Talk at University of Hong Kong, "The Age of Digital Convergence" - http://jmsc.hku.hk/adcc June 12, 2009

1. Chinaʼs Censorship 2.0:
inside the “great firewall”
Rebecca MacKinnon
Journalism & Media Studies Centre,
University of Hong Kong
rmack@hku.hk
Friday, June 12, 2009 1

2. 2 (or 3) kinds of censorship
Friday, June 12, 2009 2

3. 2 (or 3) kinds of censorship
• “Outside the great firewall”
• Filtering of websites outside of China
Friday, June 12, 2009 2

4. 2 (or 3) kinds of censorship
• “Outside the great firewall”
• Filtering of websites outside of China
• “Inside the great firewall”
• Deletion of content on domestic
commercial websites
• Takedown of domestically hosted
websites
• Shut-down of data centers
Friday, June 12, 2009 2

5. 2 (or 3) kinds of censorship
• “Outside the great firewall”
• Filtering of websites outside of China
• “Inside the great firewall”
• Deletion of content on domestic
commercial websites
• Takedown of domestically hosted
websites
• Shut-down of data centers
• New 3rd category: PC-level (“Green Dam”)
Friday, June 12, 2009 2

6. The “Great Firewall” in action
Friday, June 12, 2009 3

7. Filtering research: Open Net Initiative
Friday, June 12, 2009 4

8. Human Rights Watch: search engine censorship research
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/china0806/index.htm
Friday, June 12, 2009 5

9. Human Rights Watch: search engine censorship research
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/china0806/index.htm
Friday, June 12, 2009 5

10. Human Rights Watch: search engine censorship research
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/china0806/index.htm
Friday, June 12, 2009 5

11. Nart Villeneuve: University of Toronto
See: http://www.nartv.org/writing/
Friday, June 12, 2009 6

12. Censorship by Chinese blog-hosting companies
Blog post about
“Tiananmen Mothers”
Friday, June 12, 2009 7

13. Your post “Tiananmen mothers organization publishes a
website” has been successfully submitted! Because it
contains sensitive words, please wait for the community
editors to approve it. Please donʼt re-post. Thank you.
Friday, June 12, 2009 8

14. 15 blog hosts tested, 108 valid tests
Company A 60
B 44
C 34
D 31
NOTE: Company names have been replaced with
E 27 letters due to concerns that companies who censor
F 26
less will be subject to repercussions.
Blog services
G 24
H* 22
PUBLISHED PAPER: “Chinaʼs Censorship 2.0: How
I 20 Companies censor bloggers.” First Monday.
Vol. 14, No. 2 - 2 February 2009
J 19 URL: http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2378/2089
K 17
L 13
M 9
N** 3
O*** 1
0 27 54 81 108
Number of blog posts tested
Friday, June 12, 2009 9

15. Main findings
• Censorship across 15 BSPʼs varied
even more than expected
• A great deal of politically sensitive
content survives in the Chinese
blogosphere despite censorship
• Censorship methods vary greatly from
company to company, implying
companies have at least some choice
Friday, June 12, 2009 10

16. Bao Tong essay blasting 1-party system (with
his name removed): censored by only 2 of 15
Friday, June 12, 2009 11

17. Xinhua: Hu Jintao pep talk to Olympic
athletes censored by Mop.com and Blogbus
Friday, June 12, 2009 12

18. Xinhua: Hu Jintao pep talk to Olympic
athletes censored by Mop.com and Blogbus
Mop: “Sorry, your article has been sent to the recycling
station, please revise it then publish again.”
Friday, June 12, 2009 12

19. Conclusions
• Network-level filtering (“the great firewall”) is only one
part of Chinese Internet censorship.
• Domestic host-level censorship is not centralized.
• Domestic host-level censorship is outsourced by
government to the private sector.
• Censorship is inconsistent - itʼs usually possible to
post your content somewhere, for at least a while.
Friday, June 12, 2009 13

20. Common Western view of Chinese
censorship: “Great Firewall” is only part of the picture
Friday, June 12, 2009 14

21. “Iron curtain 2.0”
(h/t Lokman Tsui)
Photo courtesy “PC fish” on Wikipedia at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Point_Alpha_Ostseite.jpg (GNU Free Documentation License)
Friday, June 12, 2009 15

22. “Net nanny”
Photo courtesy “merwing” at http://flickr.com/photos/merwing/2569326878/
(Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license)
Friday, June 12, 2009 16

23. Chinese web management:
Hydro-electric engineering metaphor
Photos:
LEFT: “noelinthebahamas” on Flickr at http://flickr.com/photos/noelinthebahamas/2417798169/ (Creative Commons BY-NC-ND)
RIGHT: “yunmeng” on Flickr at http://flickr.com/photos/yunmeng/323886547/ (Creative Commons BY-NC-SA)
Friday, June 12, 2009 17

24. “Green Dam” software mandate:
likely failure?
Friday, June 12, 2009 18

25. “Green Dam” software mandate:
likely failure?
Friday, June 12, 2009 18

26. Anti-censorship Protest video:
“song of the grass mud horse”
“cao ni ma”
“grass mud horse”
(alpaca sheep)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3tPA_Z_MT0
Friday, June 12, 2009 19

27. Anti-censorship Protest video:
“song of the grass mud horse”
“cao ni ma”
“grass mud horse”
(alpaca sheep)
*
Same sounds,
different tones =
“F***your mother”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3tPA_Z_MT0
Friday, June 12, 2009 19

28. Friday, June 12, 2009 20

29. Friday, June 12, 2009 20

30. Anti-censorhip meme:
“River crab wears three watches”
Friday, June 12, 2009 21

31. Anti-censorhip meme:
“River crab wears three watches”
“He xie”
“Harmonious”
“Harmonious Society”
Slogan of President Hu Jintao
Friday, June 12, 2009 21

32. Anti-censorhip meme:
“River crab wears three watches”
“He xie”
“Harmonious”
“Harmonious Society”
Slogan of President Hu Jintao
“san ge dai biao”
“Three Represents”
Slogan of fmr. Pres. Jiang Zemin
Friday, June 12, 2009 21

33. Anti-censorhip meme:
“River crab wears three watches”
“He xie”
“Harmonious” “Rivercrab”
“Harmonious Society”
Slogan of President Hu Jintao
“san ge dai biao”
“Three Represents”
Slogan of fmr. Pres. Jiang Zemin
Friday, June 12, 2009 21

34. Anti-censorhip meme:
“River crab wears three watches”
“He xie”
“Harmonious” “Rivercrab”
“Harmonious Society”
Slogan of President Hu Jintao
“san ge dai biao” “dai san ge biao”
“Three Represents” “Wears three watches”
Slogan of fmr. Pres. Jiang Zemin
Friday, June 12, 2009 21

35. freedom vs. control
Both photos in public domain via Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:T_Jefferson_by_Charles_Willson_Peale_1791_2.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alexander_Hamilton_portrait_by_John_Trumbull_1806.jpg
Friday, June 12, 2009 22

36. freedom vs. control
Both photos in public domain via Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:T_Jefferson_by_Charles_Willson_Peale_1791_2.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alexander_Hamilton_portrait_by_John_Trumbull_1806.jpg
Friday, June 12, 2009 22

37. Battle on the Chinese Internet
Friday, June 12, 2009 23