'Clouding' the Issue - the Great Firewall

[Randy W]

in the SCMP

 

China’s propaganda chiefs rapped by government inspectors over ‘weak’ efforts to control the internet, media

Comments from discipline commission come amid tightened controls on the media on the mainland

 

 

The Communist Party’s propaganda department in China has been strongly criticised by government inspectors who say it has failed to take tough or effective enough action to promote ideology, control the media and the internet and oversee universities and colleges.

The criticism from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection came after inspectors carried out a two-month review of the department starting in February.

. . .

“[The propaganda department] lacks depth in its research into developing contemporary China’s Marxism. The effect of guiding art and literature to serve socialism and the people was not obvious enough and the news propaganda is not targeted and effective enough,” Wang Haichen, the leader of the inspection team, was quoted as saying on the commission’s website.

. . .

He urged the department to make news propaganda more “appealing and infective”, to take the initiative in setting the agenda and to refute “wrong trends of thought”.

He also said the department should better utilise and manage the internet and implement stricter scrutiny of textbooks and its guidance on academic evaluation.

[Randy W]

A mildly interesting story about the "success" of the Chinese internet in the Wash Post. Thy are still making it all but impossible for anyone behind the Great Firewall to NOT use a VPN to access English-speaking sites, including many of the English-language version of CCP sites like the Global Times, People's Daily, etc - many of these sites use Google and Facebook technology which is blocked.

 

America wants to believe China can’t innovate. Tech tells a different story.

 

BEHIND THE FIREWALL: How China tamed the Internet | This is part of a series examining the impact of China’s Great Firewall, a mechanism of Internet censorship and surveillance that affects nearly 700 million users.

 

 

For those who haven’t spent time in China’s thriving cities, it can be hard to imagine how digitally connected they are. Many still conjure the China of the 1990s, a nation of shoe factories and fake bags, not cutting-edge apps.

Outsiders tend to know one thing about China’s Internet: It’s blocked — no Facebook, Twitter or Google. They imagine a country languishing behind a digital Iron Curtain, waiting, frozen in time, for the fall of the Web’s Berlin Wall.

The United States wants to believe that the scourge of censorship thwarts online innovation, but China is challenging the idea in ways that frighten and confound.

 

. . .

 

The truth is that behind the Great Firewall — the system of censorship designed to block content that could challenge the Chinese Communist Party — China’s tech scene is flourishing in a parallel universe.

 

. . .

 

“You go on Facebook and you can’t even buy anything, but on Wechat and Weibo you can buy anything you see,” said William Bao Bean, a Shanghai-based partner at SOS Ventures and the managing director of Chinaccelerator, a start-up accelerator.

“Facebook’s road map looks like a WeChat clone.”

 

 

Just bought some food myself from Zhongshan over WeChat - hopefully, shipped tomorrow (Thursday) and arrive Friday still iced down.

[Randy W]

in the People's Daily - all they have to do is play the way they're supposed to!

 

Facebook is welcome in China as long as it abides by Chinese laws: authority

All foreign Internet companies, including Google and Facebook, will be welcomed by China as long as they operate according to Chinese laws and protect the rights of the nation, an official with the Cyberspace Administration of China said on Oct. 12.

 

. . .

 

“The policy of Internet development in China remains open,” Ren added.

 

[Randy W]

. . . and maybe they will! In the NY Times

 

Facebook Said to Create Censorship Tool to Get Back Into China

 

The social network has quietly developed software to suppress posts from appearing in people’s news feeds in specific geographic areas, according to three current and former Facebook employees, who asked for anonymity because the tool is confidential. The feature was created to help Facebook get into China, a market where the social network has been blocked, these people said. Mr. Zuckerberg has supported and defended the effort, the people added.

Facebook has restricted content in other countries before, such as Pakistan, Russia and Turkey, in keeping with the typical practice of American internet companies that generally comply with government requests to block certain content after it is posted. Facebook blocked roughly 55,000 pieces of content in about 20 countries between July 2015 and December 2015, for example. But the new feature takes that a step further by preventing content from appearing in feeds in China in the first place.

Facebook does not intend to suppress the posts itself. Instead, it would offer the software to enable a third party — in this case, most likely a partner Chinese company — to monitor popular stories and topics that bubble up as users share them across the social network, the people said. Facebook’s partner would then have full control to decide whether those posts should show up in users’ feeds.

. . .

Several employees who were working on the project have left Facebook after expressing misgivings about it, according to the current and former employees.

 

 

or in the Shanghaiist based on the NYT article

 

Facebook has reportedly developed a censorship tool to help it re-enter China

[Randy W]

My understanding of this is that Zuckerberg wants to give them the ability to BLOCK a post from behind the Great Firewall that they consider offensive BEFORE it is posted. What they will want is editorial control AFTER the fact - they have made massive changes to Chinese social media as long as a week after "freedom of speech" was declared. The Chinese censors simply want to control the sandbox that EVERYONE plays in.

