Sunday, March 04, 2018
China tries to censor the web outside its borders, with pressure on some tech companies
Paul Mozur writes in a front page article in the New
York Times Saturday, “China exerts digital control beyond its borders”, link . The subtext is “broadening efforts to censor
and influence foreign websites”.
Although China can block many sites and social media within
its borders, these filters are not always effective. (Last time I looked, Blogger,, as a Google
product, is banned in China but Wordpress is not, and most flat sites reach China; I get emails from the Middle East and China
so I know my content gets found there.)
But if I read the article correctly, China seems to
want foreign social media to censor content worldwide because it is likely to
reach dissidents in China anyway. It seems to be putting pressure on
Twitter. It can’t put pressure on
companies it doesn’t allow in the country, however.
There have been cases where Chinese citizens have been
arrested for comments they have published when outside the country or even for
conversations they have had with foreigners when hacked. That is one reason why EFF has encouraged all
websites to use https for the protection of foreign visitors and has encourage
competence in using TOR when communicating with clients, when one doesn’t know
one’s clients vulnerabilities.
In 2013 I kept getting emails about registering my
legacy doaskdotell in China, which I had no interest in doing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment