China tightens internet censorship in Tibet
Originally published by Tibetan Review.net, 05 Aug 2010
All internet cafes across Tibet have been ordered to finish installing by the end of Aug’10 a state-of-the-art surveillance system which would not only restrict contents that could be viewed by identified surfers but also monitor their internet activities. “All the Internet cafes must now install it,” Radio Free Asia online Aug 3 quoted Chen Jianying, head of the customer service department of the industry group Internet Cafes Online, as saying.
Under a nationwide scheme, which took effect Aug 1, second-generation identity cards belonging to the person using the Internet must be swiped to allow online access. Viewed content can then be traced back to that identity, using the surveillance system.
China claims that the new restriction is aimed at controlling pornography and prevent minors from accessing inappropriate content online. But according to retired Nanjing University professor and civil rights activist Sun Wenguang, “You can’t control young people on the Internet. … Of course their parents can exercise appropriate guidance.”
In his view, the real objective behind the surveillance may be political censorship. “The starting point of the whole real-name registration policy is that they are afraid that [viewers] will see content from outside China, content that they are trying to block,” he was quoted as saying.
The report cited the China Tibet News website as reporting that the Tibet Autonomous Region government had already inaugurated its long-range surveillance system under the new measure.