China Has More Internet Monitors Than Soldiers:
Lily Kuo for Quartz
China has 2 million people working as online monitors, according to a report last week by state news publication Beijing News — a new estimate that reveals the breadth of the country’s massive online censorship and surveillance systems. The monitors, who scour online comments and compile reports for officials or private businesses, outnumber even China’s 1.5 million active military personnel.
There is now an entire industry and profession dedicated to controlling — or attempting to control — China’s fast-moving social media world, where comments quickly go viral among the country’s 500 million Internet users. The People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese communist party, is holding a four-day seminar this month where successful students can be certified as “public opinion analysts,” according to a Beijing Times report. Once certified, they’re eligible for jobs with China’s propaganda department, commercial companies, news websites or public relation firms.
Social media monitoring, a measure whose ostensible goal is social stability, has been turned into a “money-making machine for local governments [and] firms,” said Guobin Yang, a professor of sociology and communications at the University of Southern California, in comments on Twitter on Monday. The People’s Daily charges up to 4,000 renminbi ($650) for four days of training to become an analyst, Yang noted.
And for businesses or officials who need more than just monitoring, “black public relations” firms offers services like wiping negative articles from the Internet or blocking certain search terms. These cost at least 10,000 renminbi and and up to 1 million renminbi, respectively, according to a February report by Century Weekly.
Showing posts with label firewall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label firewall. Show all posts
Friday, October 11, 2013
Monday, December 31, 2012
Great Firewall of China getting harder to scale
Great Firewall of China getting harder to scale:
The Straits Times - December 30, 2012
By Ho Ai Li, China Correspondent
Exchange student Lim Wee Kiat, 35, let out a cry of joy at the thought of wrapping up months of research here and going home to Singapore.
"Hallelujah!" he told The Sunday Times two days before he left Beijing on Boxing Day.
It was not so much the glacial weather as the glacial Internet speeds and patchy connection that had made his life frustrating here.
Many foreign websites are blocked here, along with social media sites such as Facebook, under Web controls popularly known as the Great Firewall of China.
But foreigners and a small group of Chinese have been scaling this wall by using a VPN, or virtual private network.
Now, this lifeline is becoming frayed as the authorities tighten Internet controls again, a move likely to hit foreign research and business operations in China.
Paid VPN services were greatly disrupted in the lead-up to the Communist Party's leadership change last month, and things still have not gone back to normal.
Some providers such as Astrill have had to apologise to their subscribers for the disruption.
Access to Google-linked websites has also become rather erratic, as Mr Lim, who depends on Google for searches, would attest to.
According to The Global Times, a nationalistic English-language newspaper, China has beefed up its cyberwall, making it even harder for Web surfers here to circumvent its controls.
More curbs are on the cards: The National People's Congress, China's legislature, gave the green light on Friday to new rules requiring Net users to register real names and to increase the penalties for those who spread untruths online.
"Overall, since commercial Internet access began in China back in 1995, there has been a steady increase in the level and scope of censorship," Mr Duncan Clark, a consultant who has lived in China for 18 years, told The Sunday Times.
While VPN providers, in particular the free ones, have been blocked in the past, paid ones costing US$5 (S$6) to US$7 a month have generally been left untouched, he noted.
"Recently, though, the government has clearly been targeting these VPN providers, preventing new customers from signing up," said Mr Clark, who is chairman of BDA Consultancy.
It is also disabling existing subscribers - especially those using L2TP services, as opposed to PP2P ones, which offer dynamic IP addresses and are perhaps harder to target - he added.
Businesses have also been hit as many depend on VPNs to share confidential data and access global work processes such as payroll, he said.
The efficiency of businesses in getting information from the Internet has been hit by China's enhanced firewall, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
But protests by foreigners and foreign businesses are unlikely to matter, said Hong Kong-based activist Wen Yunchao. Instead, the authorities want to control the flow of information on the Net during a period of leadership transition, he told The Sunday Times.
"They have to prevent dissension and information from outside coming in," he said. Some officials might have been leaking information to overseas Chinese websites to bring down their foes, he added.
