Chinese Begin Censoring Text Messaging
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BEIJING — As the Chinese government expands what it calls a campaign against pornography, cellular companies in Beijing and Shanghai have been told to suspend text services to cellphone users who are found to have sent messages with “illegal or unhealthy content,” state-run news media reported Tuesday.
China Mobile, one of the nation’s largest cellular providers, reported that text messages would automatically be scanned for “key words” provided by the police, according to China Daily, a state-controlled English-language newspaper. Messages will be deemed “unhealthy” if they violate undisclosed criteria established by the central government, the newspaper said.
The increased surveillance of text messages is the latest in a series of government efforts to severely tighten control of the Internet and other forms of communication.
Since late last year, China has closed hundreds of Web sites, including popular file-sharing sites, and limited its citizens’ ability to set up personal Web sites.
Citing cyberattacks originating from China, Google last week threatened to pull out of China unless the government lifted censorship of its search results.
“It really is quite a program to seize control of all the new forms of media, one by one,” said Jeremy Goldkorn, editor and publisher of Danwei.org, an English-language Web site about the Chinese media and Internet that is currently blocked in China. “It has been a bad half year for censorship.”
Chinese authorities say the new restrictions are necessary to root out pornography, piracy and other law-breaking activity on the Internet and in electronic communications. Some analysts suggest that ministries are competing to fulfill the government’s demands for stricter controls.
Although China has quietly monitored cellphone text messages for some time, Kan Kaili, a professor of telecommunications at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunication, said the new measures appeared broader and more intrusive and punitive.
“They are doing wide-ranging checks, checking anything and everything, even if it is between a husband and wife,” he said. “I don’t think people will be very happy about this.”
He said the government had established no clear legal definition of unhealthy content. He also said commercial authorities like phone companies, even though government-owned, should not be involved in checking the contents of private messages. “This is totally wrong,” he said. “This violates citizens’ basic rights.”
In Beijing, some cellphone users were indignant about the reports. Sun Li, a businesswoman, said: “This is against the law. You can block Web sites for pornography or violence, but texts are from person to person. It has nothing to do with the public.
“If this is really so, I can’t text anyone anymore, or call anyone,” she said.
According to China Daily, the police will evaluate the text messages of users suspected of transmitting unhealthy content, and during that time, China Mobile will suspend the text-messaging function for those phone numbers. If the authorities clear a user of any violation, they will issue a certificate allowing text-messaging services to be resumed, the newspaper said.
Zhang Jing, Nancy Zhao and Jonathan Ansfield contributed research.
Source
This is coming after China has launched cyber attacks on Google and other US tech companies. One of the things they were attempting with Google was to hack the e-mail accounts of human rights activists, although Google says they failed at that. Is this all part of a larger coordinated Phoxe/Timmy-ish crackdown on dissidents?
Re: Chinese Begin Censoring Text Messaging
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Originally Posted by Wraith
This is coming after China has launched cyber attacks on Google and other US tech companies. One of the things they were attempting with Google was to hack the e-mail accounts of human rights activists, although Google says they failed at that. Is this all part of a larger coordinated Phoxe/Timmy-ish crackdown on dissidents?
Isn't it funny how they use 'legitimate' concerns as a cover for the real thing? It's blatantly clear they are getting affraid of losing control (they must have paid real close notice during the uprising in Iran last year) and they are pulling in the reins real harshly.
Re: Chinese Begin Censoring Text Messaging
Yet for some reason we put an Olympic games there. Like you couldn't see this coming...
Re: Chinese Begin Censoring Text Messaging
Instead of bannig porn, they should be spreading it! Overpopulation proublem solved!
Re: Chinese Begin Censoring Text Messaging
China has been using the "porn" excuse for this kind of stuff for months. Though frankly I'm surprised this didn't happen earlier. Any dictator watching the Iranian protests would want the kind of control China has over its text messaging networks.
Things like this basically ensure that political change in China will be exceedingly slow (even generational). Even impromptu protests of minor things organized over text messages could be very easily quieted.
Though of course brute force rioting could always happen.
Re: Chinese Begin Censoring Text Messaging
And now Avatar is banned from 2D screens because home-grown Chinese films aren't making enough money; yay.
So... what to do? An incredible economy without freedom. Many people say and have said that a flourishing economy is the result of a free country... but what about China? :|
Re: Chinese Begin Censoring Text Messaging
They'll just invent code words for everything, and then what are you gonna do.. ban common words because they're also codes? It's retarded. WHy not just ban text messaging altogether ffs
Re: Chinese Begin Censoring Text Messaging
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Originally Posted by DecoyMilk
They'll just invent code words for everything, and then what are you gonna do.. ban common words because they're also codes? It's retarded. WHy not just ban text messaging altogether ffs
Yeah, like they did in the old USSR, pretty much everything meant something different than its official definition :)
Re: Chinese Begin Censoring Text Messaging
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Originally Posted by agamemnus
And now Avatar is banned from 2D screens because home-grown Chinese films aren't making enough money; yay.
So... what to do? An incredible economy without freedom. Many people say and have said that a flourishing economy is the result of a free country... but what about China? :|
They have an imbalance towards manufacturing, so things like this don't have an immediate obvious short-term impact. Long term, I think it's a huge problem.
But worth remembering that economic imbalances can be generational. Everyone in the US pines for the good old days when anyone could get a manufacturing job with benefits and the public schools were filled with quality, well-paid teachers. Well, the good old days were also an era when the US produced about 40% of the world's output. Totally unsustainable.
Re: Chinese Begin Censoring Text Messaging
Quote:
Originally Posted by agamemnus
And now Avatar is banned from 2D screens because home-grown Chinese films aren't making enough money; yay.
So... what to do? An incredible economy without freedom. Many people say and have said that a flourishing economy is the result of a free country... but what about China? :|
I thought the actual reason is that what is depicted in Avatar is daily practise in Chinese planning.
Also, the vast majority of Chinese are still living in abject poverty.
Re: Chinese Begin Censoring Text Messaging
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Originally Posted by Hazir
I thought the actual reason is that what is depicted in Avatar is daily practise in Chinese planning.
Also, the vast majority of Chinese are still living in abject poverty.
Nah, it's all about the money. No one in their government would really be so paranoid as to get rid of Avatar because it's a parallel to Chinese eminent domain takings... I think.
