Monday, April 27, 2009

Internet Censorship in China

The Internet Censorship in China
If you search sensitive terms on different searching platforms,you will see the searching result are different too!

I did this experiment on the platforms of Google.com、Google.cn and Baidu.com. By doing this, you can see how does Chinese government filter Internet content. I searched two different kind of items.
The first item is '零八宪章'.(08 Chapter is an open letter that was issued by 303 Chinese writers, intellectuals, lawyers, journalists, retired Party officials, workers, peasants, and businessmen, for the purpose of calling for legal reforms, democracy and protection of human rights in China) and the second one is '法轮功'( falun gong)
Of course, the search terms are in Simplified Chinese. The browser is Internet explore 7.0.

The searching results for ‘零八宪章’
1, Google.com gives the searching results
2, Google.cn Forbidden Message and the web page shows "according to local legislation and policy, the searching results can not be shown"
3, Baidu.com Forbidden Message and the web page shows "according to local legislation and policy, the searching results can not be shown"

The searching results for '法轮功'
1, Google.com gives the searching results
2, Google.cn Forbidden some Message and the web page shows "according to local legislation and policy, part of results can not be shown"
3, Baidu.com Forbidden some Message and the web page shows "according to local legislation and policy, part of results can not be shown" 

Conclusion
Obvious, The content of ‘08 Chapter’ and ‘falun gong’ were filtered by Chinese government at ISP level. I understand that it is necessary to show 'Forbidden Message' because the content relevant to ‘08 Chapter’ and 'falun gong'is negative and may endanger the communist party's status in china and poison people's brain. However, from another perspective, Google.com is closer to the truth than Baidu.com and Google.cn. Both of them seem indeed a more active participant in the government's information control schemes.