The websites of The New York Times and Bloomberg continue to be blocked in China after they ran reports detailing the wealth and connections of the families of leaders Xi Jinping and Wen Jiabao in June and November.
There has also been talk that the move to strengthen Web controls is linked to the growing use of micro- blogs to expose official wrongdoing. In recent weeks, whistle-blowers have posted online allegations of misdeeds such as graft, forgery and blackmail by officials.
But media expert Zhan Jiang of the Beijing Foreign Studies University warns against reading too much into the recent online whistle-blowing and the proposed new Internet rules, saying it is unclear why VPN services have been hit.
What is certain, though, is that the VPN disturbance has given companies and individuals a lot of headaches.
It may exact a heavy cost on China in the long run as it goes against China's bid to become a creative and innovative country, said Mr Clark.
Many foreign organisations may choose to move elsewhere if the going remains tough, he added.
However, Beijing resident Lum Kayli, 27, who has been having problems with her VPN service, had resigned herself to Internet curbs even before moving here from Malaysia eight months ago.
"It's annoying but what can you do?" she said.
hoaili@sph.com.sg
The Straits Times - December 30, 2012
By Ho Ai Li, China Correspondent
Exchange student Lim Wee Kiat, 35, let out a cry of joy at the thought of wrapping up months of research here and going home to Singapore.
"Hallelujah!" he told The Sunday Times two days before he left Beijing on Boxing Day.
It was not so much the glacial weather as the glacial Internet speeds and patchy connection that had made his life frustrating here.
Many foreign websites are blocked here, along with social media sites such as Facebook, under Web controls popularly known as the Great Firewall of China.
But foreigners and a small group of Chinese have been scaling this wall by using a VPN, or virtual private network.
Now, this lifeline is becoming frayed as the authorities tighten Internet controls again, a move likely to hit foreign research and business operations in China.
Paid VPN services were greatly disrupted in the lead-up to the Communist Party's leadership change last month, and things still have not gone back to normal.
Some providers such as Astrill have had to apologise to their subscribers for the disruption.
Access to Google-linked websites has also become rather erratic, as Mr Lim, who depends on Google for searches, would attest to.
According to The Global Times, a nationalistic English-language newspaper, China has beefed up its cyberwall, making it even harder for Web surfers here to circumvent its controls.
More curbs are on the cards: The National People's Congress, China's legislature, gave the green light on Friday to new rules requiring Net users to register real names and to increase the penalties for those who spread untruths online.
"Overall, since commercial Internet access began in China back in 1995, there has been a steady increase in the level and scope of censorship," Mr Duncan Clark, a consultant who has lived in China for 18 years, told The Sunday Times.
While VPN providers, in particular the free ones, have been blocked in the past, paid ones costing US$5 (S$6) to US$7 a month have generally been left untouched, he noted.
"Recently, though, the government has clearly been targeting these VPN providers, preventing new customers from signing up," said Mr Clark, who is chairman of BDA Consultancy.
It is also disabling existing subscribers - especially those using L2TP services, as opposed to PP2P ones, which offer dynamic IP addresses and are perhaps harder to target - he added.
Businesses have also been hit as many depend on VPNs to share confidential data and access global work processes such as payroll, he said.
The efficiency of businesses in getting information from the Internet has been hit by China's enhanced firewall, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
But protests by foreigners and foreign businesses are unlikely to matter, said Hong Kong-based activist Wen Yunchao. Instead, the authorities want to control the flow of information on the Net during a period of leadership transition, he told The Sunday Times.
"They have to prevent dissension and information from outside coming in," he said. Some officials might have been leaking information to overseas Chinese websites to bring down their foes, he added.
The websites of The New York Times and Bloomberg continue to be blocked in China after they ran reports detailing the wealth and connections of the families of leaders Xi Jinping and Wen Jiabao in June and November.
There has also been talk that the move to strengthen Web controls is linked to the growing use of micro- blogs to expose official wrongdoing. In recent weeks, whistle-blowers have posted online allegations of misdeeds such as graft, forgery and blackmail by officials.
