The Great Firewall of China, officially known as the "Golden Shield Project," is a massive internet censorship campaign orchestrated by the Chinese government. The project began in 1998 and has since expanded to include an estimated force of over 30,000 special police officers. After riots opposing Chinese rule broke out in Lhasa in March, 2008 censorship increased on photo and video sharing sites like YouTube.
Fast Facts:
- Official name: Golden Shield Project
- Project began in 1998
- First implementation in November, 2003
- Initial program costs estimated over $800 million
- Dedicated police force estimated 30,000 officers
- China initially promised to relax restrictions during the 2008 Olympics
- Coverage expanded after the Tibet Protests in March, 2008
Great Firewall of China News
- Google News: Great Firewall of China
- Times Online: China blocks YouTube, Yahoo! over Tibet (March 17, 2008)
- University of Toronto: Students Work to Circumvent Internet Censorship (January 28, 2008)
- "Internet censorship practices differ widely across the world. For example, in China, the government publishes a combination of technical filtering and extensive regulations and guidelines."
- Ars Technica: China's Great Firewall Turns Its Attention to RSS Feeds (October 4, 2007)
- BBC News: Microsoft Censors Chinese Blogs (June 14, 2005)
- Breitbart: Google Agrees to Censor Results in China (January 24, 2005)
Does China's recent banning of Twitter have something to do with the June 4 anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre?(1 Answer)
A:
Yes., the great firewall of China has been tighten up in the run up to the 20th anniversary of the Tianamen Square Massacre. Also blocked are Flickr, Bing ...
Does anyone know if Wikispaces and Blogger work in China? We have a class going there this summer and want to keep up with them.(1 Answer)
A:
You used to be able to tell what was being censored in China through a website called Great Firewall of China, but according to their front page they ...
