International Law

Support the (Net) Troops in Their Valiant Fight Against Foreign Porn

By Stan

After decimating domestic sites that traffic in boobies and harsh language, and ensuring that operators of new sites must register their genuine identities with government regulators, Beijing is now going after “overseas hostile forces” in the struggle against smut.

The Associated Press, via their overseas correspondent on the front lines, filed this report:

China will target online information from “overseas hostile forces” in its next crackdown to tighten Internet controls, a government spokesman said in comments reported Monday.

The move is part of efforts to step up a crackdown on online smut, gambling, fraud and other offenses, said Wang Chen, chief of the Cabinet’s Information Office, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

“We will strengthen the blocking of harmful information from outside China to prevent harmful information from being disseminated in China and withstand online penetration by overseas hostile forces,” Wang was quoted as saying.

Beijing encourages Internet use for business and education but tries to block material deemed subversive or pornographic and operates an extensive system of Web monitoring and censorship. Regulators block access to websites abroad run by political and human rights activists and some news organizations.

China’s population of Internet users, already by far the world’s largest, has surpassed 400 million, with 233 million users getting access through mobile phones, according to weekend reports by state media, also citing Wang.

Beijing has launched repeated crackdowns against online pornography and fraud and has taken steps in recent months to block use of the Web by activists to spread criticism of the government.

As usual, I applaud this effort. China’s blocking of P2P torrent site Isohunt clearly wasn’t enough. Roughly 2.35 billion images of scantily-clad women are still making their way through the Great Firewall onto laptops, mobile phones, and desktops across the country every month — and those are just reports of the Beijing Auto Show.

Times are getting tougher for government regulators. Every year, some hardware manufacturer makes a larger mobile device (the iPad is just the latest) that can get closer and closer to actual size breasts and posteriors. And don’t get me started on 3D!

Kudos to the government. Let’s clean up the filth. I for one will support the troops in their brave struggle wherever it takes them, from the offices of ISPs, to huddled meetings with the State media, PSB and Ministry of Culture, to covert ops in Hong Kong, and to fact-finding missions in Las Vegas and even to the enemy’s HQ, porn’s answer to Mordor, the San Fernando Valley itself.

I’d wear a ribbon on my lapel, but I’m not sure what color signifies porn. (insert joke here)

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Post tags: content restrictions, Great Firewall, internet censorship, isohunt, p2p, pornography, torrent

Full post as published by China Hearsay on May 03, 2010 (boomark / email).