But media expert Zhan Jiang of the Beijing Foreign Studies University warns against reading too much into the recent online whistle-blowing and the proposed new Internet rules, saying it is unclear why VPN services have been hit.
What is certain, though, is that the VPN disturbance has given companies and individuals a lot of headaches.
It may exact a heavy cost on China in the long run as it goes against China's bid to become a creative and innovative country, said Mr Clark.
Many foreign organisations may choose to move elsewhere if the going remains tough, he added.
However, Beijing resident Lum Kayli, 27, who has been having problems with her VPN service, had resigned herself to Internet curbs even before moving here from Malaysia eight months ago.
"It's annoying but what can you do?" she said.
hoaili@sph.com.sg
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Why 2013 Will Be the Worst Year Ever for China Tech
Why 2013 Will Be the Worst Year Ever for China Tech:
Amidst all the 2012 in review madness, I thought it might be fun to turn our eyes to the future for a moment and make some predictions about what’s coming in 2013. Well, “fun” is a relative term. Call me a pessimist, but I think 2013 is going to be the worst year ever for China’s tech industry. Why
Internet censorship will get worse. China’s Great Firewall got an upgrade this month, and the blockage of many popular VPNs has already begun to affect businesses. There’s no reason to expect that will get any better in the new year, with government mouthpiece the People’s Daily calling for stricter internet regulation and reports suggesting the government may implement mandatory real-name registration for anyone who wants to get on the internet at all. All indications are that next year, China’s internet is going to be less free than ever before.
Social media censorship will get worse. Sina Weibo had a pretty ridiculous year when it comes to censorship, but with the new 7-day search delay and rumors of a new, more thorough real-name system don’t make the future sound all that bright. But the bad news isn’t just limited to Weibo; we have seen indications that the government is concerned about newcomer WeChat — even as it uses the service to track dissidents — so expect that to get a censorship smackdown in the coming year, too.
The mobile market will be restricted. One of China’s tech regulatory bodies, MIIT, is planning to reach its cold, bony hands into the world of mobile app development and sales. Exactly how that will turn out isn’t yet clear, but MIIT’s regulatory processes are the reason an iPhone takes an extra three months to come out in China. App developers are understandably concerned that they’re going to be slowed down — which can be a death sentence in the fast-paced mobile ecosystem — or censored, or very possibly both. Whatever happens with this round of regulation, I would guess that this won’t be the only time we see MIIT interfering in the mobile space in 2013.
More state control is coming, or at least is planned. While the government has been pushing state-owned companies to operate like real companies and try to actually make money rather, it hasn’t gone to much effort to support domestic innovators in the private sector. For example, SARFT (China’s fun police and film censorship bureau) recently smacked-down Chinese startup Xiaomi’s attempts to get into the TV game, and it has also established a state-run subsidiary company that it hopes will control the domestic internet, mobile, and television industries.
All of this is bad for business. In addition to just being off-putting and restrictive, almost all of this is bad for business and development. China’s internet is increasingly isolated from the rest of the world’s, which stifles domestic innovation and discourages foreign investment. And China’s restrictive policies, coupled with the unethical behavior of some high-profile Chinese tech companies, have helped ensure that it is tougher than ever for Chinese tech companies to expand overseas.
Now, are there some signs of good things, too? Of course. Smartphone and broadband penetration are up and will likely continue climbing rapidly throughout next year. Internet speeds are getting faster, and we might even see China’s first 4G network in 2013 (but probably not). Still, though, speed and access are less meaningful when the number of things you can actually do on China’s internet seems to be dwindling by the day.
I think 2013 will be the worst year ever for the web/tech industry in China. Here’s hoping that I’m really, really wrong.
Amidst all the 2012 in review madness, I thought it might be fun to turn our eyes to the future for a moment and make some predictions about what’s coming in 2013. Well, “fun” is a relative term. Call me a pessimist, but I think 2013 is going to be the worst year ever for China’s tech industry. Why
Internet censorship will get worse. China’s Great Firewall got an upgrade this month, and the blockage of many popular VPNs has already begun to affect businesses. There’s no reason to expect that will get any better in the new year, with government mouthpiece the People’s Daily calling for stricter internet regulation and reports suggesting the government may implement mandatory real-name registration for anyone who wants to get on the internet at all. All indications are that next year, China’s internet is going to be less free than ever before.
