Web-filtering technology left City of Mississauga computers restricting the Internet in a way similar to one of the world’s most repressive regimes, one Chinese library user has discovered.
Mississauga resident Long Tu stumbled on the problem more than two months ago when he tried to visit Chinese websites that covered topics the Chinese communist regime considers sensitive, including the repression of Tibetans, controversies during the 2008 Olympics, and Falun Gong.
Mr. Tu said he understands the library needs to have some sites blocked but he was startled that websites like China21.org, which documents the repression of Christians in China, were being filtered.
“It really gave me a surprise,” he said.
The Great Firewall
In the 1990s, Chinese authorities enlisted the help of western companies like Cisco and Sun Microsystems to create the world’s most advanced Big Brother Internet, where search results are sanitized and Internet police, aided by filtering systems, monitor and control the content Chinese surfers can access. Chinese authorities can block websites they don’t approve of and see who is looking for them.
Human rights groups around the world have slammed the companies involved in creating China’s “Golden Shield” for turning the Internet, which was once promised to help China enter a new era of free information, into a mechanism heavily censored and monitored by the state.
Mr. Tu, who moved to Mississauga last December, is the co-author of a recently published book about the persecution of a family of Falun Gong practitioners in China who are friends of his. One of the family members, Bai Xiaojun, was tortured to death in one of China’s notorious “re-education through labour” camps.
