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sexta-feira, novembro 11, 2005

Em 24 de Novembro de 2004, escrevia-se aqui ... The 'blog' revolution sweeps across China

Blog services are now sprouting all over China. By the end of October 2004, China had more than 45 large blog-hosting services. A Google search for bo ke will return more than two million results, from blogs for football fans to blogs for Christians. And while the larger hosting companies have become subject to censorship regulations, smaller companies and individuals do not face the same pressures. Any tech-savvy user can download and install blogging software themselves, bypassing the controls. Blogs play an important role in republishing and spreading information as quickly as it is banned from official websites. One example of this played out in September when China’s most influential bulletin board, Yitahutu, was closed down by the net police. Unlike other online forums, Yitahutu was moderated by its users, who voted to decide which post should appear on the front page. Without a moderator to blame for comments they did not like, the censors reacted by closing down the entire site. By that time the site had more than 300,000 registered users and 700 discussion forums, including many on politically sensitive topics such as Taiwan, anti-corruption, legal reform and human rights.
After the closure, all the major university bulletin boards were instructed to delete any discussion of the event. Even the name of the site was censored from Chinese search engines.

It has developed a system which will monitor sites in real time and search each web address for its registration number. Any that are not registered will be reported back to the Ministry, the statement said. Blogs are often used in countries where freedom of speech is limited as a way of speaking out against the ruling power. The new rules could be devastating for bloggers who do not toe the Chinese Communist party line, said Reporters Without Borders.

"Those who continue to publish under their real names on sites hosted in China will either have to avoid political subjects or just relay the Communist Party's propaganda," the organisation said. "The authorities hope to push the most outspoken online sites to migrate abroad where they will become inaccessible to those inside China because of the Chinese filtering systems," it added. Known as the Great Firewall, the filtering system used by the Chinese government is not entirely unbreachable; for every new restriction and technical door that it slams shut, the Chinese people find a hack, a workaround or an entirely new way of communicating. According to official figures, about 75% of sites have already complied with the new procedure.

Publicado por josé 18:18:00    

1 Comment:

1. sabine said...
   11:01 da tarde, novembro 11, 2005  
   :(

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