Chinas Golden Shield Project or The Great Firewall

China's Golden Shield Project or The Great Firewall of China

In the 20 th century, control of information was easier • Not many sources • Few gatekeepers • Nations isolated

Today, control of information is more difficult Especially if you want to stay competitive in the global community.

One Approach to Control: Shut it Off • January, 2011 • President Mubarak of Egypt • Reacting to use of social media by protestors • Shuts down Internet in Egypt • How did he do it?

How the Internet Works

How Mubarak Shut Down the Internet

China: a smoother article China is an interesting example of a nation with a strategic vision for controlling the newly emerging virtual world.

In a speech in 2012, China's outgoing President Hu noted: "At present, our country has an important strategic window for development, but is also in a period of magnified social conflicts. . . “ He urged the importance of ". . . further strengthening and improving management of the Internet, improving the standard of management of virtual society, and establishing mechanisms to guide online public opinion. "

More recently, President Xi Jinping has called for “cyber sovereignty” “We should respect the right of individual countries to independently choose their own path of cyber development and model of cyber regulation and participate in international cyberspace governance on an equal footing, ”

The largest Internet user base in the world • 772 million users in 2017 • 56% of the population • Internet critical to continued economic, technological development • How to shape and control an essentially free environment?

Who controls the Internet in China? • At least 14 government agencies • Political turf war • State Internet Information Office created May, 2011 • Coordination, oversight, or control? • Power, money at stake

Most prominent method of control • The Golden Shield Project • Run by the Ministry of Public Security • Most sophisticated filtering and monitoring system on the Internet

Officers Jing and Chacha Unlike the crude Internet take down in Egypt, China has explored a variety of ways to shape and control information on the Web.

How China controls the Internet • Filtering • Monitoring • Controlling the discussion • Informing • "Self discipline" (Selfcensorship) • Creating alternatives to open applications like Google, Facebook and Twitter • Pressure on foreign companies • Licensing of news • Embedded software • Banning anonymous postings

Filtering • $700 million in Golden Shield infrastructure • Sites blocked by keyword, DNS server • International traffic through a few fiber-optic cables in 3 areas • Easier to control, monitor • Supposedly done to block pornography • Filtering common in the U. S.

Monitoring • An estimated 30, 000 police monitors • 500 cities with an Internet police bureau

Controlling the discussion The 50 cent army (or party) • Begun at Nanjing University • People paid to post, comment, and spin • Mainly government, also private sector • Estimates: 300, 000 posters • Potential impact on social media unknown

Informing In 2004, Center of Illegal and Harmful Information shut down 1, 287 sites. Informers paid between $60 and $240.

Self-discipline = Harmony = Self-censorship • "Harmonious" a code word for the suppression of unpleasant speech • River crab and harmony similar Chinese characters • River crab is a code word for "censor" River crab shutting down Twitter on the 20 th anniversary of Tiananmen Square

Self-discipline = Harmony = Self-censorship • Companies are responsible for what users do (US, Europe considered) • Companies regulate according to state dictates or suffer fines and shutdowns • Baidu, China's Google, aggressive censor • Google abandoned. cn presence over this (or inability to compete) • "Networked Authoritarianism" (Rebecca Mac. Kinnon) • Fear pressures individuals to conform Risqué cosplayer Li Ling “forced to drink tea”

Creating alternatives • More easily controlled • Pressure foreign companies to get in line

Pressuring foreign companies • Apple products subject to Chinese audits • NYT denied press credentials • Media “ Content control” broadly interpreted • US Department of Defense, NSA also want control over tech

Embedded Software • Green Dam Child Escort Software most famous • Project of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology • Supposedly antipornography filter for kids • 85% political, 15% sexual words filtered

Green Dam Girl • Originally required on all new computers • Chinese Internet users hostile • Ridiculed by "Green Dam Girl" cartoons • Reaction in Chinese press mixed (government turf war) • Software ineffective and buggy • Ministry backed down • Software optional, funding cut, project died

Buggy software • Pig farmers found their pictures banned • Color was a little too close to human flesh

So, where is all this going? Can China allow just enough freedom online to innovate and satisfy an upwardly mobile population and. . .

. . . still maintain control over the anarchy of virtual space?

Nobody knows. There's never been anything remotely like this. Parody of Green Dam Child Escort software in chichi Hong Kong fashion magazine Look. River crabs for harmony!