About Internet Regulation in China
As access to the Internet becomes more prevalent, the court systems of the world have had to deal with filtering illegal content and finding fair ways of prosecuting people who commit illegal acts through the anonymity that the internet provides. While regulations in the U.S. and other countries have remained loose, the regulations in China have become increasingly strict.
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History
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The Chinese government first allowed internet service providers to sell Internet connections to the public in 1995 in largely un-regulated form. The first real regulations occurred in the year 2000 when the government released guidelines for what sort of material could be posted, viewed, or downloaded in China. The Golden Shield Project was started in 2003 to block IP addresses of websites that contain banned content and to temporarily shut down the connection of any user who frequently attempts to access banned content. An update to the internet guidelines was released in 2005 which ease some restrictions on news sites but increased restrictions for pornographic and sexually explicit material. The regulations were loosened temporarily for journalists who traveled to China in 2008 for the Olympic games.
Function
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The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Public Security oversee internet regulation in China. They require that all websites created or maintained in China register with the government or they will be shut down. They also block access to content which could incite illegal activities or websites that are linked to illegal groups.
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Features
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A study released the University of Harvard in 2006 showed that over 18,000 websites are blocked in China due to the government's Internet regulation policies. The main types of sites blocked include foreign news sources that cover information about Tibet or the Dalai Lama such as BBC News and the New York Times, blogs or forums where users have posted negative information about the Chinese government, sites that contain pornography or sexually-explicit text, and the Chinese version of Wikipedia. Search results found in the popular search engine Google are also filtered so that banned content will not be displayed.
Prevention/Solution
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While the regulation of Internet activity is extensive in China there are many ways that Chinese users have circumvented website blocks so that they can still access the information. The most common method is by using a proxy server, which routes the user's IP address through a different computer outside of China. There are also websites which the Chinese government has not blocked or filtered content for yet, such as the mirror of Google called "elgooG."
Considerations
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Accessing blocked information or posting banned content is illegal and can be punishable by extensive prison time in China. In 2006 a journalist named Shi Tao was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for sending information about the Chinese government to foreign news sources. Another Chinese citizen named Li Zhi received a sentence of eight years imprisonment in 2003 for posting information in his blog that was critical of the Chinese government.
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