(Mis)Uses of Technology

(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick




It Takes A Lot Of People To Filter The Internet In China

from the employment-opportunities dept

The "Great Firewall" of China is quite well known. The fact that the country tries to block out plenty of websites and restrict what its citizens can do online is no secret. However, it seems that keeping Chinese internet users in check doesn't just take a lot of technology (often from American firms), but plenty of people. A new article suggests that the country has over 30,000 internet police to monitor what's going on -- and that doesn't appear to count security guards who literally look over peoples' shoulders at internet cafes. Given the size of the population, that may not actually sound that large, but it is pretty significant -- and it makes you wonder just how well that system scales as more and more Chinese citizens get online.

24 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments (rss)

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  1. Apr 3rd, 2006 @ 3:40am

    oh sure, but its not as expensive as it could be..

    I hear they can outsource it.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. Apr 3rd, 2006 @ 3:47am

    Work at Home Opportunity

    by Mont

    Now you can make $5,000, $10,000 and even $15,000 a month by working at home. With billions of Chinese getting online everyday your income potential as a Chinese internet filter is infinite!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. Apr 3rd, 2006 @ 4:00am

    How scale? Quite easy

    by Max

    In China is it possible that the police decides that the ones that browse in un-authorized sites get decapitated!

    And they will do it for sure.

    You know just last year there has been a video report of the shooting of a child (a girl) that at the end of the day has not reached her production target.

    ...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. Apr 3rd, 2006 @ 4:01am

    Yeah whoever can harness the Chinese Internet is going to be huge man.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. Apr 3rd, 2006 @ 5:14am

    Who would have thought that by having such policy, the potential of China as a growing market would cotinue to grow? Just thinking about someone behind my back inspecting every webpage that I visit gives me the creeps.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  6. Apr 3rd, 2006 @ 5:17am

    Blogger

    A friend of mine was in china, and realized that he could not access his blogger blog hosted on blogspot.com The great firewall blocks out the entire blogspot domain, but in their infinite wisdom the chiniese did not block blogger.com, so my firend was still able to post to his blog.

    The chinese can't tell each other how much censorship sucks, but they can tell the world

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  7. Apr 3rd, 2006 @ 3:02pm

    I'm from China and could not hate the censorship anymore! Especially after I came overseas and felt the difference. Nobody like it when what you can read is decided by someone else, but still, it's not easy to say: hey, i can do something about it

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  8. Apr 11th, 2006 @ 12:46am

    Re:

    by Command Chen

    We've got your number now, imperialist Elaine! Bah ha hah!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  9. Apr 13th, 2006 @ 11:27pm

    Chinese internet filtering

    There is far less internet filtering going on in China than generally believed. On top of this, the government really is not all that adept at it and the Chinese I know are quite adept at getting around it. I am not in any way condoning what is going on in China, but at the same time, I do think it is getting blown out of proportion. China Law

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  10. May 8th, 2006 @ 9:49am

    heh

    by Chris

    And to think, most products in the USA are made in China, a communist country the supresses its people. Think about that next time you are standing in line at Wal-mart with that little piece of junk in your hand.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  11. Jun 28th, 2006 @ 11:32am

    Re:

    by Kevin Williams

    Just want to let you know that if you think there is not anyone inspecting every webpage you are visiting you as well as most are very wrong.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  12. Aug 23rd, 2006 @ 1:46pm

    China...

    by Don

    30,000 internet police and almost 3 billion people...almost like in North America eh?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  13. Feb 8th, 2007 @ 4:23pm

    Fuck China

    by TRUTH

    http://www.fuck-china.com/

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  14. Feb 8th, 2007 @ 4:33pm

    China Law Blog

    by Stuff

    "China Law Blog" wrote:
    "There is far less internet filtering going on in China than generally believed."

    I for one go by what I see, and I see quite a lot. Curious to know who chinelawblog.com is I note that the registrar are these good folks: www.harrismoure.com. Nothing shameful in it, but I think you have a bit of a biased opinion seeing as how your are all about business flourishing in china.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  15. Mar 27th, 2007 @ 6:59am

    Deeply shameful

    by Keir

    Can't say much about a culture that employs so many whose job is simply to keep the rest of the 1.3 billion permanently stupid.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  16. Oct 13th, 2007 @ 7:03am

    Re: China...

    by Sean

    I don't see what you are trying to do here. Are you trying to say the numbers are similar to America's numbers? Do you really think America has 3 Billion people in it? What the hell? Are you trying to say we have 3,000 internet police?

    Vague anti-American comments from Americans is a freedom and all that noise, but it's mostly just stupid. Although I give you some credit for trying to seem like an original thinker, that is so original!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  17. Feb 7th, 2008 @ 6:34am

    Re: Re:

    by nuclrslug

    (Puts on tinfoil hat).

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  18. Jun 13th, 2008 @ 9:38pm

    Speak Your Mind

    Wear a T shirt printed with Chinese characters that says "Fuck China".

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  19. Aug 4th, 2008 @ 3:08pm

    Re: Speak Your Mind

    by Anonymous Coward

    fuck your dirty mother

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  20. Aug 20th, 2008 @ 6:45am
    by jewsintheshower

    baseball bats for jews
    the same for porch monkeys

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  21. May 29th, 2009 @ 3:01pm

    Try Freedur, you never seen anything like it

    by Jeff

    China firewall is lame – use Freedur.com to bypass it. You can bypass China Great Firewall and access youtube, facebook, blogger and all other sites which are blocked.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  22. Jun 1st, 2009 @ 11:05pm

    Re: How scale? Quite easy

    by sjo

    Really? Even i'm a chinese but never heart that someone browse in un-authorized sites get decapitated. where did you heard of that?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  23. Jul 8th, 2009 @ 8:56pm

    fuck chinese communism

    by freedom or death

    chinese communists are not human! they've all become the cruelest animals in the world! Damn it! They think that they can control this world? Daydreaming, they will have been destroyed sooner or later! wait and see!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  24. Oct 30th, 2009 @ 2:56pm

    Han chinese best, all the rest is dog

    by Jianxin Dong

    Han chinese will try to fuck you up if you are not Han chinese, you must be like dog. Han chinese best, all the rest is dog, we will cheat, steal, spy, even WAR - whatever it takes to win we will do - that is my mind, that is the mind of Han chinese!!!!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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