StarP2P Inc, formally launched its online television network iPPOTV in July.
The technology used has unique advantages in breaking through mainland China’s information blockade, said StarP2P’s technical manager, Li Yi, in an interview with The Epoch Times.
IPPOTV’s software platform enables sharing of video files and broadcasting of TV channels over P2P networks. Users with broadband access can, upon installation of the software, watch TV programs from across the world.
As the viewer watches programs, the software simultaneously streams the video information to other users, thereby creating a non centralized, real-time internet TV network. The software encrypts transmitted data, ensuring the user’s identity and personal information remain secure and protected.
Li Yi says the P2P transmission technology, combined with the software’s unique design, makes the TV network impossible to block. “The more users we have, the faster it will stream and the safer it will be.”
Enthusiastic supporters of TV programs banned in mainland China, such as NTDTV and the Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party video series, have supplied these programs to iPPOTV. Li Yi said that the company plans to include radio broadcasts familiar to mainland Chinese listeners such as Radio Free Asia, Voice of America and Sound of Hope Radio, in the near future.
According to Li Yi, the newly established Star P2P Inc is the only overseas based company to successfully develop this kind of P2P media streaming technology.
Gateway to Freedom of Information
Li Yi believes this software will become another gateway for mainland Chinese to access free, uncensored information. “Currently, the Chinese Communist regime uses IP address blockade, filtering of politically sensitive words, domain hijacking and other means to carry out internet censorship and surveillance. Since the cut off of NTDTV’s broadcasts into China, many people in the country long to have access to more objective and true information from overseas. We saw this potential demand and believe that this TV software will make it more convenient for mainland Chinese viewers to obtain true information. This is giving them back the right to knowledge stripped from them by the authoritarian political system.”
iPPOTV allows user participation and interaction. “Users can tape and broadcast, in other words, they can provide their own video documents, through the exchange process supplied by our company free of charge, these video files can be played as a channel. This is just like a live broadcast of important events direct to viewers,” Li Yi said.
Dr Zhou Shiyu, deputy director of the Global Internet Freedom Consortium commented: “This is a major breakthrough and is an innovative use of P2P technology. At the same time, this is also a new, powerful weapon against the CCP’s internet blockade.”
Mr Zeng Ning, a political commentator from Guizhou province, China, told The Epoch Times that people in China are in urgent need of a convenient and secure way to break through internet censorship and have access to overseas television programs, and, thus, the factual information filtered out by the CCP.
He said: “Actually, those in mainland China are unaware of much of the news and incidents happening in China. Many of them know about these incidents only through overseas websites. Those who know the true situation are perplexed by the lack of means to disseminate the truth.”
News of the impending launch of iPPOTV was received with excitement and eager anticipation by Chinese netizens. “This software will realize the ordinary citizen’s right to knowledge,” a netizen said. “Good, as slaves of the CCP, we can breathe a bit of fresh air,” said another.
“This is wonderful! I thank these good people from overseas. Once you breakthrough the CCP’s most crucial technology, the demise of the CCP will be in the not too distant future. The CCP will not exist for even a day without any lies to sustain them. Violence is nothing to be afraid of, the Chinese people will not be intimidated by it,” said another comment in Chinese cyberspace.
The software can be downloaded free of charge from the company’s website at www.starp2p.com
Read the original Chinese article
