The Internet is Free, but NOT Here!
Every college student in the U.S. gripes about the same general stuff; annoying roommates, tough classes, piles of homework, and expensive tuitions. The meme “broke like a college student” didn’t write itself. What you don’t hear them complain about however is their Internet quality. Oftentimes these students come home and search for a quick summary of a book they read, (or perhaps more likely, didn’t) research a popular historical figure for a biography, or just kick back and chat with friends. Some are even brazen enough to waste class time playing games while the teacher is droning on about some subject they don’t care about. While the last one is not a good example of Internet use, to each his own. Imagine not being able to do any of these things, and if you tried, jail time or a hefty fine could be the repercussions.
First we’ll discuss Chinese surveillance, as this is the most prevalent and infamous aspect of their e-dictatorship. As freedom is a luxury we often take for granted in the U.S. and other democratic countries, Internet police seem like a funny cliché that would appear in an action movie. In fact, they are not, and almost 30,000 are employed to monitor and possibly arrest offending citizens and other “criminals”.
YouTube is a deadly sin, and watching funny cat videos is a crime against humanity. What happens to these feline loving crooks then you ask? For starters, depending on the severity of the offense (were there tabby cats involved?) a steep fine of the standard one-hundred and eighty dollars could ensue, or possibly jail time in a desolate prison. Everything is recorded by the government and sent to a central database for them to peruse at will. “The Internet Detective” is what the program is called, and it does reconnaissance on everything from e-mails to bank transactions. Some refer to it (less than lovingly) as the Great Firewall of China, for its blocks and other acts of censorship that shut down programs that often have no bad content whatsoever.
As mentioned before, violating China’s laws can warrant jail time or a steep fine. Non-Chinese civilians are not exonerated from these laws either. Journalists have been known to find themselves in jail for writing so-called “slander” towards the Chinese government: also known as things that could provoke the citizens to question communism. U.S. companies are not free either; while Google offers its full services to the entire world, each country having their own site, China patrols and regularly restricts information on their Google. After a while, Google was banned entirely after China accidentally let a dirty pun slip through, because it wasn’t quite a “bad” keyword. The word meant something harmless, and a bit insensible in English, while its Chinese translation made it a bit racier.
During the 2008 Olympics, the Chinese government toppled a giant. After doing some standard reconnaissance, the Chinese found that many of the competing athletes were listening to a pro-Tibetan song. Enraged, and even though the athletes probably had no idea that the song was about anything politically charged, China did the unthinkable; it shut down and censored iTunes for its civilians. Apple’s giant music sharing program went down with a thud heard around the world, and some athletes even mentioned the fiasco to media members who then enlightened the whole world.
This got people angry. Government may seem omni-powerful, but only if the people allow it. When the public began an outcry over the banning of their beloved music program, the Great Firewall was quickly lowered and iTunes was quickly off of the blacklist. They are no fools though; as interest and coverage waned, the once sheepish government immediately took back the reins and got back to its usual censoring tactics.
While most of the bourgeois in China would be intimidated enough to fall in line with these censoring threats. Others are so scared by the repercussions garnered by Internet crimes they shun it entirely. On the other hand, some civilian’s siren song is the rowdy “We’re not gonna take it!” Some choose to run the risk of jail time or a fine; fed up with not being able to tweet, message, or mail, they have found ways around the virtual blockades. Many use anonymous proxies to change their IP addresses and hide their identities. This effectively throws off the Internet police and puts them in such a predicament that they can’t even try and track the rebellious soul. These computer savvy civilians who bypass the censorship run a huge risk, but are showing other members of less-than-democratic nations that it can be done; the unjust governments are not all powerful, and there are loopholes.
