DigiActive.org

Google’s Stand on Uncensored Search: Irrelevant to China’s Internet Experience

I’ve been living in China for two years, but before I’d even seen the news, I noticed something had changed. My familiar Google.com homepage had been transformed into Google.com.hk–a web page, despite its distinctly Asian extraction, bears a strikingly resemblance to its American older brother. Having thought I’d made some mistake, I clicked my browser’s ‘Home’ button a second time and in a moment found myself back on Google’s Hong Kong-based search platform. Getting a bit annoyed, I deleted .hk from the URL and attempted to twist my browser’s stubborn arm into taking me where I wanted to go; “Why do you care that I live in Shanghai? I’m American! Take me home!” A moment later, Google.com.hk smiled back at me again.

Momentarily giving up, I manually navigated to Google Finance where the familiar-looking U.S.-based version of Google’s financial information service greeted me with the headline: “Will Google’s China Move Set a New Tone?”:

…..Google said Monday that it’s decided to re-direct traffic away from its google.cn search engine to Hong Kong-based google.com.hk, where Chinese speakers may access unfiltered search results. It remains to be seen how long Internet users in mainland China will retain access to google.com.hk. The site’s servers are based in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China……

So now Google is doing me a favor by providing me “uncensored” search results via their Hong Kong based search platform? Pardon my confusion, but does that mean that my three years of search results using Google.com in China, rather than the local China-based Google.cn, was had been filtered the entire time? For now, I’m going to assume that if Google’s Hong Kong platform will provide uncensored search results to Mainland Chinese netizens then the U.S. platform has provided the same in China all along. The only difference now is that Google is automatically forwarding Mainland Chinese traffic attempting to access Google.com or Google.cn to its homepage to its Hong Kong platform. Until today, anyone looking for unfiltered search results could have simply used Google.com or any of Google’s dozens of regional platforms except Google.cn. The only benefit of Google.cn was that it provided a Chinese language version of the service, which was also always accessible via Google.com.hk.

My Google experience from within Mainland China, upset today by the impasse in tenuous negotiations between Google and Chinese authorities, is almost interesting as a new episode in the ongoing feud for freedom of information and an uncensored internet in China. Besides, I’m sure Google’s execs are proud of themselves for following their own mantra of “Don’t be evil” and taking what appears to be a stand on an uncensored internet experience in China.

My only qualm with all of this fussy posturing, that’s now even gotten the Obama administration officially “Disappointed” with Google and China’s failure to agree to disagree, is that it has absolutely nothing to do with the actual internet experience in Mainland China! Just because Google now automatically helps any would-be Google.com or Google.cn users along by forwarding us to their Hong Kong site for the glorious experience of “uncensored search results,” that doesn’t mean that these Mainland Chinese netizens can actually few any of the content on those pages! What benefit is my unfiltered search result when I click on it and the Great Firewall of China just blocks me from looking at it anyway?

There are several more reasons why all of this fuss over uncensored search results is irrelevant:

1. Censorship isn’t News: Anyone in China scouring the internet for politically sensitive content that might have been snuffed out by Google.cn’s filters already has no illusions about how manipulative, hypocritical, and controlling China’s internet authorities are–not to mention China’s entire government. In other words, they aren’t anywhere near getting duped into believing China’s official “Harmonious Society” tag line just because several items are missing from their Google search.
2. Circumvention Options Already Exist: Anyone in China who is genuinely serious about uncovered all of their missing content and actually being able to access it once they find it on their search engine of choice has options. For anywhere from USD $8-15 per month, VPN (virtual private network) software is available for subscription, which instantly unblocks all search results and real content in China.
3. There are Already Pockets of Free Speech on the Chinese Web: I don’t think Google.com or Google.cn were ever confused as a platform for political change in China. While I do applaud Google’s ethos of free information for everyone, people in China have many other places to go if they actually want to exchange politically sensitive ideas. Just take a look at Kaixin001.com! Here is an unblocked, easily accessible website on which hundreds or thousands or articles, videos, and photos are exchanged daily across China. Some articles are amusing distractions or mindless celebrity gossip, but many others are full of highly “controversial” content that blisteringly excoriates China’s government policies and the gaping holes in the face of its “Harmonious Society.” Read more »

