Web 2.0 Chips Away at Great Firewall of China: From SFGate.com

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• Olympics
• China
• Internet
• surveillance
• privacy

BEIJING — Just days after David Wang produced a mock newscast criticizing Taiwanese officials and uploaded the clip to Tudou, a popular video sharing site in China, it disappeared. What's surprising is not that it was censored—but that it remained online as long as it did.

His experience illustrates how the Internet is challenging China's status quo.

Blogs, forums, social networking, video sharing and other community-oriented sites—known as Web 2.0—depend on users expressing their opinions. Meanwhile, peer-to-peer services make it easier to share information, from a bootleg copy of the latest Hollywood film to a documentary about Tiananmen Square.

The result is the chipping away of what's referred to as the Great Firewall of China, by which the government tries to control online content even as the country is lured to nurture Internet development for economic reasons.

"You could not see such things happen before in China because of the controlled media," said Isaac Mao, an Internet entrepreneur in Shanghai. Now, he said, "You can see grassroots-based technology helping people become empowered."

For instance, bloggers and citizen journalists armed with cell phones and Internet access have posted photos and videos about everything from a neighborhood traffic accident to the recent Sichuan earthquake. In some cases, they challenge government and corporate actions.

Guo Liang, an associate professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, uses this analogy to describe the Sisyphean attempts to block the flood of information on the Internet:

"If something happened in the world and there are 10 sources of information on this event, even if I block nine, you can get one. That's enough for you. You don't need the other nine resources. ... Once you get that information, you can forward that to others.

"This is the digital age," he said. "I don't think it will work to block or filter something."

Revisionist history

One 27-year-old information technology employee from Shanghai, who asked that his name not be used for fear of retaliation, said that through the Internet, he discovered different versions of what happened during China's Cultural Revolution and World War II. A friend shared a documentary about the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest that had been downloaded from an overseas file-sharing service.

"It was completely different from what I learned in school," he said. "It's hard to believe the first time you see a different edition of history. At first I felt it's unbelievable. Then I felt angry because I was deceived for such a long time."

Indeed, tech-savvy Internet users have learned how to circumvent the Chinese government's attempts to shield certain information. In online forums, they substitute certain words, such as using a character that sounds like the actual word. They use peer-to-peer services to download otherwise inaccessible information. And they use tools such as Tor, which lets them surf the Internet anonymously and visit blocked Web sites.

2. RE: Internet Chips Away at Great Firewall of China: From SFGate.com
What is wrong with the world today? It's called the INTERNET. It's not called Web 2.0. It's the same technology we've always used, there is nothing '2.0' about it. This is getting ridiculous. LOL

1. RE: Web 2.0 Chips Away at Great Firewall of China: From SFGate.com
Website: How Your Electronics Work
This is heartening news, but the Chinese government likely has very good control of the main internet backbones going in and out of the country. It is easier to stem the flow of information at those main points. Google technology makes it easier as well. Do no evil indeed. Peter How Your Electronics Work http://www.howyourelectronicswork.com

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