Hi all,
I thought this might be of interest, regarding the
recent discussions about the online gambling sites
and our Vaudois friends. Something most of us probably
know about, but still...
Cheers,
-John
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PRC's INTERNET CENSORSHIP -- Contrary to the popular American myth that
the Internet is too diverse and malleable for state control, a recent
Harvard Law School study indicates that China effectively operates an
effective Internet censorship operation. The Internet has common
checkpoints, subject to control. The researchers found that China
blocked up to 50,000 sites at some point in the six-month testing
period. Some 19,000 sites could not be reached from different places in
China on multiple days. The PRC was selectively filtering content in
real time and deleting individual links or Web pages.
In comparison to Saudi Arabia, which had been studied
earlier, China's censorship is far broader -- for example, access to the
major sites on Tibet and Taiwan were completely blocked. Although the
PRC justifies its censorship as control of the proliferation of
pornography, it blocked fewer than 15 percent of the most popular
sexually explicit sites. Saudi Arabia banned 86 percent of the list.
The study has offered evidence that the Internet is easier
to control than older forms of communications such as telephone,
facsimile or even letters. It would appear that intelligence contingency
planners for any possible future conflict with the PRC will have to
carefully consider how psychological warfare or information warfare
aspects will be conditioned or limited by the Chinese censorship
capabilities. (Harvey) (NYTimes 4 Dec 02 //J. Kahn)
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