Social media censorship will get worse. Sina Weibo had a pretty ridiculous year when it comes to censorship, but with the new 7-day search delay and rumors of a new, more thorough real-name system don’t make the future sound all that bright. But the bad news isn’t just limited to Weibo; we have seen indications that the government is concerned about newcomer WeChat — even as it uses the service to track dissidents — so expect that to get a censorship smackdown in the coming year, too.
The mobile market will be restricted. One of China’s tech regulatory bodies, MIIT, is planning to reach its cold, bony hands into the world of mobile app development and sales. Exactly how that will turn out isn’t yet clear, but MIIT’s regulatory processes are the reason an iPhone takes an extra three months to come out in China. App developers are understandably concerned that they’re going to be slowed down — which can be a death sentence in the fast-paced mobile ecosystem — or censored, or very possibly both. Whatever happens with this round of regulation, I would guess that this won’t be the only time we see MIIT interfering in the mobile space in 2013.
More state control is coming, or at least is planned. While the government has been pushing state-owned companies to operate like real companies and try to actually make money rather, it hasn’t gone to much effort to support domestic innovators in the private sector. For example, SARFT (China’s fun police and film censorship bureau) recently smacked-down Chinese startup Xiaomi’s attempts to get into the TV game, and it has also established a state-run subsidiary company that it hopes will control the domestic internet, mobile, and television industries.
All of this is bad for business. In addition to just being off-putting and restrictive, almost all of this is bad for business and development. China’s internet is increasingly isolated from the rest of the world’s, which stifles domestic innovation and discourages foreign investment. And China’s restrictive policies, coupled with the unethical behavior of some high-profile Chinese tech companies, have helped ensure that it is tougher than ever for Chinese tech companies to expand overseas.
Now, are there some signs of good things, too? Of course. Smartphone and broadband penetration are up and will likely continue climbing rapidly throughout next year. Internet speeds are getting faster, and we might even see China’s first 4G network in 2013 (but probably not). Still, though, speed and access are less meaningful when the number of things you can actually do on China’s internet seems to be dwindling by the day.
I think 2013 will be the worst year ever for the web/tech industry in China. Here’s hoping that I’m really, really wrong.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
China tightens Internet rules - Channel NewsAsia
China tightens Internet rules - Channel NewsAsia
BEIJING: China has approved new rules that require Internet users nationwide to provide real-name identification, state media reported on Friday, as the government increases its already tight online grip.
The National People's Congress (NPC), the country's legislature, adopted the measures at a meeting on Friday, the official Xinhua news agency and other media said.
According to Xinhua, the decision, which came at the end of a five-day session of the NPC Standing Committee, requires Internet users to offer their names as identification to telecommunication service providers when seeking access to their services.
"Network service providers will ask users to provide genuine identification information when signing agreements to grant them access to the Internet, fixed-line telephone or mobile telecommunication services or to allow users to post information publicly," Xinhua said, quoting the decision.
Popular microblogging sites similar to Twitter have been used in China to air grievances and even to reveal wrongdoing by officials, and such muckraking is tolerated when it dovetails with the government's own desire to rein in corruption.
But with more than half a billion Chinese now online, authorities are concerned about the power of the Internet to influence public opinion in a country that maintains tight controls on its traditional media outlets.
Beijing already regularly blocks Internet searches under a vast online censorship system known as the Great Firewall of China, but the growing popularity of microblogs, known as "weibos", has posed a new challenge.
The firewall has been built up over time since the Internet began to develop in China, and uses a range of technologies to block access to particular sites' IP addresses from Chinese computers.
Censors also keep watch on the weibos that have been used to organise protests and challenge official accounts of events such as a deadly 2011 rail crash that sparked fierce criticism of the government.
Dissident artist and fierce government critic Ai Weiwei on Friday criticised efforts to hinder Internet discourse.
"Blocking the Internet, an action that will limit the exchange of information, is an uncivilised and inhumane crime," he said on Twitter, which is banned in China, but accessible for Internet users with more sophisticated equipment.
