#Newspaper

UK Universities comply with China’s internet restriction

//UK universities are testing a new online teaching link for students in China - which will require course materials to comply with Chinese restrictions on the internet.

//MPs on the foreign affairs select committee have previously warned against universities avoiding "topics sensitive to China", such as pro-democracy protests or the treatment of Uighur Muslims.

//Universities UK, which is a supporter of the project, said: "We do not endorse censorship. This scheme is intended to ensure that Chinese students, learning remotely during the pandemic, can access course materials and are able to continue their studies." 

//But a spokeswoman for JISC says Chinese students will not have free access to the internet, but will only be able to reach "resources that are controlled and specified" by the university in the UK.

//Any online information used in these UK university courses will have to be on a "security 'allow' list

//This raises questions about academic freedom and free speech 

//JISC says online students in China face particular barriers with restrictions that "screen traffic between China and the rest of the world, filtering content from overseas used for delivering teaching and learning and blocking some platforms and applications".

Full Article: BBC, (10-Jul)

#UK #University #Education #Censorship #Internet

American-Chinese Writer Slammed as “Pro-American Traitor” on Internet, Says China Uses Her in Propaganda

American-Chinese writer Fan Jiayang has recently taken to Twitter to fight for a waiver that would allow private nurses to care for her mother, suffering from ALS, at the hospital during the epidemic. The incident was widely reported and hotly debated in China with Fan being slammed by Chinese netizens as a “traitor”, “worshipping America,” and “bringing shame to her extended family.” In a New Yorker article, Fan tells the story of how she and her mother have been used by China in its propaganda.

In her article “How My Mother and I Became Chinese Propaganda,” Fan says she was born in Chongqing, China in 1984. When she was two years old, her father was sent to the US to study biology at Harvard University. At the age of eight, she followed her mother, who was a doctor, to America to reunite with him.

A year and a half after Fan arrived in the US, her father had an affair and left her and her mother. To provide Fan with the best education possible, her mother moved to Greenwich, Connecticut to work as a domestic helper in an affluent neighbourhood—just so her daughter could attend a public school and receive a scholarship to attend a prestigious school. Having been through the Great Famine and the Cultural Revolution in China, her mother, as Fan describes, developed her survival instincts out of a “brutal, unsentimental pragmatism.”

Fan eventually graduated from Williams College, became a writer for The New Yorker, and moved to New York City with her mother. In 2011, her mother, then 59, was diagnosed with ALS, which left her paralysed and hospitalized for an extended period of time. Since 2014, she has been unable to breathe on her own and relied on a ventilator at all times. Fan hired a round-the-clock caregiver to take care of her mother. Communication with her would now have to depend on blinking and letter boards.

When the Wuhan virus pandemic broke out in New York City this March, the Henry J. Carter Specialty Hospital, where Fan’s mother was staying, banned visitors like Fan, who now had to rely on the caregiver to care for her mother. As a patient was diagnosed with the virus, the hospital expelled everyone other than medical workers on 9 April. The caregiver Fan hired was among those asked to leave.

Fan then gave a detailed account of the incident on Twitter, stressing that her mother required exclusive care, and posted photos of the situation at the hospital. This drew the attention of a number of legislators in New York. With the help of various people, Fan’s caregiver was able to return to the hospital the following day to continue taking care of her mother.

Fan’s story was soon widely reported in China. The Global Times, a state-run media outlet, said Fan had been targeted by the protesters when covering the demonstrations in Hong Kong for The New Yorker last year. The tabloid then said she described her Chinese-looking face as a “liability” on Twitter following the assignment. Other reports said that Fan’s articles endorsed the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong and that she has “misattributed the origin of the virus to China.” Fan was attacked by a large number of Chinese netizens on WeChat, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, who criticized her for being a traitor and making a living by slandering the motherland. They hurled at her such slurs as “NMSL” (“your mother is dead”) and threatened to burn, rape and abuse her. A photo of Fan and her mother also circulated on the Internet, where netizen China15z0dj wrote, “Your mother’s gonna die, haha. The 1.4 billion of us wish you a reunion with her in hell, haha.”

Source: Apple Daily #Sep12

#US #HK #China #FanJiayang #TheNewYorker #Internet #Propaganda #WuhanVirus #Coronavirus #Pandemic #COVID19

https://bit.ly/33dCDLi

#Cubans are losing their internet service. A similar thing happened with protests in Burma. According to Senator Rubio. Cuba uses an #internet service that was made, sold and installed by #China.

🎯Watch the full episode 👉 https://youtu.be/YYqi0YzkZoY

The “Great Firewall of China” is blocking 311,000 domains, including commercial, pornographic, and news media sites.

A team of academics from US and Canadian universities is investigating the China's Great Firewall with in-house developed system called “GFWatch”, to determine China's internet censorship capabilities.

The research team said that the China's Great Firewall blocks newly registered domains by default, until the authorities could filter and categorize their content. Using “GFWatch”, researchers tested 534 million distinct domains from April to December 2020, accessing around 411 million domains on a daily basis, and sorted out about 311,000 domains currently blocked by the China's Great Firewall, in which 40% of them are newly registered domains. The most frequently blocked ones include commercial, pornographic or news media.

Moreover, as the pandemic grew more intense last year some of the COVID-19 related websites are also banned, such as covid-19truth.info. In addition, some domains are accidentally blocked for name similarity with intentionally block sites. For instant, bookreddit.com is also blocked when the Chinese authorities blocks reddit.com, which make Chinese students hard to use those online resources for learning.

Source: Unwire.HK #Jul16

https://unwire.hk/2021/07/16/gfwblockage/fun-tech

#China #Firewall #Internet #Censorship #Pornographic #GFWatch #COVID19 #Reddit #LearningResources

China Steps Up Direct Involvement in Internet-Content Firms

China is taking a more direct hand in managing its internet-content companies by acquiring stakes, filling board seats and sending dedicated regulators to police content at firms more frequently, according to corporate filings and people familiar with the matter.

The moves, which aim to strengthen the government’s control over online content, build on guidelines first mooted in 2016 but enacted with rigor over the past year as Beijing has been increasing regulatory scrutiny into its technology sector. Authorities most recently targeted ByteDance Ltd., the owner of buzzy short-video platform TikTok as well as a popular suite of other news and content apps in China.

Source: WSJ #Aug17

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-steps-up-direct-involvement-in-internet-content-firms-11629209515

#China #ByteDance #TikTok #Internet

🤡hi #wumao! We are delighted (or not) to have you guys here! Entertaining and show us how there is no limit for stupidity 🤡🤡
#china #ccp #beijing #fuckccp #boycottchina #meme #internet #netizen #chinese #clown

Residents of #Taiwan's Matsu Islands have just become a little more isolated. They've been without the #Internet for the past month, and the loss of communication is putting stress on local businesses.

https://ept.ms/USBeatsChinainAI