Proxy Servers To End Censorship?
I recently (due to a tip from James Fallows) downloaded HotSpot Shield, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) that is free with advertisements. Unlike other proxies I've tried in the past (FoxyProxy, Gladder, Tor, etc.) HotSpot Shield is completely reliable and fairly fast. For a person who spends a lot of time doing research online, I cannot overstate how nice this is.
The Chinese government spends a lot of money, time, and energy managing the Internet, either employing teams to firewall sites (such as Wikipedia or BBC News) or people to write pro-government slogans on the country's numerous bulletin board forums. While savvy Internet users can always find the right information if they look hard enough, the goal of the firewall is to make it sufficiently annoying so that nobody wants to bother.
I wonder if enough people use HotSpot Shield (or, like Fallows, commercial VPNs without advertisements) the Chinese government will eventually decide internet censorship isn't worth it. In fact, technological advances give the government a perfect face-saving excuse; we didn't stop censorship because it was wrong, but because it wasn't working.
China likes to tout that it has the most Internet users in the world, and this is undoubtedly true. However, only a minute percentage of people I suspect are particularly bothered by censorship. Walk past any 网å§; virtually everyone there is busy playing games, not writing anti-government manifestos. Bulletin boards that discuss politics typically veer into frightening nationalism rather than pleas for liberalism. Even potential dissidents understand that were they to successfully post an impolitic blog post or remark online, they may face severe consequences.
In the end, technology will probably slay internet censorship. But it likely won't make much of a difference.
September 14th, 2008 - 16:22
I have to agree that only a minute number of people in this country are bothered by censorship. So long as people can play games, chat online, and download pirated music and films, they don’t care about the rest and have no independent thoughts on them.
Probably the people who bear the brunt of its effects are the expats, not because they’re all busy trying to visit websites about T€” Square, the island of T€” and the province of T€”, but because they’re trying to get to innocuous sites which have been caught up in Nanny’s overzealous filters.
I don’t know why Live Journal and typepad remain blocked when blogspot, wikipedia and the BBC were unblocked; or sites like Omniglot and various others which mention neither China nor any of those issues which get Nanny overwrought should ever have been marked offlimits.
September 14th, 2008 - 17:01
I’ve tried to install hotspot shield a couple of times, but with no luck. Somehow it just won’t cooperate with me.
“I wonder if enough people use HotSpot Shield (or, like Fallows, commercial VPNs without advertisements) the Chinese government will eventually decide internet censorship isn’t worth it.”
I doubt it. The proxies I used back in ’99 and 2000 have long since been blocked and disappeared. I’m still mourning the loss of the nameless rodent and trying to find a suitable replacement (like I said, I’ve had no luck with Hotspot Shield, somehow it just won’t install properly for me). Commercial VPNs won’t disappear because so many big companies depend on them, but once Hotspot Shield attracts enough attention, it’ll go too, I’m sure.
As for frightening nationalism, I know of several blogs by rather liberal Chinese intellectuals. There is a hell of a lot of diversity out there, and that gives me hope.
September 15th, 2008 - 08:34
i don’t see evidence of censorship. 51mole.com works just fine.
seriously though the slowness of accessing the internet, proxied or not, almost does make it not worth bothering. it’s one of the first things i’d change if i had the power.
i, like chris, haven’t been able to get HSS working on my mac or under windows (still on my mac). never gets an IP address.
and i also think it’s only a matter of time before they start really messing with the VPNs. though if they want to really ever develop, this would be the wrong thing to do as it would likely cause big companies to shy away from china.
April 15th, 2009 - 11:24
I wonder if web industry affected by crisis as well? and to what extend? Will the admins continue this web?
April 15th, 2009 - 12:59
This is very hot information. I’ll share it on Facebook.