CTV.ca | China cracks down on web use, with Western help

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China cracks down on web use, with Western help

CTV.ca News Staff

Most people know the Chinese government restricts discourse on the Internet. But few people know Western companies help in the censorship process.

In China, public security forces and state-regulated service providers monitor every Internet posting and delete material considered objectionable by the communist government. Political content is the primary focus.

Now, U.S. companies are providing equipment and software that enables service providers to enter thousands of banned keywords and web addresses for automatic blocking.

Cisco Systems Inc., which is based in San Jose, Calif., sold the communist country routers that have the ability to block not only the main addresses for web sites, but also specific sub-pages, while leaving the rest of the site accessible.

So, Chinese censors can allow the country's 100-million odd Internet users to access most areas of Stanford University's web site, for example, while blocking a page for followers of Falun Gong, a group that's banned in China.

The same capability allows access to Google's main search page while blocking specific search results.