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The Internet Censorship China

China's Global Reach: Surveillance and Censorship Beyond the Great Firewall (eff.org) 68

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Those outside the People's Republic of China (PRC) are accustomed to thinking of the Internet censorship practices of the Chinese state as primarily domestic, enacted through the so-called "Great Firewall" -- a system of surveillance and blocking technology that prevents Chinese citizens from viewing websites outside the country. The Chinese government's justification for that firewall is based on the concept of "Internet sovereignty." The PRC has long declared that "within Chinese territory, the internet is under the jurisdiction of Chinese sovereignty." Hong Kong, as part of the "one country, two systems" agreement, has largely lived outside that firewall: foreign services like Twitter, Google, and Facebook are available there, and local ISPs have made clear that they will oppose direct state censorship of its open Internet.

But the ongoing Hong Kong protests, and mainland China's pervasive attempts to disrupt and discredit the movement globally, have highlighted that China is not above trying to extend its reach beyond the Great Firewall, and beyond its own borders. In attempting to silence protests that lie outside the Firewall, in full view of the rest of the world, China is showing its hand, and revealing the tools it can use to silence dissent or criticism worldwide. Some of those tools -- such as pressure on private entities, including American corporations NBA and Blizzard -- have caught U.S. headlines and outraged customers and employees of those companies. Others have been more technical, and less obvious to the Western observers.
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China's Global Reach: Surveillance and Censorship Beyond the Great Firewall More

China's Global Reach: Surveillance and Censorship Beyond the Great Firewall

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  • Well, whose steps are they following? (Score:3)

    by Mr. Dollar Ton ( 5495648 ) on Friday October 11, 2019 @09:17AM (#59295934)

    Isn't there a state, actually several states in tandem, which already monitor practically all Internet traffic?

    Why worry that one more player is buying the same equipment and doing the same shit?

    • Isn't there a state, actually several states in tandem, which already monitor practically all Internet traffic?

      Why worry that one more player is buying the same equipment and doing the same shit?

      I can just imagine the CIA, FSB, FBI, GRU MI6, Chinese Intelligence, SVR techies all queuing up outside some telco equipment room with their noses pressed up against the display of their smartphones surfing for porn while they wait for the NSA guy to finish installing his bugging gear.

    • The difference is maybe that Washington didn't tell a European company that they better silence their customers if they want to continue doing business because D.C. didn't like what they were saying.

    • Why worry that one more player is buying the same equipment and doing the same shit?
      Because this 'player' wants to destroy your Western culture and way of life, take away your freedom of speech, your civil rights, your legal rights, and turn the whole planet into China, that's why, and anyone who denies this is true, or denies that the way the Chinese government treats people is awful is either a fool or being paid to shill for them. The average person takes their way of life for granted and really doesn'

    • Whuttabout this other stuff, that someone else is doing!

      • You have it backwards, local idiot, the wuttabout is coming from those who have been doing this shit for ages and are now vexed that it is not only them.

        They've been warned many times about the consequences of their actions, but they did not bother.

        And now, SUDDENLY, they cry whuttabout.

        Apt name, btw.

  • South Park (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Just look at what happened to South Park. Reaching beyond the great wall indeed.

    • They blocked South Park in China. Did they block it anywhere else?

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by bhiestand ( 157373 )

        They blocked South Park in China. Did they block it anywhere else?

        The answer may surprise you. One key piece of the Great Firewall is DNS Cache Poisoning. DNS requests going to servers outside of China are intercepted and answered by the Great Firewall. To block sites, they return IP addresses that are already in blocked subnets. Internet traffic that gets routed through China frequently gets those DNS answers, and the inaccessibility spreads beyond China.

        Sometimes they even return modified DNS answers to DDoS apparent targets [crowdstrike.com] outside of China.

    • Was surprised they got away with that, their corporate overlords sure didn't mind stomping on free speech and censoring them when they tried to piss off the Islamic extremists with Mohammed (when they had even depicted him in a previous episode).

  • Free Speech Day (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hackertourist ( 2202674 ) on Friday October 11, 2019 @09:26AM (#59295964)

    A previous time Chinese censorship and oppression was discussed, someone suggested [slashdot.org] designating June 4th as Free Speech Day.

    • A previous time Chinese censorship and oppression was discussed, someone suggested [slashdot.org] designating June 4th as Free Speech Day.

      Yeah because we here in the west aren't a bunch of barbarians who forbid free speech, we just limit it to free speech zones [google.com] that just coincidentally happen to be severely limited in size and located half a mile away from where the politician is basking in the lights of the cameras and the mindless adulation of his adoring base.

      • That's weird. Your not being arrested for pointing out the faults of the government and I can see your post. Maybe if you also criticize the president you will get a knock on the door by the secret police and this thread deleted by the government.

    • Every day is Free Speech Day if you're brave enough.

  • "Would you like to do business with our Chinese companies? Well then you will need to get on board with the social credit score system. Otherwise, how will our upstanding Chinese businesses know that you are a person of upstanding character?"

  • Bend over and be China's bitch, and alienate their old markets, or stand up against their threats and alienate a potential new one.

  • China has all the advantages of capitalism and none of the pesky ideological disadvantages...

    • China has all the advantages of capitalism and none of the pesky ideological disadvantages...

      True only if you are one of the Chinese elite.

  • / . political bias (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    U are guaranteed to read news that tow the official part(ies) storyline. For example, there will never be any positive news reported from China, ever. Those don't exist at all. ;)

  • Is there really any such thing as being outside of PRC? China pretty much controls everything, everywhere. Look at what they've done to ESPN, which went so far as to air Chinese propaganda on national television.

    PRC has taken over... we just aren't ready to admit it yet. We will welcome Dear Leader eventually.

  • US Corporations have no right to violate the US Constitution at home or abroad. In theory, you should be able to enforce this with the courts already, but maybe pass a Federal statute that imposes specific criminal penalties against the executives of corporations that aid and abet the enemies of liberal democracy or undermine Universal Human Rights.

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