The Great Firewall of China
Can you imagine a world without Facebook? Twitter? YouTube? Google?!
Didnât think so!
Often when we hear the words social media, we automatically think about these sites, however, for those in China, this is not the case. The Social media realm in China is in fact, much different from the rest of the world, as they do not actually have the same access to the common websites that we do.
Why you ask?
Well in China, the Government has implemented what is known as the âGreat Firewallâ (originally known as the Golden Shield Project), which is an internet surveillance and censorship project that acts as an attempt to block the people in China from accessing politically sensitive information (Anti, 2012).
Here, watch this:
For those of you that didnât watch the video, you must be wondering how exactly, do they do this? Well they block people from accessing certain websites through numerous strategies. This includes:
DNS (Domain Name Server) Poisoning: when a URL is entered that the Government doesnât want them to access, the DNS can make them inaccessible by redirecting them to a different page or not responding.
Blocking IP Addresses
Blocking sensitive keywords in URLS
Resetting Connections
Scanning web page content to determine itâs acceptability
(And these are just some of the ways that the Great Firewall works (Hoffman 2013)).
The websites they block include:
Social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Wordpress.
News sites including New York Times, BBC, Dailymotion, Wikipedia.
Search Engines like Google & Yahoo.
Online work tools & miscellaneous use = Google Drive, Google Docs, Flickr. (Millward, 2014).Â
Fun Fact, in 2010, approximately 350 million pieces of information, including images, text, and videos were blocked on the Chinese web (Synthesio, 2013).
Despite these restrictions, China actually has the largest number of active social media users worldwide, with over approximately a massive 650,000 users (Chiu, Lin & Silverman 2012; Jamie 2015). I mean, can you imagine that, over 650,000 people do not have access to sites like Facebook which many of us depend on on a daily basis, or Google, which is pretty much a life saver for all of us Iâm sure.
So you must now be wondering what they use if they do not use the social networking sites that we use. In China, they have an extensive amount of alternative sites that can be seen as equivalents to the ones that you and I utilise (Chen 2013, pp. 2-4). Some of these include:
Source: (Meredith 2013).
In addition to these sites, some users in China have found other ways of bypassing the great firewall, however, they do risk a great chance of getting caught. I know I said Facebook was blocked in China, but letâs just say that this is not necessarily the case for all of its citizens... Let me show you why:
Source: (Hedencrona 2013).
I guess theyâre not all missing out are they!
Evidently, Chinaâs social media realm is quite different to that of ours. The great firewall has brought about much restriction on the way in which they can access and utilise certain websites, arguably isolating them from the global social media sphere. However, as addressed, they do have their own social media sites in which they use that can be seen as equivalents to the major networking sites we use, but ultimately, they remain somewhat disconnected on a global spectrum.
References:
Anti, M, Ha, TH & Zurawell, J 2012, Behind the Great Firewall of China, TED, viewed 16 May 2017, < https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_anti_behind_the_great_firewall_of_china/transcript?language=en>.
Chen, W 2014, Taking stock, moving forward: the Internet, social networks and civic engagement in Chinese societies, Information, Communication & Society, Vol.17, No.1, pp.1-6, viewed 16 May 2017.
Chiu, C, Lin, D & Silverman, A 2012, Chinaâs social-media boom, McKinsey and Company, viewed 16 May 2017, <https://ilearn.swin.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-6273096-dt-content-rid-34296541_2/courses/2017-HS1-MDA20009-220271/McKinsey-Chinas-Social-Media-Boom1_2012.pdf>.
Hedencrona, S 2013, â55% of Chinese Facebook Users Access Via Proxy Serversâ, Globalwebindex, 25 September, viewed 16 May 2017, < http://blog.globalwebindex.net/chart-of-the-day/55-of-chinese-facebook-users-access-via-proxy-servers/>.
Hoffman, C 2013, âHow the âGreat Firewall of Chinaâ Works to Censor Chinaâs Internetâ, How-To Geek, 2 May, viewed 18 May 2017, <https://www.howtogeek.com/162092/htg-explains-how-the-great-firewall-of-china-works/>.
Jamie 2015, â2015 China Social Media Statistics and Trends Infographicâ, Make a Websitehub, 25 January, viewed 16 May 2017, < https://makeawebsitehub.com/chinese-social-media-statistics/>.Â
Meredith, J 2013, Social Media and Censorship in China, Synthesio, viewed 17 May 2017, <http://www.synthesio.com/blog/social-media-and-censorship-in-china-2/>.
Millward, S 2014, âOh, Big Brother: you wonât believe how many sites are now blocked in Chinaâ, Tech In Asia, 26 September, viewed 16 May 2017, < https://www.techinasia.com/list-of-websites-blocked-in-china-by-great-firewall>.
The Daily Conversation 2015, Chinaâs Internet Censorship Explained, 12 May, viewed 16 May 2017, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po9qrFyZOM8>.