[Randy W]

Censorship on WeChat is apparently triggered by the presence of any of the keywords. I doubt that they have anyone monitoring messages in real-time, but the presence of any of the keywords can cause a message to be blocked automatically. This is an interesting article about it and the differences in the way Chinese and foreign-registered accounts are handled - in the SCMP

 

How to avoid getting your WeChat messages censored both in and outside China

Accounts registered with mainland-based numbers have keywords filtered or blocked anywhere in the world as long as they keep their user names

 

WeChat accounts registered with a mainland China-based phone number have keywords filtered out or messages blocked anywhere in the world as long they keep the same user name, according to a study by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab.

Accounts created outside the mainland, such as through carriers in Hong Kong or the US do not face the same restrictions, it said.

. . .

If those words are detected by WeChat servers in China, the message will not be sent.

More words are monitored in group chats than in one-to-one messages, most probably because of the capability to reach a larger number of users, the study showed.

 

 

[Randy W]

Another skirmish reported by SCMP, although this SEEMS apply ONLY to those services hosted within China

 

China tightens Great Firewall by declaring unauthorised VPN services illegal

Move means all cable and VPN services need prior government approval and comes as Beijing steps up censorship before power-reshuffle party congress

 

A notice released by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Sunday said that all special cable and VPN services on the mainland needed to obtain prior government approval – a move making most VPN service providers in the country of 730 million internet users illegal.

The “clean up” of the nation’s internet connections would start immediately and run until March 31, 2018, the notice said.

 

. . .

 

The last major crackdown on VPN was in March 2016 during the National People’s Congress meeting in Beijing. Many companies complained that their paid-for VPN services were not functioning for up to a week.

 

Edited January 23, 2017 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

A follow-up from the SCMP

 

The who, what and why in China’s latest VPN crackdown

The new campaign to stamp out ‘unauthorised’ providers is not expected to target individuals directly but could have big implications for companies based on the mainland

 

“The more that your business relies on access to standard global business essentials, like online banking, the more difficult it is to operate from China,” said Charlie Smith, the pseudonym of the co-founder of Greatfire.org, which has monitored China’s online censorship since 2011. “I don’t know how the Chinese leadership thinks that Chinese companies can ‘go global’ with internet connections that only ‘go local’.”

 

[Randy W]

from Quartz

 

WHAT IRONY?

China’s premier just extolled the virtues of openness on a news site blocked by China

 

China’s premier Li Keqiang championed globalization in a rare commentary published today (Jan. 26) on Bloomberg’s website. Touting Beijing’s buzz phrase “a community of shared destiny,” Li wrote, “We remain convinced that economic openness serves everyone better, at home and abroad.”

But the irony is clear—China is not open to Bloomberg itself.

 

[Randy W]

This seems to be about censorship behind the Great Firewall, and the efforts of the Xi administration in that direction. I'm not sure that anything here applies to access of Western web sites. In the WSJ.

 

The "crackdown" on VPN's doesn't seem to have had any effect on private usage - as was said, it seems to be just on business usage.

 

Chinese Internet Companies Lose Their Wiggle Room

Skirting web rules is harder for portals; oversight tightened on apps that could spur unrest

 

Last week the internet regulator in Beijing ordered the country’s most popular internet portal, Tencent Holdings’ QQ.com, to shut down its “Think Big” section, which ran commentaries by historians, economists, political scientists and other intellectuals. Three other major portals were told to close sections related to the military, international affairs and Taiwan.

The Beijing Internet Information Office, in a statement posted on a verified social-media account, explained that the portals violated regulations against conducting original reporting and that by doing so they provided news-and-information services that exceeded the scope of their business licenses.

While those rules have been on the books since 2005, running commentaries and coverage of less-controversial news about business, finance and international affairs are well-used workarounds. The portals need original content to stand out and attract readers.

An executive at one of the portals told me earlier this year that he has given up any hope of less-intrusive censorship before the leadership transition. “Whatever they ask us, we’ll follow the order,” he said.

. . .

Ending practices that skirt regulations, no matter how commonly used, fits with the ever-tightening control the government has exerted on the internet since Xi Jinping rose to power in late 2012. Targeting outright political dissent has expanded to include critical commentaries, draining much of the life out of once-vibrant online media.

Now the portals, which have generally toed the government line, are being reined in. Controlling public opinion is being seen as critical as Mr. Xi looks to dominate a Communist Party Congress to install his allies in the leadership for his second five-year term. A member of the current leadership told party propaganda officers to “provide forceful safeguarding of thought and public opinion” this year.

