Google China
Google’s announcement in January that it was no longer willing to remove sensitive material from search results highlighted the issue of China’s domestic internet controls. But its decision last night to shift its Chinese-language service to servers in Hong Kong looks likely to put the spotlight on the methods Beijing uses to block content that is hosted overseas. The censorship system works because it is twofold: it consists of controls on the content posted inside the country, and the ‘great firewall’, which prevents mainland users from reading material hosted overseas.
While Google may have stopped censoring its results thanks to its move to Hong Kong, the Chinese government has not. That is why, using google.com.hk from the mainland last night, searches for ‘Tiananmen student movement’ in Chinese and ’89 student movement’ in English brought no results – just a message that is all too familiar to internet users in China: ‘The connection was reset.’
The great firewall is implemented by internet police in three ways. The first two are common tactics: blacklisting domain names and IP addresses, for example those belonging to groups such as Amnesty International. Dr Steven Murdoch – a researcher at the computer laboratory of Cambridge University and member of the Tor project, which helps internet users surf the web anonymously – said Chinese authorities have been using such methods with increasing zeal. According to Murdoch, the third technique used by China is ‘close to unique,’; this is the keyword blocking system. Essentially, the government’s system mirrors and searches each packet of data as it passes in and out of the country, looking in URLs and webpages for keywords such as ‘falun’, in reference to the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement. Should it find them, it breaks the connection.
The Chinese government has responded to say: ‘This is totally wrong. We’re uncompromisingly opposed to the politicisation of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conducts’. More in The Guardian HERE, HERE and HERE; Independent HERE; Times HERE and HERE; Telegraph HERE and HERE; and FT HERE.
Television
Project Canvas, the joint venture between terrestrial broadcasters and internet service providers to create a new web-connected television platform, will be investigated by the OFT, which has said it will study whether the plans of the venture’s members –which include the BBC, ITV and BT – could amount to a merger and whether that would mean less competition. The project could then be referred to the Competition Commission. The Canvas members said yesterday that they had submitted proposals to the OFT, arguing that these did not constitute a merger and should not be referred to the commission. Richard Halton, project director for the venture, said:
‘The Canvas partners are clear that the joint venture does not qualify as a merger and we welcome the opportunity to clarify this position formally. We are delighted that Arqiva have committed themselves to the project. They have a history of positive and progressive support for Freeview.’ More in The Guardian HERE and Times HERE.
Heritage Crafts
Next month, Sheffield city council’s planning committee will consider an application to turn Portland Works into studio apartments and office space. The structure itself is Grade II* listed, and the development looks sympathetic enough. But if it goes ahead, the small group of present-day Little Mesters who occupy the Portland’s warren of workshops – a knifemaker, a tool forger, a silver plater, an engraver, a die maker – will be gone, probably for good. Robin Wood, chair of a newly formed lobby group, the Heritage Crafts Association, which is being launched today at the V&A has said:
‘I’d estimate that more people in the world today eat with stainless steel knives and forks than speak English… You could argue it’s our biggest cultural export. So it seems quite extraordinary that we can protect the bricks and mortar of a place like this, but not care in the least about the skills and craftsmanship that are so much of this city’s culture and identity… ‘they’re every bit as much a part of our cultural heritage as grand museums, fine buildings and admired works of art or literature.’
There exists a peculiarly British problem; in 2003, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) adopted a Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, including ‘traditional craftsmanship’, which argued that any effort to safeguard traditional craftsmanship should focus not on preserving craft objects, but on ‘creating conditions that will encourage artisans to continue to produce crafts of all kinds, and to transmit their skills and knowledge to others’. More than 100 countries signed up. Britain did not. More in The Guardian HERE.
