China tells google to block access to foreign websites

[skunk]

China "temporarily" censored its citizen's access to the internet during the Tibet protests, as well as during the olympic games. This comes as no surprise the government wants to continue censoring the internet in their country.

China tells Google to end foreign site access (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/10f5984e-5cd6-11de-9d42-00144feabdc0.html)

Beijing has ordered Google to stop users of its Chinese-language service accessing overseas websites in the biggest blow to the world’s leading search engine in China since it started operating there four years ago.

In a move that could disrupt Google’s growth in China, which now has more internet users than the US, the Chinese government said it had told Google to suspend foreign searches and a feature that automatically suggests multiple search results once typing commences in the search window.

The action comes amid a storm of outrage among Chinese internet users over Beijing’s order that every new PC sold in the country be equipped with censorship software, ostensibly to block pornography. One senior US internet figure said the move against Google appeared to be an attempt to deflect attention away from the domestic censorship uproar by redirecting concerns about pornography against a foreign company.

According to state media on Friday, authorities said Google was being “punished” for linking to pornographic content.

On Thursday, in a “law enforcement talk”, the government announced that it was ordering the company to suspend foreign searches and automated keywords, according to Xinhua, the official news agency, and China Central Television, the main state broadcaster.

Searches on Google.cn were still turning up foreign websites several hours after the announcement. However, the automated keyword feature had been disabled. Google confirmed on Friday it had met government representatives on Thursday “to discuss problems with the Google.cn service and its serving of pornographic images and content based on foreign language searches”.

The company was undertaking a thorough review of its service and believed it had addressed most of the problems, it said.

Observers said the crackdown was likely to be a mixture of the government’s recent hardline approach on censorship and increasingly bitter rivalry with Baidu, a domestic search engine, which holds a 59 per cent market share.

Although the authorities accused only Google of allowing links to lurid content, similar material could be found on Baidu.

China surpassed the US as the nation with the world’s largest internet population last year and has about 300m users.

The government has been clamping down on various sites for months in the name of a campaign against “vulgar” online content.

“If these restrictions are kept up for more than a few days, they will have a huge impact on Google’s business in China,” said Edward Yu, chief executive of Analysys, an internet research company in Beijing.

“Traffic will drop quickly because users will find it extremely cumbersome to search without automated keywords and will feel they cannot find results they are looking for, such as foreign travel and shopping information.”

Google has been growing aggressively in China over the past year and its market share exceeded 30 per cent for the first time in the first quarter of this year, according to Analysys research.

[skunk]

The stated concern involves restricting pornography from being accessed in China. However, if you use the google.cn search engine and type in "porn", guess what you get?

[GhostOfCaptSpaulding]

Porn you don't have to read?



The action comes amid a storm of outrage among Chinese internet users over Beijing’s order that every new PC sold in the country be equipped with censorship software, ostensibly to block pornography. One senior US internet figure said the move against Google appeared to be an attempt to deflect attention away from the domestic censorship uproar by redirecting concerns about pornography against a foreign company.

No wonder they're outraged:

Michigan Prof Says Chinese "Porn" Filter Allows Remote Control


Melvin Baker - AHN Reporter

Ann Arbor, MI (AHN) - A University of Michigan computer sciences professor says he has found serious flaws in a software program the Chinese government has ordered installed on all computers there that could allows the computer to be taken over remotely.

Dr. J. Alex Halderman, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, said he discovered "serious security vulnerabilities" in software called Green Dam Youth Escort which China has ordered installed on all computers by July 1.

China has said the software will be used to block access to Internet pornography sites. Critics fear the software also will be used to block sites related to controversial topics such as Falun Gong and Tiananmen Square.

Halderman reported that a team at UM was able to hack the software in less than a day. Hackers could then take control of the user's computer to steal personal information, send spam or introduce malicious viruses, he said.

Without fixing the software, Halderman warned that it will "significantly weaken China's computer security." He recommended that Green Dam be immediately uninstalled from all computers.

