Sunday, January 24, 2010

The Great Firewall of China

China’s censorship of the Internet is one of the toughest in the world. Years ago, it began as a campaign against Internet pornography and other forms of deviation. Later on, China had shut down not only blatantly pornographic sites, but also online discussion forums, instant-message groups and even cellphone text messages in which political and other sensitive issues were mentioned.

Although Internet censorship may help promote stability of the Chinese government, this endeavor comes at great costs. Internet censorship in China has brought about many social, business, political, and ethical consequences.

My friends who are in China tell me that they use proxys to access some blocked sites. However, proxys are troublesome because they are often slow and unreliable. But the Chinese need not be lonely anymore because recent collaborative projects that involve peer-to-peer technology are making it easy to work around Internet censors. Peer-to-peer work-around applications will ultimately be able to make censorship attempts absolutely futile.

As peer-to-peer applications become more refined and user-friendly, more people in China will use it. When it comes to the point when a lot of people use the software, the Chinese government may be forced to consider redrafting their Internet censorship policies, hopefully toward leniency.

Hallellujah.

- Glaisa PO
(entry no. 11)

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