Li Fei, a senior member of the legislature, said on Friday that there was no need to worry that the new rules could hinder citizen exposure of wrongdoing, Xinhua reported.
"Identity management work can be conducted backstage, allowing users to use different names when posting material publicly," Xinhua further quoted him as saying earlier this week.
Previously, only microblog users in five cities -- the capital Beijing, the commercial hub of Shanghai, the northern port city of Tianjin and the southern cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen -- were required to provide their real names under a trial that started a year ago.
In the past, users had been able to set up microblog accounts under assumed names, making it more difficult for authorities to track them down, and allowing them to set up new accounts if existing ones were shut down.
It was not immediately clear if users would be able to find ways to skirt the requirement, though according to Xinhua, the trend has been towards registration.
It said that by last month, nearly all fixed-line users and 70 percent of mobile users had registered with their own names, citing figures from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
The ministry, which regulates the online sector in China, said in June that the then-proposed legal changes were needed to protect state security.Xinhua, in a separate commentary on Friday, said the new rules are meant to defend the legal rights of Internet users "and will help, rather than harm, the country's netizens" by, for example, protecting their privacy.
-AFP/ac
BEIJING: China has approved new rules that require Internet users nationwide to provide real-name identification, state media reported on Friday, as the government increases its already tight online grip.
The National People's Congress (NPC), the country's legislature, adopted the measures at a meeting on Friday, the official Xinhua news agency and other media said.
According to Xinhua, the decision, which came at the end of a five-day session of the NPC Standing Committee, requires Internet users to offer their names as identification to telecommunication service providers when seeking access to their services.
"Network service providers will ask users to provide genuine identification information when signing agreements to grant them access to the Internet, fixed-line telephone or mobile telecommunication services or to allow users to post information publicly," Xinhua said, quoting the decision.
Popular microblogging sites similar to Twitter have been used in China to air grievances and even to reveal wrongdoing by officials, and such muckraking is tolerated when it dovetails with the government's own desire to rein in corruption.
But with more than half a billion Chinese now online, authorities are concerned about the power of the Internet to influence public opinion in a country that maintains tight controls on its traditional media outlets.
Beijing already regularly blocks Internet searches under a vast online censorship system known as the Great Firewall of China, but the growing popularity of microblogs, known as "weibos", has posed a new challenge.
The firewall has been built up over time since the Internet began to develop in China, and uses a range of technologies to block access to particular sites' IP addresses from Chinese computers.
Censors also keep watch on the weibos that have been used to organise protests and challenge official accounts of events such as a deadly 2011 rail crash that sparked fierce criticism of the government.
Dissident artist and fierce government critic Ai Weiwei on Friday criticised efforts to hinder Internet discourse.
"Blocking the Internet, an action that will limit the exchange of information, is an uncivilised and inhumane crime," he said on Twitter, which is banned in China, but accessible for Internet users with more sophisticated equipment.
Li Fei, a senior member of the legislature, said on Friday that there was no need to worry that the new rules could hinder citizen exposure of wrongdoing, Xinhua reported.
"Identity management work can be conducted backstage, allowing users to use different names when posting material publicly," Xinhua further quoted him as saying earlier this week.
Previously, only microblog users in five cities -- the capital Beijing, the commercial hub of Shanghai, the northern port city of Tianjin and the southern cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen -- were required to provide their real names under a trial that started a year ago.
In the past, users had been able to set up microblog accounts under assumed names, making it more difficult for authorities to track them down, and allowing them to set up new accounts if existing ones were shut down.
It was not immediately clear if users would be able to find ways to skirt the requirement, though according to Xinhua, the trend has been towards registration.
It said that by last month, nearly all fixed-line users and 70 percent of mobile users had registered with their own names, citing figures from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
The ministry, which regulates the online sector in China, said in June that the then-proposed legal changes were needed to protect state security.Xinhua, in a separate commentary on Friday, said the new rules are meant to defend the legal rights of Internet users "and will help, rather than harm, the country's netizens" by, for example, protecting their privacy.
-AFP/ac
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