China's "Friends" highlights Web freedoms
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SONGJIANG NEW TOWN, China  - "Soul Partners", a new comedy series described as China's version of the U.S. TV hit "Friends", features six people in their 20s who live together after being separately tricked into buying the same apartment.
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China will allow only state-run Web sites to broadcast video or radio through the Internet, tightening the governmentâs regulatory grip over the media content offered there.
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"Because of the global network that the Internet represents, we need international cooperation"  Security and justice officials from the Group of Eight industrialized nations held more talks Friday on ways to strengthen cooperation against child pornography, terrorism and product piracy. via The China Post
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(InfoWorld) - Wikimedia Foundation's English-language site was accessible in China again on Friday, although its simplified Chinese-language site remained blocked. China censors Internet content that it finds objectionable, usually political material that relating to Taiwan or Tibetan independence, the Falun Gong cult, and occasionally pornography. Although the Web sites of most Western news outlets are available, the British Broadcasting Corp.'s news site remains a noteworthy exception. The English Wikipedia site has been available for various periods over the last three years, and has kept a record of those periods on its site. "Wikipedia is such a popular Web site that almost every foreigner who visits China may try to visit Wikipedia pages. I believe someone at [the Ministry of Information Industry] or another government ministry realized what bad PR a Wikipedia block produces," said Jeremy Goldkorn, editor of Danwei.org, a Beijing-based media and Internet site. "Once they had figured out the elegant solution of keeping the Chinese version blocked, and filtering out English Wikipedia pages about Tibet and other 'sensitive' subjects, they were happy to let us access the rest of Wikipedia," Goldkorn said. While English Wikipedia was unblocked, Yahoo Flickr photo service remained accessible from China. However, most photos on the site were blocked and could not be viewed by Chinese users.
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Beijing decides that 113,000 internet cafes are enough -- at least until it figures out what this internet freedom stuff is all about. By the Associated Press.
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The Chinese government's filter for objectionable Internet content is actually a "panopticon," or an area where everything is visible, and not a true firewall at all.
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While young people embrace the Web with real or virtual friends and their mobile phone is never far away, relatively few like technology and those that do tend to be in Brazil, India and China, according to a survey.
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(InfoWorld) - Wikipedia's English site is blocked again in China, after over two months of being accessible, continuing a saga of on-again, off-again availability. Users in Shanghai and Beijing confirmed Wednesday and Thursday that they were no longer able to visit the site. Wikipedia's own account states that the block resumed on Aug. 31, although some users in China said the site has only been unavailable starting this week. China regularly blocks access to Web sites that it finds objectionable, including those dealing with politically sensitive subjects such as the Falun Gong religious cult and independence for Taiwan and Tibet, along with some pornographic sites. The Chinese government does not announce or comment on when a site is blocked or made available. Because the version of events or political views expressed on Wikipedia are not necessarily in line with those of the Chinese government, the government may be blocking access to the site. The current blocking may be related to the upcoming Communist Party Congress, which begins Oct. 15 in Beijing. Held once every five years, the meeting is the Chinese government's most important political gathering, used to create five-year plans, which are the bedrock of China's centrally-planned economy. It is also often used to reshuffle government positions or for leaders to consolidate their power. WhileÂ Wikipedia's English site is occasionally available, its Chinese-language sites are almost permanently blocked, although access is sometimes permitted for one or two days at a time. "Right now there seems to be an intensive government-mandated freeze on the Internet in China, particularly on Web sites with user-generated content," said Jeremy Goldkorn, editor of Danwei.org, a Beijing-based blog that covers China's media. "It seems that the attitude towards Web sites hosted abroad is also hostile right now, which may explain the latest block on Wikipedia." Â
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In a digital arms race, China's Internet controls might be used for more than censorship.
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China, which jails more journalists than any other nation, is challenging the view that information on the Internet is impossible to control, and the implications for press freedom could be far-reaching, a New York-based rights group said.
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By Li Weitao  China has made a major step forward in Internet technology, which could offer faster, more secure access and ease worries over network capacity, industry insiders said this weekend.
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The social networking site, an underdog in the Chinese market, begins testing a messaging function.
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Social networking sites like Facebook have wooed millions of users with their easy format for keeping in touch but left them navigating the pitfalls of interacting online -- is it really private?
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The country's netizens have become experts at wielding the power of the web to settle personal squabbles. This time, they took on a major tech company--and won
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Tiananmen anniversary photos apparently prompted government to restrict access to sharing site, Yahoo says.
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The Internet in China is not as  restricted as sometimes believed in the West, with most  controls actually coming from sites practicing self-censorship,  an academic who studies the Chinese Web said on Thursday.
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&#160;China watchers, get your scorecards out: Google&#39;s YouTube is blocked,&#160;Wikipedia is still blocked, but, for the moment, Google blog site Blogspot.com is available and some pictures from Yahoo&#39;s Flickr photos can once again be viewed.China-based users accessing YouTube since Wednesday afternoon began receiving the dreaded &quot;The server at www.youtube.com is taking too long to respond,&quot; the typical response when a user attempts to view a site that has been blocked.Google&#39;s blog site, Blogspot, is currently available after being blocked in June. An unblocking of the site last year led to the availability of a Shanghai-based foreign blogger known as Chinabounder, whose blog recounted the author&#39;s sexual exploits with Chinese women while working as an English teacher. The posts ultimately led to an unsuccessful hunt for the author and a temporary closing of the blog. Google did not respond to a request for comment on YouTube&#39;s block and Blogspot&#39;s availability.Photo site Flickr is once again displaying most of its photos, after its pictures, but not the site itself, were blocked in June. The Flickr photo block was the most obvious indicator that China&#39;s blocking technology goes beyond simple domain restrictions, but could target sub-domains. Even now, some Flickr images remain blocked while others display. For example, searching for the term &quot; Beijing &quot; from a China-based computer displays the larger photos on the left, but the avatars of users do not load.China regularly blocks access to Web sites that it finds objectionable, including those dealing with politically sensitive subjects such as the Falun Gong religious cult and independence for Taiwan and Tibet, along with some pornographic sites. However, while both Playboy.com and Penthouse.com are available, the British Broadcasting Corp.&#39;s news site is not. The Chinese government does not announce or comment when a site is blocked or made available.The current blocking may be&#160;related to the Communist Party Congress, which began Oct. 15 in Beijing and ends Sunday. Held once every five years, the meeting is the Chinese government&#39;s most important political gathering, used to create five-year plans, which are the bedrock of China&#39;s centrally-planned economy. It is also often used to reshuffle government positions or for leaders to consolidate their power.&quot;It is never clear why the authorities block or unblock access to Web sites,&quot; said Jeremy Goldkorn, editor of Danwei.org, a Beijing-based, English-language media blog. &quot;With the 17th Communist Party Congress currently taking place in Beijing, China&#39;s media regulators and media organizations are on high alert for anything the Party might find objectionable.&quot;