths they go to guard the myth/backstory of the President ....
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34549744
The journalists were amused by the length they were willing to go to precisely craft the creation myth of Xi. The journalists got the impression that all the visitors/pilgrims they saw there were actually security personnel dressed up.
Re: Great Firewall rising: How China wages its war on the Internet
#13Trust me CNN, it is hardly different from how we wage a war on the Internet (CISA, CISPA, TPP and what not). Do you not use that ton of cruft on your site with similar designs?
It is different - US is chasing monetarily goals mostly and NSA want to read everything. Chinese are trying to prevent thought crimes and political discourse. Although there are few isolated cases where DMCA was abused to stifle discourse, they are far and between.
> "Want to read everything"?
How is NSA wanting to read everything (if they don't already) any different from Chinese authorities reading everything?
Different my foot.
Looking at the quality of discussion here it seems we're living in that dumbfuck's paradise. For they say: when you are dead, you do not know you are dead. It's only painful and difficult for others. The same applies when you are stupid.
There is little difference in intent, monetary pursuit, lust of power, size of investment and scale of techniques used by either centre of powers. For exactly the same purpose.
Re: Great Firewall rising: How China wages its war on the Internet
#14Honest question: what is it that Chinese officials fear would happen, if they let their citizens have free access to the internet?
Public discourse that was not within the control of the government. Not even a particular outcome, as such, but simply a discussion the development and outcome of which was beyond their control.
Re: Great Firewall rising: How China wages its war on the Internet
#15This is the same China whose central government, officially an atheist state, claims authority on deciding who the next Dalai Lama will be reincarnated as -
http://time.com/3743742/dalai-lama-china-reincarnation-tibet...
I'd love to hear perspective on this matter from people closer to the source.
Re: Great Firewall rising: How China wages its war on the Internet
#16Honest question: what is it that Chinese officials fear would happen, if they let their citizens have free access to the internet?
In the west, the thing we value (or should value) above everything else is freedom of political speech and freedom to assemble into political groups. These things allow a country to adapt over time by changing who is in power.
For that reason, the Chinese cannot have those things. The whole point is that the same people must stay in power. So you can chat online all you want about hobbies or celebrities, but nothing about how the system is broken. And forget assembling in small groups in an effort to change things.
The issue here is feedback loops. In the west, closely-knit political groups can "own" the government for periods of time. Once they screw up -- and they all do -- the voters can have new groups come peacefully into power. There's a way to be wrong. The Chinese have a feedback system where change happens inside the party, but it's much more creaky and brittle. Open net access would expose all of that by getting people talking and comparing political systems.
Re: Great Firewall rising: How China wages its war on the Internet
#17Honest question: what is it that Chinese officials fear would happen, if they let their citizens have free access to the internet?
Generally they are afraid they (the CCP) will lose control. That's it.
The censorship blocks alternate opinions from forming around issues everyone knows about - for example everyone knows about the Cultral Revolution in China, but the interpretation of it is strictly controlled by the gov in a way that protects the CCPs legitimacy and Maos legacy.
It also stops news about the broken state of the system ever being revealed. For example corruption - occasionally a corrupt official gets 'outed' on social media and when that happens, the government often has to do something - the official gets sacked or investigated. BUT, it's rare it gets to that state. Now imagine if they had a free press or free internet - they'd have to sack half the government within a week, given the scale of the corruption!
Finally, most of the censorship is also aimed at killing activism before it even starts. Online movements never get off the ground, people never coalesce around an issue, the power of the people is never allowed to gather and grow to rival the power of the state/police/political elites. Censorship often aims to keep people (politically) ignorant, isolated and apathetic.
Re: Great Firewall rising: How China wages its war on the Internet
#18This is the same China whose central government, officially an atheist state, claims authority on deciding who the next Dalai Lama will be reincarnated as - http://time.com/3743742/dalai-lama-china-reincarnation-tibet... I'd love to hear perspective on this matter from people closer to the source.
Is China's claim on authority at determining who the next "reincarnation" of the Dalai Lama might be any sillier than anyone else's claim of the same?
Re: Great Firewall rising: How China wages its war on the Internet
#19Is CNN trying to get itself blocked too? They are like the last one (besides Fox News) that aren't.
I'm gonna guess that this article isn't accessible from inside China.
Re: Great Firewall rising: How China wages its war on the Internet
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
CISA, CISPA and the TPP aren't sending RSTs to connections they don't like, nor actively trying to negotiate with Tor endpoints so they can be blocked. They're also not rewriting Baidu to attack GitHub (yet).
Oh, I forgot to mention the NSA did I? Or let us talk about it's "fundamentally different" because it is always China behind all the wrongdoings against the Internet, my friends. But wait, keep the mechanics/micro aside. Tell me is there a difference in policy or what either systems want to achieve? None.
Okay, I'll even temporarily agree with you that the NSA is tapping and capturing traffic. They may even run Tor endpoints purely for analysis purposes. They're still not disconnecting people and then kicking in doors.