In a
blogpost written few day ago, I had mentioned about the amazing
volume of data on the net that is monitored or collected by the US
National Security Agency (NSA) and its collaborator in Britain, GCHQ.
Surprisingly, all this fades away in background, when you compare it with what is
happening in China. It is a known fact that China has about 600
Million internet users and is second after USA in worldwide rankings.
About 42% of Chinese population have access to internet.
This
is in spite of the fact that world's most popular microblogging site
'Twitter' remains banned in China. It has its own popular
microblogging site, 'Sina Weibo', launched in 2010. This site now has
more than 500 million registered users with 100 million messages
posted daily. That is just amazing volume of traffic of data. Topics
discussed on Sina Weibo cover a wide range; Personal hobbies, health,
celebrity gossip and food safety. However, most popular topic
includes politically sensitive issues like official corruption. Many
web users are tempted to use microblogs to criticize the state or
vent anger against the authorities and communist party.
Even
with that kind of traffic, internet in China remains one of the most
controlled and censored in the world. Websites which are considered
as subversive are routinely blocked. Politically sensitive postings
are routinely deleted to a ridiculous extent. A report on BBC,
mentions: “ The name of the former Prime Minister Wen Jiabao was
censored when rumours were circulating on the internet that his
family had amassed a fortune while he was in power.” Chinese seldom
reveal details about how they monitor and control the internet. The
government even does not even acknowledge that it blocks web sites.
Even on Microblogging sites, postings deemed to be politically
incorrect are routinely deleted.
In a
recent article, the news paper “Beijing News” has perhaps for the
first time has accepted that the net is controlled and censored in
China. I often wonder, how Chinese manage to do this considering the
volume, particularly the microblogs on Sina Weibo. A survey done by
BBC reporters recently says: “ Deletions happen most heavily in the
first hour after a post has been submitted. About 5% of deletions
happened in the first eight minutes, and within 30 minutes almost 30%
of the deletions had been made. Nearly 90% of deletions happen within
the first 24 hours.” To achieve this kind of efficiency is no mean
task.
The
“Beijing news” report, which I mentioned earlier, now is shedding
more light on this mammoth operation. Chinese Government employes
more than two million people in China to monitor web activity.
These monitors are called as internet opinion analysts, and are on
state and commercial payrolls. They are not required to delete
postings but rather strictly gather and analyse public opinions on
microblog sites and compile reports for decision-makers. They work by
typing in certain sensitive key words, which are specified by the
Government agencies and then monitor negative opinions about the
Government, gather them and compile reports and send reports to
Government agencies. Monitoring software used by these internet
opinion analysts is extremely sophisticated and supported by
thousands of servers. It also monitors websites outside China. Report
adds that Chinese Government is even going to conduct teaching
classes in October 2013, to teach the participants how to analyse and
judge online postings and deal with crisis situations.
The
Government however does not control all censorship activity directly.
It has sub contracted Chinese companies like Sina Weibo to maintain
internal censorship regimes. If these companies have insufficient
controls, the government takes action against the company.
With
such strict controls in place, I wonder about the likely impact of
the censorship and whether the deletions and other forms of
censorship actually stymie free thought. “Beijing News” report
answers this in an oblique reference. The report complains that it
is impossible for the government to delete all "undesirable"
postings and with the rapid growth of internet users, the ruling
Communist Party has found itself fighting an uphill battle. The
report adds that more the postings deleted, more of them appear.
This is very interesting, isn't it?The simple truth is that you may
be in US or China or anywhere else in the world, what you do on the
net is monitored and controlled, at least in China.
8th
October 2013
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