The Great firewall, Internet Cleaning Guard and other massive censorship by Chinese government
China has long been criticized for its Internet censorship, speech control, and mass surveillance. Supporters say that the strict monitoring system can help keep the peace and arrest criminals, while criticizers criticize that this is a serious violation of basic human rights. In my opinion, the disadvantages of the strict monitoring system outweigh its advantages.
Internet surveillance can be traced back to more than two decades ago when the Chinese government decided to build an Internet firewall that blocks detrimental websites. As time proceeds, the government is not satisfied with restricting website access but also seeks other measures for further blocking. For example, the app Clubhouse is now not only banned by the Internet firewall but also banned by the carrier. Users cannot receive the verification messages from Clubhouse when they first try to register the account, which fundamentally prevents Chinese users from using the app. Another example is Tiktok, which has an international version and a Chinese special version. When a phone with a Chinese SIM card tries to open the international version, a prevention notification will be prompted.
Currently, the Chinese government seems to be more ambitious and aggressive in censoring its citizens. In recent years, the Chinese government has launched a series of massive actions in the Xinjiang area to eliminate terrorism. One major action is forcing installing an app called “Internet Cleaning Guard” on every Android phone in Xinjiang. This app can scan all information on your phone and delete potential detrimental information. If one rejects to download it, he may even be prosecuted.
Admittedly, the strict monitoring system is a smart move from the perspective of the authority. Firstly, it helps maintain social stability. Under this system, most speeches that are likely to cause social panic is discovered in time and banned immediately. Moreover, it promotes the development of local apps. The system provides the local apps a friendly development environment without pressure from strong foreign competitors. Baidu became the most widely used search engine after Google was expelled from China. Similarly, Wechat and Weibo prosper partly because Facebook and Twitter were never introduced to China. Of course, if seen from the perspective of the U.S., this is unfair competition.
However, this strict system had more harm than good. An obvious result would be causing information occlusion of the Chinese citizens. In China, the information that the Internet user got has been selected and modified by the authority. Therefore, the accuracy and objectiveness of the information we get from foreign countries are compromised. Privacy invasion would be another concern. Thirdly, citizens are being deprived of the right of attaining and spreading information. For example, if I hadn’t done some research on the Chinese government’s censorship because of this blog, I would never know about the “Internet cleaning guard” app. Such news has never been reported in Chinese media. According to former president Zemin Jiang, “Media should be the mouthpiece of the party”. It is not a secret that all media in China are under the control of the Chinese Communist Party. The CCP can choose what information a report should reveal and how the news should be to maintain the absolute authority of the party. Such news that contains bad implications about the party will never appear on Chinese media or it would be reported in favor of the Chinese government.
All in all, consider China’s current national condition, maybe the Chinese government has to strictly monitor the Internet. However, it still has a long way to go considering respect to people’s privacy and the right of receiving and spreading information freely.