Action Alert: Help Detained Vietnamese Bloggers

Background: The web has become a critical tool for over 20 million Vietnamese internet users to access and share information beyond the censorship of the state-run media.  Since September 2008, the authorities in Vietnam have unleashed a massive campaign against Vietnamese bloggers and cyber activists. In the last 12 months at least 15 bloggers have been arrested and harassed. According to Viet Tan, a Vietnamese pro-democracy group based outside the country, these bloggers  were simply posting their writings critical of the government’s handling of the land sovereignty disputes with China and bauxite mining. For example blogger Sphinx was detained for posting on his blog a picture of himself wearing a T-shirt saying “Paracel and Spratly islands belong to Vietnam. ”

How to Help: People can download the internet freedom poster and publish it on FaceBook, blogs and so on. People who live in America can send a pre-written letter to their Representative and urge him/her to support internet freedom in Vietnam.

Impact: The bloggers do not belong to any association or organization and it will be easy for them to be forgotten. Any international campaign can be helpful to create a virtual shield to protect them or at least keep their presence alive.

Action of “Omission” to Protest Chinese Censorship

What: To protest the implementation of the Green Dam Youth Escort filtering program on all computers sold in China, the blogger Ai Wei Wei is asking Chinese  users to boycott the Internet on July 1st, 2009.

When: July 1st is the date on which Green Dam much come pre-installed (or on an attached disk) for all new Chinese computers.

Where: People’s Republic of China

Why: To protest Green Dam in particular and Chinese censorship in general.

Who: We previously wrote about Ai Weiwei’s largely successful effort to collect the names of the children killed in the Sichuan earthquake last year.  He is also a well-known artist, who helped design the Olympic “Bird’s Nest” stadium in Beijing.

How: Via Twitter, Ai asked people to “Stop any online activities, including working, reading, chatting, blogging, gaming and mailing.  Don’t explain your behavior.”  The interesting aspect of this protest is that Ai is trying to create a political action which does not entail risk to participants.  By asking people not to acknowledge they are taking part in a boycott, Ai hopes to protect them from persecution by Chinese authorities.

It is hard to claim innocence when taking part in a political actions of “commission,” even one that is apparently innocent.  (In Belarus in 2006, for example, young people were arrested for assembling to eat ice cream.)  However, an action of “omission” puts the government in a more complicated position.  After all, not using the Internet isn’t criminal.  It will be interesting to see how many people participate in the action and whether or not the action of omission becomes a new strategy in digital activism.

Hat-tip: Stan Schroeder on Mashable

Image Source: Daily News

Images for Advocacy: Green Dam Girl

Green Dam Girl: “That unhealthy information is so gross; I’m a girl worth 40 million”
Mud Grass Horse: “I’m just an alpaca.”  (source: Danwei)

Background: Using pop culture references in an advocacy campaign is an effective way to get non-activists involved.  It’s also a way to subtly push a political agenda in a country where overt political messages are censored or where posting or passing on political messages can endanger the activist.

Because of the Chinese government’s limitations on freedom of speech and persecution of dissidents, Chinese activists have become masters of satire and symbolism.  The image above is a prime example of their techniques.  Originally published by Chinese blogger Hecaitou, this drawing uses on the visual language of Japanese anime while bringing together some of the greatest hits in Chinese political satire: behold…Green Dam Girl.

