Digitally Divided by the Great Firewall of China

Some of the provinces of China, like Macao, have the most accessible broadband in the world, accounting for only 0,3% of the average monthly income there (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11162656). But as the technical and financial aspects of connectivity are overcome, a different kind of digital divide is emerging. The so called Great Firewall of China or the Golden Shield Project censors internet content thus creating a new kind of digital exclusion. Censoring is done through IP blocking, DNS filtering and redirection, URL filtering, connection reset. Access is blocked to sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Firewall_of_China). In essence Chinese citizens are deprived of access to certain information and social networking and though they may have Internet access, they still suffer digital exclusion.

The censorship in China caused Goolge to retreat from the Chinese market as the company was no longer willing to censoring their results on Google.cn (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html). A “work-around” solution Google found was to put a link to Google.com.hk, the Hong Kong google, where they are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/update-on-china.html). I wonder if “work-around” solutions can be found for Facebook and YouTube.

According to the Digital economy rankings 2010 report of the Economist Intelligence Unit (http://graphics.eiu.com/upload/EIU_Digital_economy_rankings_2010_FINAL_WEB.pdf) when the primary mission of countries was to become “e-ready”, the interests of various stakeholders were aligned around a shared vision to increase digital access. But as the imperative turns from availability to greater usage, those interests can start to diverge. For reasons of safety and security, for example, governments take an interest in how constituents use the Internet. China’s interest is particularly keen, but China is far from alone in trying to control its digitally enabled citizens: the Committee to Protect Journalists names China, Vietnam, Syria, Iran and Egypt among the toughest countries to be a blogger, and has recently criticised Vietnam for shutting down political blogs (http://graphics.eiu.com/upload/EIU_Digital_economy_rankings_2010_FINAL_WEB.pdf).