Chinese-language news sites. Overseas news organizations such as the World Journal
and the BBC News Chinese Web site were the main beneficiaries of China’s Olympic
guarantees.
Even though the IOC acknowledged on July 31 that filtering would continue to take
place, a number of Web sites blocked at the MPC on July 25 were accessible a week
later, including Amnesty International, Chinese-language Wikipedia (zh.wikipedia.org),
and an increased swath of independent media including Taiwan’s Liberty Times, the
Hong Kong–based Apple Daily newspaper, Voice of America news, and Radio Free Asia
(www.rfa.org) and its Chinese Web site.
However, RFA’s Tibetan- and Uyghur-language Web sites became inaccessible again
around August 20. Although Flickr remained accessible throughout the testing period,
two of its photo servers were filtered until mid-August. Most of the sites unblocked for
the Olympics remained accessible until at least mid-September 2008 on China Netcom,
although a few (including Amnesty International) were again blocked on China Telecom by September 15.
At the same time, the ONI found that the sites being filtered frequently address
tumultuous and controversial changes wrought in preparation for the games, from
crackdowns on civil society to the transformation of a capital city and other social
upheavals. Thus, the majority of advocacy sites and politically ‘‘sensitive’’ organizations
remained blocked, sweeping across a broad range of issues from citizen journalism
(www.zuola.com) to the Three Gorges Probe, as well as nearly all of the Tibetan exile
advocacy groups. Groups staunchly critical of Chinese government policy, including
the press freedom groups Reporters Without Borders and Freedom House, continued
to be blocked. The status of certain news sites, including the China Digital Times Internet news and information clearinghouse and Boxun.com, a dissident news Web site
that Chinese government officials reportedly look to as a source of internal news,
remained unchanged. Furthermore, the accessibility of any Web site does not guarantee that content on that site will be available, as China’s practice of filtering keywords
through a TCP reset appears as robust as ever.
On December 19, 2008, the Web site of the New York Times was reported blocked
even as restrictions were lifted on the Chinese-language Web sites of the BBC, Voice
of America, and Asiaweek, which had been blocked earlier that week. 184
In addition to testing during the Olympics period, the ONI also conducted testing in
late 2008 on two backbone providers, the state-owned telecoms China Unicom (CU),
formerly China Netcom, and China Telecom (CT), which between them provide coverage nationwide. Because both control access to an international gateway, URL filtering
and domain name system (DNS) tampering implemented by CU and CT affect all users
of the network regardless of ISP.
Nearly all the DNS tampering was executed by CU, while CT blocked a number of
human rights organizations, pornographic sites, and one Hong Kong–based publisher
China
469
and the BBC News Chinese Web site were the main beneficiaries of China’s Olympic
guarantees.
Even though the IOC acknowledged on July 31 that filtering would continue to take
place, a number of Web sites blocked at the MPC on July 25 were accessible a week
later, including Amnesty International, Chinese-language Wikipedia (zh.wikipedia.org),
and an increased swath of independent media including Taiwan’s Liberty Times, the
Hong Kong–based Apple Daily newspaper, Voice of America news, and Radio Free Asia
(www.rfa.org) and its Chinese Web site.
However, RFA’s Tibetan- and Uyghur-language Web sites became inaccessible again
around August 20. Although Flickr remained accessible throughout the testing period,
two of its photo servers were filtered until mid-August. Most of the sites unblocked for
the Olympics remained accessible until at least mid-September 2008 on China Netcom,
although a few (including Amnesty International) were again blocked on China Telecom by September 15.
At the same time, the ONI found that the sites being filtered frequently address
tumultuous and controversial changes wrought in preparation for the games, from
crackdowns on civil society to the transformation of a capital city and other social
upheavals. Thus, the majority of advocacy sites and politically ‘‘sensitive’’ organizations
remained blocked, sweeping across a broad range of issues from citizen journalism
(www.zuola.com) to the Three Gorges Probe, as well as nearly all of the Tibetan exile
advocacy groups. Groups staunchly critical of Chinese government policy, including
the press freedom groups Reporters Without Borders and Freedom House, continued
to be blocked. The status of certain news sites, including the China Digital Times Internet news and information clearinghouse and Boxun.com, a dissident news Web site
that Chinese government officials reportedly look to as a source of internal news,
remained unchanged. Furthermore, the accessibility of any Web site does not guarantee that content on that site will be available, as China’s practice of filtering keywords
through a TCP reset appears as robust as ever.
On December 19, 2008, the Web site of the New York Times was reported blocked
even as restrictions were lifted on the Chinese-language Web sites of the BBC, Voice
of America, and Asiaweek, which had been blocked earlier that week. 184
In addition to testing during the Olympics period, the ONI also conducted testing in
late 2008 on two backbone providers, the state-owned telecoms China Unicom (CU),
formerly China Netcom, and China Telecom (CT), which between them provide coverage nationwide. Because both control access to an international gateway, URL filtering
and domain name system (DNS) tampering implemented by CU and CT affect all users
of the network regardless of ISP.
Nearly all the DNS tampering was executed by CU, while CT blocked a number of
human rights organizations, pornographic sites, and one Hong Kong–based publisher
China
469