China bans Wikipedia

[Cowperson]

Bizarre move to ban Wikipedia to all Chinese citizens is drawing criticism within China.

Can China really control the internet if it wants to be a first world nation?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...International/

Cowperson

[troutman]

I give the Communists about another 10 years.

[Bobblehead]

They can try to control the net. The only way they will be successful is if other nations begin to require similar controls and the mechanisms required are engineered into the network.

i.e. if the U.S. and Britain and Germany all start requiring the ability to trace packets and regulate ports (far beyond current means) then once that becomes the installed standard, then it will be far easier for any country to censor what they want on the internet.

[mykalberta]

Its quite easy for China to ban wikipedia - they control all the access points within China, you can simply block it from there.

I do the same thing at work with PORN/Music/Video/Game sites etc.

I block it from chokepoint (which is the router).

Easy - Peasy - Japaneasey

MYK

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

Its quite easy for China to ban wikipedia - they control all the access points within China, you can simply block it from there.

I do the same thing at work with PORN/Music/Video/Game sites etc.

I block it from chokepoint (which is the router).

Easy - Peasy - Japaneasey

MYK

True, but the more technically savvy can get around many/most of these. If you allow any net access then there is a way around it.

And I'm sure in a enormous population like China there are more than a few clever people who can get around almost anything the gov't puts in place.

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

True, but the more technically savvy can get around many/most of these. If you allow any net access then there is a way around it.

And I'm sure in a enormous population like China there are more than a few clever people who can get around almost anything the gov't puts in place.

How would you, as a clever technical person with a lot of avarice, set up a business to provide, from Canada, access for Chinese requests to information on Wikipedia and other banned sites in China?

You'll remember a few weeks ago I provided a New York Times story on internet gaming farms in China where you, as a gamer, could hire a Chinese farmer to do all the dirty work in your tournaments.

It would be a little ironic if the reverse could be done as well.

Cowperson

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

True, but the more technically savvy can get around many/most of these. If you allow any net access then there is a way around it.

Yes, however at work if I hit one of these I get a message "This site has been blocked under the category of Proxy Avoidance." Worst case I get a call from Network Services telling me to please stop.

In China they (insert communist stereotype punnishment here.)

[Fozzie_DeBear]

I was talking last night about censorship in China with a chinese student, and it is hard to believe but most Chinese have no idea about the Tiananmen incident, little idea about the rural riots and a host of other issues.

If the Chinese Communist Party did allow unrestricted access to the internet/information they would in a heap of sh*t. I think that a lot of unsavory information (from the Commies POV) is coming in through Hong Kong.

I believe that most young Chinese hold very different values than the Communists would ideally like. It seems like a dying dynasty to me.
________
Silvanna

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

How would you, as a clever technical person with a lot of avarice, set up a business to provide, from Canada, access for Chinese requests to information on Wikipedia and other banned sites in China?

You'll remember a few weeks ago I provided a New York Times story on internet gaming farms in China where you, as a gamer, could hire a Chinese farmer to do all the dirty work in your tournaments.

It would be a little ironic if the reverse could be done as well.

Cowperson

Seeing as you can download the entire wikipedia if you like, just put up your version with a non-blocked url.

If China wants to change the architecture to only allow specific pages and disallow everythigg else, perhaps set up their own proxy and only allow their country to access that proxy, then that really removes a lot of the benefit if the internet.

If traffic shaping, packet sniffing, and backdoors are built into all encryptions then maybe there is a chance for a government to stop all billion of their people from accessing something they don't want them to access, but I get the feeling it is like trying to hold onto mud. The tighter you squeeze, the more seeps between your fingers.

[photon]

If Wikipedia is the source of scholarly knowledge for a country then I weep for them.

Things like freenet, tor, etc can be used to circumvent such blocks, or as has been suggested an encrypted link between some sort of proxy... of course then it becomes a cat and mouse game with the proxy and the net admins.

Or like Bobblehead said just burn the whole thing onto DVD and label them as Japanese Pop albums

[arsenal]

Well, if the country is censoring Wikipedia, one has to wonder about the information that is available to them. Wikipedia, while not the greatest source, is an uncensored open source of information.

They may have access too books and other journals, but who is say that information hasn't been screened by the Chinese government already.