Rather than uninstall the software, China has ordered the manufacturer, Jinhui Computer System Engineering, to immediately find patches for the problem.

Chinese officials denied Monday that Green Dam would be used to interfere with personal computers, stating that the use of the software was not required.

"The PC makers only need to save the setup files of the program on the hard drives of the computers, or provide CD-ROMs containing the program with their PC packages," an unnamed government official told China Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese government.

Users would have the final say on installing the software, according to the official.

China Daily reported that the software had been downloaded 7.17 million times as of May, and installed on 2.62 million school computers.

At the same time, the newspaper reported that polls conducted by four of China's most popular web sites found that more than 80 percent of those polled said they would not use the software.

Michigan Prof Says Chinese "Porn" Filter Allows Remote Control (http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7015500318)


So the Chinese government backtracked on their buggy software and redirected the blame for access to porn onto google.

Hmmm... chinese porn.... wonder what I'll find if I google chinese porn? http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee162/21b45o13x25c54o34d45e/icons%20pngs/boobs.png

brb...


http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee162/21b45o13x25c54o34d45e/icons%20pngs/okej.png

[hp]

While they are at it, please add processing to block all the out bound spam email from China. I could care less, if the people there are willing to put up with that BS from the government. Oh that's right, they can stand around and state they are unhappy and wait for the gov to change it's ways.

[Snow Crash]

LOL @ the Chinese Government trying to emulate the NSA and failing...

[WarlordZeroOne]

The chinese government ministers won't have restrictions on PORN,it needs a revolution in China so big you can se it from the Moon like the great wall of China,and the chinese army and cops could not stop it, i cannot stand China,being a commy state,it needs CHANGE, and fast.

[Snow Crash]

i cannot stand China,being a commy state,it needs CHANGE, and fast.

I would like to see change in China as well. Such a culturally rich, ancient land, controlled through fear and intimidation. It's criminal.

You need change as well ese. The Cold War is SO twentieth century. You're a fan of Red Dawn, right? ;)

[Foxtrot Oscar]

Why stop the pr0n when there is a brothel on every corner... Christ, find a brick throw it over your shoulder in China and the chances are that you'll hit a whore!

So I've heard!

Fox

[WarlordZeroOne]

When you look at CHINA in depth the old men that run that country,i really can't understand why they FEAR Democracy so much,because if China became Democratic what fantastic gains that fucked up country would get from the rest of the world. ( What are they affraid of ) communism is a dying Beast,thank fuck, somethings just do not fit,while ever China is feeding the west with load of chinese made crap and making FAT-CAT men in the west.using china's cheap labour, we are making china FILTHY RICH,they will soon be able to outspend the U.S.A. in every field then we have BIG problems,and this fucking country of mine (U.K.) is one of china's biggest buyers, it makes me puke,the poor chinese people are Fucking SLAVES to the WEST and old chinese men, who run the country ,probably can't get a hard on unless they look on Google for PORN. lol

[skunk]

An update

China accuses Google of spreading pornography (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090625/D991LL1G0.html)

China accused Google Inc. on Thursday of spreading pornography after Chinese users were unable to connect to the search giant's Web site, while Washington called on Beijing to scrap its order for personal computers to be equipped with Internet-filtering software.

"We have found that the English version of google.com has spread lots of pornographic, lewd and vulgar content, which is in serious violation of Chinese laws and regulations," said foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang at a news briefing. He said authorities summoned Google representatives and told them to "remove the material immediately."

Chinese Internet users were unable to connect to Google's main search site or its China-based service, google.cn, beginning Wednesday evening. Qin did not respond to questions about whether the government was responsible for the outage. But he said he hoped the problem can be "resolved immediately."

