Chinese government officials touted the success of its
extensive system of filtering and blocking Internet content in 2010, saying the
Internet is “cleaner than before.”
Over 350 million pages, or “pieces of harmful information,” which
includes text, pictures and videos, have been deleted, and 60,000 adult content
Web sites shut down, said Wang Chen, head of the State Council Information
Office, during a press conference on Dec. 30, according to Reuters.
“There was a notable improvement in the online cultural
environment,” Wang said.
Wang said the government checked 1.79 million Web sites and
rounded up 4,965 people suspected of spreading lewd content. Of those suspects,
1,332 people received “criminal punishment” and 58 were jailed for five years
or longer.
Critics have accused the government’” campaign of
censorship, often referred to as the “Great Firewall,” of shutting down Chinese
sites with political sensitive information and user-generated content. The
Chinese government defines “obscenity” rather broadly, as it has shut
down sites with flash games and political commentary in the past.
In comparison, China only shut down 15,000 Web sites in 2009
for having “obscene” material, deleted 1.5 million pages, shut down 136,000 Web
sites, and convicted 1,580 people, according to China’s General Administration
of Press and Publication reported by the China
Daily.
The deleted sites don’t include content already blocked in
the first place, such as Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and Facebook. China also
added Skype on its list of blocked services in December.
The government received more than 160,000 tips from members
of the general public on sites to investigate and one of the departments
involved in censoring the Internet paid out about $81,964 to 516 informants in 2010,
Xinhua,
the official state-run news agency, reported in November.
A branch of China Mobile reportedly invited 20 mothers of
teenagers to help monitor and find questionable Web sites, Xinhua said.
China has over 450 million users online, an increase of 20.3
percent since 2009, said Wang. There is plenty of room for growth, as that
accounts for less than half of the current population, which is 1.3 billion. The
country implemented new regulations in 2010 regarding cell phone users and Web
site operators, ostensibly to prevent harmful online content from reaching
children.
The Internet base is more or less untapped by some of the
major Internet giants, since the Chinese government refused to let them
operate. For example, Google first stopped censoring search results on its China-based
Google search service and then shut down the service after a sophisticated
cyber-attack compromised Gmail accounts. It wasn’t a big loss for Chinese
users, as Baidu dominated the country’s search engine market but underscored
the difficulty of foreign companies competing in China. There are a number of
Facebook and Twitter clones in China thriving, such as RenRen and Sina Weibo,
as well.
Wang said Facebook’s chief Mark Zuckerberg, who had visited
China recently, had not met with his department. “We saw reports that he
met with some well-known figures in China’s Internet industry,” said Wang.
“We are also still trying to learn more about his visit to China.”
Article source: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Cloud-Computing/China-Brags-About-Deleting-350-Million-Pages-in-Web-Censorship-Campaign-418388/
Category: Government Security Watch