The great cyber wall of China by Magdalena Rosova

Google Inc. does not filter its search engine in China anymore. It is now Chinese government itself which filter the sensitive topics in the country. Although internet users in mainland China and Hong Kong now use the same Google search site, their experiences are still much different. For example, if you type to Google's search engine words Falung Gong,” the spiritual movement banned by the government, the Web browser stops responding for about a minute. Do the same in Hong Kong and you get plenty of links about referring to the movement. Chinese communist government uses its complex “Great Firewall” to filter taboo topics in the country. Searches f! or prohibited topics produce “page cannot be displayed” errors. When users search for taboo topics, the browser stops working for about a minute and then generate an error. Sites in English language have bigger chance to get through the filter, because the government is mainly focused on the majority of inhabitants who speak only Chinese. The government also block sensitive postings on blog or Twitter. When someone enters a forbidden word in a search engine, the Great Firewall immediately triggers a strong blockage that disable further searches. Google stopped its search service in mainland China on Monday and redirected “Google.cn” to already existing Gong Kong-based site. But before that Google returned censored results wanting its users to know about the omissions and hoping they would pressure the government to lift a ban. On Jan. 12 Google announced it would no longer censor results on its web search engine and decided to redirect the us! ers to Hong Kong, which is semiautonomous as it was a British! colony in the past.

related story (sgx16864): http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/22/tech/main6324075.s...

by Magdalena Rosova for Cantell TV (http://cantell.tv)

Cantell TV is the fastest growing provider of digital broadcasting coupled with telecommunications, allowing people to easily control, view, upload and share digital content through proprietary interface coupled with free phone calls. Cantell TV is committed to delivering infinite choices to your world of entertainment at the tip of your fingers.