When it comes to filtering content originating from the Internet, no one appears to do it as well as the Chinese government.
A study conducted by the Open Net Initiative (ONI) discovered “China’s Internet filtering regime is the most sophisticated effort of its kind in the world.”
The ONI is a partnership made up of the following institutions:
Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, and the Advanced Network Research Group at the Cambridge Security Programme at Cambridge University.
China’s system is filtering is described by ONI as “being the most extensive, technologically sophisticated, and broad-reaching system of Internet filtering in the world.” Their filtering system is so comprehensive that it filters content relating to everything from pornography to religion, as well as content that could be deemed as dissenting towards the Chinese government.
In fact, any information that deviates from official Communist Party doctrine is normally caught by the government’s extensive filtering process. However, most American news sites, like CNN, MSNBC, and ABC, are normally available in China.
The filtering system is so complex that even ONI admitted it couldn’t exactly determine how China controls the content available to Internet users. ONI did, however, offer this finding:
“In many countries, when content is filtered, users generally receive a block page’ – a Web page with text indicating that the requested content cannot be accessed. In China, however, filtering can be less obvious or transparent, appearing to be network errors, redirections, or lengthy timeouts rather than deliberate blocking.”
If you would like to find out more about ONI’s discoveries, please read their extensive pdf.
Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest search news.