 

[Greg.D.]

Maybe this is in preparation for the Great China Show of Force against Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, or all of the above.

 

My wife, living here in the U.S., believes the Lotte company had its stores shut down for serious code violations.

 

Important to control the facts, fake facts and alternative facts.

[Randy W]

Just so you'll know in case it comes up - Russia blocks WeChat - in the SCMP

 

China’s Tencent ‘deeply sorry’ after Russia blocks WeChat; but not a move against China

 

“Russian regulations say online service providers have to register with the government, but WeChat doesn’t have the same understanding [of the rules],” Tencent said in a statement.

Xinhua quoted a spokesman for Russia’s telecommunications watchdog as saying WeChat “did not provide the contact information necessary for registration with authorities”.

Following the incident, Tencent said on a microblog: “We’re experiencing a block and we’re deeply sorry.”

Tencent’s latest email response said that, “in accordance with internet regulations in Russia, organisers of information distribution on the internet are required to notify relevant authorities of their activities upon request”.

 

“As per these guidelines, we are in discussions with relevant authorities regarding the situation,” the company said.

 

. . .

 

The law, introduced in 2014, requires foreign messaging services, search engines and social networks to store the personal data of Russian users inside Russia. Sites that breach the law are added to a blacklist and internet providers are obliged to block access. The law prompted criticism from internet companies but entered into force in late 2015.

 

[Randy W]

in the SCMP. This SEEMS to be one more strike against foreigners in China, but they also seem to mainly target services HOSTED within China

 

For many Chinese internet users, it’s time to get a new VPN

Beijing’s campaign targeting popular virtual private network services has left many people worried about how to conquer the Great Firewall

 

GreenVPN is the latest popular provider to stop operating on the mainland because it received “a notice from regulatory departments” to do so, the company said in an announcement that it was pulling the plug from July 1.

Haibei VPN also ­terminated its service, citing the same reason.

 

Many mainlanders are now scrambling to find other ways to bypass strict internet controls. Coco, a curator in Shanghai who used GreenVPN for over two years, said she struggled to do her job without the service. “I need to look at artists’ works on websites that are banned in China pretty much every day,” she said. “But without a VPN I just can’t do it.”

Coco said she was trying to find another VPN that was stable and fast. “I don’t know what they’re trying to block – I’m not using the VPN to look at political content,” she said. “I’m really worried about how I’m going to be able to do my job if there are no VPN services available.”

. . .

A spokesman for VPNDada, which helps mainland internet users find reliable VPNs, said ­although it was getting harder for people to bypass the Great Firewall, the services could not be completely wiped out. “The government can’t control VPN companies based outside China and it can’t control people setting up and using their own VPN servers,” he said. The website advised frequent VPN users to find overseas service providers rather than those based on the mainland.

 

 

[Randy W]

This would REALLY 'cloud' the issue - this is in the SCMP, but from Bloomberg. No source for the information is indicated. It's unclear what the actual significance is.

 

Beijing reportedly orders ban on all personal VPN accounts by February

China’s government reportedly ordered state-run telecoms firms to bar people from using VPNs, services that skirt censorship limits by routing web traffic abroad

 

China’s government has told telecommunications carriers to block individuals’ access to virtual private networks by February 1, people familiar with the matter said, thereby shutting a major window to the global internet.

Beijing has ordered state-run telecommunications firms, which include China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, to bar people from using VPNs, services that skirt censorship restrictions by routing web traffic abroad, the people said, asking not to be identified talking about private government directives.

 

. . .

 

It’s unclear how the new directive may affect multinationals operating within the country, which already have to contend with a cybersecurity law that imposes stringent requirements on the transfer of data and may give Beijing unprecedented access to their technology. Companies operating on Chinese soil will be able to employ leased lines to access the international web but must register their usage of such services for the record, the people familiar with the matter said.

“This seems to impact individuals” most immediately, said Jake Parker, Beijing-based vice president of the US-China Business Council. “VPNs are incredibly important for companies trying to access global services outside of China,” he said.

“In the past, any effort to cut off internal corporate VPNs has been enough to make a company think about closing or reducing operations in China. It’s that big a deal,” he added.

 

 

 

The Bloomberg article is the same - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-10/china-is-said-to-order-carriers-to-bar-personal-vpns-by-february?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_content=business&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

Edited July 11, 2017 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Greg.D.]

Shanghaiist saying maybe the Bloomberg story is not true:

 

http://shanghaiist.com/2017/07/12/vpn-ban-denial.php

 

"China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has told The Paper that, in fact, it has not sent out any orders to the country's telecommunications providers regarding a forthcoming personal VPN ban, calling the Bloomberg piece -- which cited anonymous insiders -- "false.""