China to take down Great Firewall for Beijing Olympics

Right, it’s something of a slow news day around these parts, so here’s something to enlighten your day. It seems that China will be taking down there “Great Firewall,” for the Beijing Olympics.

Sure, China officially denies any censorship on their part, but it’s a well known fact that China routinely censors any information that they don’t want coming in or out of its borders. There are reports that China employs tens of thousands of volunteers to filter out websites and information that it deems unsuitable for the Chinese population. These censorship “activists” pin-point “bad” content and even post their own “good” content to balance things out a bit. And, on the electronic side of things, China has gotten really good at monitoring all internet traffic coming in and leaving the country. The “Great Firewall of China,” as it’s called, is even capable of censoring specific webpages but leaving the rest of the offending website accessible. The same kind of censorship can be applied to any outsider looking into China-based websites. Think of it as modern-day isolationist policy (except China doesn’t mind exploiting global trade markets and ripping off copyrights and trademarks left and right).

So, how does China plan to try and perpetuate their own denials about censorship and the “Great Firewall?”  Well, they’ll take down the firewall and cease most (if not all) censor-activities while the Beijing Olympics take place. Hopefully, visitors to China will see that their access to the web is unimpeded and they’ll tell all their friends that the “Great Firewall” is all talk. Right, let’s see how this one plays out.

[Via: TechDirt]