Firewall of Shame
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is by far the biggest offender when it comes to Internet censorship -- the apparatus of Internet repression is considered more extensive and more advanced than in any other country in the world. Forbes magazine featured an article entitled “Cracks In the Wall (Feb. 27, 2006):
“Censorship is quite an industry in China. Every village has spies to watch neighbors; the mail and the poster boards are watched, say expat Chinese. It is said (by dissidents) that China has 40,000 Web police hard at work just in Beijing, looking over the shoulders of Web users and composing lists of banned words that cause a Web search to freeze up or a site to automatically be blocked.”
In fact, the regime not only blocks website content but also monitors who is using the Internet and what they are using it for. Amnesty International notes that China “has the largest recorded number of imprisoned journalists and cyber-dissidents in the world.” The "offences" they are accused of include communicating with groups abroad, opposing the persecution of the Falun Gong, signing online petitions, and calling for reform and an end to corruption.
China’s censorship system is so vast and so comprehensive that no other country even comes close. In a sense, it is all the more dangerous because all other repressive states look to China to gain censorship technology and know-how.
www.internetfreedom.org
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