Tool:  satiric images spread online

How it’s being used: Green Dam Girl is a cartoon avatar for Green Dam, a piece of self-censoring software which will be mandatory on all computers sold in China starting July 1.  She’s also holding a rabbit, which is the software’s logo.  (Read a review of the software from the OpenNet Initiative.)  On her cap is an image of the river crab, a homonym for the word “harmony” in Chinese and a dig at the Chinese government which calls censorship harmonization.  (Read more on river crab from China expert Rebecca MacKinnon.)   Green Dam Girl is carrying a bucket of paint (or maybe soy sauce) to cover up all the filth on the Internet.

Finally, the animal she has chained up is an infamous mud grass horse.  Another great Chinese homonym, mud grass horse sounds just like “f— your mother” in Chinese and is another dig at censors.  A few months ago there was a group of very funny and popular videos with children singing ever so innocently about the exploits of mud grass horse… and sounding completely filthy!  (Read more about mud grass horse here.)   Of course, mud grass horse has been chained up because he’s part of the Internet filth that Green Dam Girl has been sent to destroy, but he says he’s been falsely accused – he’s just an alpaca!

Lessons:  1) Funny travels further than Angry, especially to engage an audience of non-activists.  (The Free Kareem campaign also uses cartoons to get their message across.)

2) Symbols and language tricks are a great way to get around censors and mock them at the same time.

3) Digital activism campaigns need the skills of people who do not have digital skills.  Someone who is good at drawing can help a campaign create great a poster, graphic, or logo and then all you need is a scanner to get it online.

R@D: Case Study on Vietnam’s Blogger Movement

Note: Although this article was not produced for R@D, we found it to be an excellent overview of the digital activism context in Vietnam and are publishing it here with the consent of the authors.

The purpose of Research@DigiActive (R@D) is to produce applied, thought-provoking, actionable research at the cutting edge of Digital Activism. It seeks to highlight and disseminate studies in the new academic field of digital activism by publishing short papers by promising scholars. To submit a paper or get more information, please contact our Director of Applied Research, Patrick Meier, at Patrick AT Digiactive.org.

Title: Vietnam’s Blogger Movement: A Virtual Civil Society in the Midst of Government Repression

Authors: Duy Hoang, Cuong Nguyen, and Angelina Huynh
of the pro-democracy organization Viet Tan

Abstract: Despite the increasing popularity of social media in Vietnam, government persecution of online political activists have put significant limitations on digital activism in that country. The paper begins by discussing popular technology platforms and summarizing the success stories of online citizen journalism. However, the actions of the government to curtail online activism – blocking of critical sites, collaboration with foreign companies to create a censorship mechanism similar to the Great Firewall of China, and imprisonment of digital activists – has made the overall outlook bleak. The paper ends with policy recommendations for those outside the country who wish to support the human rights of and online freedom of expression of those in Vietnam.

Read the publication…

Action Alert: Day of Solidarity with Persecuted Bloggers

Background: Omid Reza Mir Sayafi, an Iranian blogger, died tragically in prison on March 18, demonstrating the sad fact that a blogger’s life can be lost as easily as a blog can be filtered by authorities.

Bloggers have been praised on many occasions for their contribution and value to the information society. They are admired in many cases as unheard voices but unfortunately most of the time, when a blogger faces persecution, his or her voice is not heard.

Sadly, Omid Reza’s case is not an exception and dozens of cyber dissidents are in jail around our globalized world and many more face political persecution.

When: I would like to propose March 18 every year as an International Day of Solidarity with Persecuted Bloggers.

Why: We can remember, talk and honor in this day jailed, tortured, killed and threatened bloggers, regardless of their political ideas and social or ethnic backgrounds. We can also discuss on this day what measures should be taken to support persecuted bloggers.

How: Please contact me at helpforbloggers@gmail.com if you’d like to get involved.   So far I have received very positive feedback from Committee to Protect Bloggers, Global Voices Advocacy, Freekareem, Mideast Youth and several bloggers and  I am ready to receive your comments, ideas, initiatives and words on this topic.

