Briefly for few hours, China enjoyed total Internet freedom Monday early morning. China’s Official Web Controlling system known as ‘Great Firewall’ which is controlled by the Chinese government to implement Internet censorship was lifted for few hours and China enjoyed websites like YouTube, Facebook etc. Rumors spread around very fast across social networking websites about China lifting the censorship on various sites but soon when China woke up, the censorship was back and computers sprung upon the blocked website error messages.
Twitter users were the one updating all the updates regarding the fast spreading news related to this, amongst all the one of the twitter user, Michael Anti a social critic tweeted about its development as it came to him saying ‘It’s believed this unblocking on some ISPs is caused by GFW upgrading and maintainence, not real unblocking. Yet to confirm.’ While others reasoned it had something to do with the heavy snow that blanketed northern China over the weekend.
The real reason behind this rampage of unblocked access is still unclear. China Unicorm, the ISP which maintains this system didn’t clear anything yet. China’ web censorship was primary in the push to crackdown pornography. But many say its just to control the world’s largest Internet Community. Authorities announced last week that thousands of people were arrested last year for crimes related to online porn, Hundreds of websites have been shut down, including file-sharing destinations for pirated movies and music, as well as personal blogs.
A pronouncement released last month stated was interpreted to mean that foreign websites may one day have to register with the government before being allowed inside the Great Firewall. China’s Internet censorship measures have indefinite criticism by many. Implementing harsher means could cause widespread internet rebellions all over China.
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Image Courtesy : ChinaDigitalTimes
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