Google Investigates Service Inaccessibility in China (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aFq_FzsoD8ic)

China Tightens Restrictions for Web Sites on Sexual Health (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124595527886655247.html)

China's government plans to tighten restrictions on Web sites that discuss sexual health, the latest step in a widening campaign against pornography that is roiling the Internet industry and highlighting changing attitudes toward sex in Chinese society.

The restrictions are part of broader regulations set to take effect July 1.

The Ministry of Health says the rules are aimed at improving the accuracy and scientific basis of all medical-health sites on the Internet. The guidelines -- which apply to topics including "sexual psychology, sexual ethics, sex medicine, and sex treatments" -- state that only government-sanctioned medical institutions can provide sex-related content on Web sites, and that all such sites will have to be approved by provincial-level health authorities.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday reiterated criticism of Google Inc., saying its site "has spread large amounts of pornographic, lewd and vulgar content, which is in serious violation of Chinese laws and regulations."

Google's search engine and other Google services were temporarily inaccessible across China Wednesday night. Asked about the disruption at a routine news briefing the next day, the foreign ministry spokesman didn't address whether the government was responsible.

The health ministry didn't respond Thursday to a request to comment on the latest regulations, which were adopted in March but made public only this week. The state-run Xinhua news agency on Wednesday quoted Deng Haihua, head of the ministry's information office, as saying the rules will strengthen the ministry's "management and supervision of sex health Web sites in the country to guarantee scientific and accurate information and prevent lewd content in disguise."

Google declined to comment on the latest sexual-health Web restrictions and the spokesman's criticism. Google has said it is working to remove pornography from its search results in China. As part of those efforts, the company also said it temporarily disabled a feature that suggests search terms and redesigned Google.cn, its Chinese home page, to remove links to other language versions of the site.

Chinese officials' scrutiny of Google comes as U.S. Internet companies and officials have begun expressing concern about the Chinese government's plan to require PC manufacturers to install Web-filtering software on computers shipped into China. On Wednesday, Obama administration officials sent letters to two Chinese ministries asking them to reconsider the rule.

Sex is a taboo subject in China, but rising incomes and increasing freedom of choice for how people behave have created more interest in sexual issues and in reproductive education. Many experts say education on the subject remains inadequate.

Pan Suiming, director of the Institute of Sexuality and Gender at Renmin University in Beijing, called the new policy on sex Web sites "mistaken."

Liang Peiding, who runs a site that offers information on issues such as sexual dysfunction and medicine, added that he believed the health ministry shouldn't have the jurisdiction to monitor online content.

The regulation "is not supported by the law and I think they are making a mess of it," he said. "Currently in China, parents never talk about sex with their kids, who instead gain sexual content through pornographic films. We can use the Internet to guide them properly."

Under the new restrictions, sex-related sites must use material only from specialists in the field. Violators can be fined up to 30,000 yuan (about $4,400).

[WarlordZeroOne]

We in the WEST (all of the countrys) should tell China to get Fucked,and stop trading with that one way country,buying up Western Stock with Western money,before i joined AmKon, i always told my 2 sons that making China rich via the CHINKY'S cheap labour will one day bite us all, and its here,like i said buying western stock,i am pleased that, the Australian DEAL fell through with Rio Tinto,the Chinese mother fuckers wanted to get their yellow hand on the worlds laegest ORE supplier (or one of the worlds largest) the day of recconing will come as well with china they too will become isolated from the rest of the world,untill STAR-WARS gets up and running. :lol:

[hp]

On hold...for the time.


BEIJING — China's state media says the government will postpone enforcement of a new rule mandating all new computers be sold with a filtering software.

The rule was to go into effect starting Wednesday, but the official Xinhua News Agency said in a brief report late Tuesday that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had decided to delay the plan. It did not say why or give any other details.

Authorities say the filters is needed to shield children from online violence and pornography, but analysts who have examined the system say it also contains code to filter out political material the government dislikes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090630/ap_on_bi_ge/as_china_internet;_ylt=At23eCjWXQI8VwtH11JdAS50fNd F