Tactic: Iranian Blog Declaration Against Filtering

Description: Iran has always been a land of filtering, but in recent months pressure on sites and blogs has increased. Recently, about 100 bloggers signed a declaration that condemns filtering and call for freedom of speech. They also asked the end of filtering. The declaration says that freedom of media has become more restricted than before. In recent weeks, several blogs and sites, especially the ones that write about political and social issues, have been filtered [blocked]. Several women’s blogs that are filtered too. At the same time, pro-government blogs and sites continue their activity and enjoy freedom. The declaration also notes that filtering and censorship are against the Declaration of Universal Human Rights.

Organizer: The blog Boyehkhak published[fa] the declaration and other bloggers supported it and signed it.

Purpose of Action: To try to convince the Iranian government not to filter blogs.

Organizing Tools: a declaration published on a blog

Outcome:It is very difficult to imagine that Iranian blogs’ protest against filtering can have any practical effect on the Iranian government. But when 100 blogs sign a declaration together, it shows that the cyber world is not a divided space.

Ease of Replication: It is easy to post a declaration on your blog. The hard part is getting other people to sign it. This is a classic organizing task. You need to contact people and organizations who you think also care about the issue – using e-mail, listservs, social networking groups and any other mass communication tools at hand – to convince people to sign your declaration.

Read more »

Guide: How to Access Banned Blogs

Title: How to Access Banned WordPress.com Blogs

Author: Lorelle VanFossen

Published by: Lorelle on WordPress (2008)

What is it?: A detailed post reviewing how to access blocked blogs (and other sites). Unlike other guides to circumvention, Lorelle gives links to specific proxy site and downloads. The guide is a quick and easy read and a great reference. Topics covered include:

• Client Side Proxy Software
• Online Web Proxy Bypass Sites
• Using a Peer-to-Peer Content Distribution Network
• Browser Extensions

Read more »

Theory: The Streisand Effect

The Streisand Effect refers to instances when Internet censorship has the opposite effect, actually increasing distribution and awareness of the censored material.

Origin of the Term: In 2003 singer Barbra Streisand sued photographer Kenneth Adelman and Pictopia.com for $50 million dollars to force them to remove a picture of her home (see above) from a series of 12,000 pictures of the California coast taken to study the effects of beach erosion. As a result of this peculiar law suit, the picture of her home was disseminated on the Internet and many more people saw it than would have if she had not tried to censor the image.

Application for Activists: How can activists apply the Streisand Effect as a means of countering Internet censorship? The key to the Streisand Effect is distributing the censored material and publicizing the instance of censorship. Without these two elements – distribution and publicity – censored material will not be viewed by a wide enough audience to counteract the original effect of the censorship. The end goal is to show your government that censoring content has the reverse effect, and thus discourage your government from censoring

From a technical perspective, the best way to distribute censored content is by e-mail, though feeds can also be used, as in the case of Amnesty International’s Irrepressible campaign, which allows bloggers to publish a feed of censored blog content on their own blog.

Read more »

Tactic: Temporary Posting to Avoid Censorship

IMPORTANT NOTE: The security situation is each country is unique. Please consider the specific security environment in your own country when deciding whether to use the advice in this section.

Threat: Bloggers who publish content critical of the government risk having their blogs blocked by the government if they live in a country with limited freedom of expression.

Way to Protect Yourself: To make it more difficult for the censors to find sensitive content on your blog, only post the content for a few hours and then take it down. This temporary posting gives the censor a smaller window of time to find this content on your site and thus makes it less likely that you will be blocked, while also giving readers enough time to copy and paste the information from your blog onto bulletin board systems and chat rooms for wider discussion.

How Activists Are Using This Technique: When news of the Tibet protests broke, Bei Feng, editor of one of “China’s ten most influential” web portals, only posted information about the protests on his blog for a few hours, which gave his readers enough time to copy the information onto other sites but prevented his blog from being blocked. This is a strategy that “he commonly uses for sensitive issues, posting a story about it on his blog and then taking it off after only a few hours to avoid being shut down by censors.” (source: openDemocracy)