Stefan Mileschin

A report into internet censorship in China indicates that it does not clamp down on free speech in the way that many westerners think.

Harvard University social scientist Gary King said that while the Chinese censorship machine is comprehensive it does not kill off all comment.

Talking to NPR, King said that the Chinese state does not censor everything. There are millions of Chinese people who talk about millions of topics. But the effort to prune the internet of certain kinds of information is unprecedented.

His studies refute popular ideas about what Chinese censors are after.

King said that China actually permits "vitriolic criticism" of leaders and governmental policies. But the state comes down hard on any move to get people physically mobilised to act on such criticism.

For example, King cited the case of a Chinese mother who once protested against a local official outside his hotel. Her demonstration led to online fury on social media sites. But since the action was almost entirely online the posts went uncensored.

Essentially, you can say what you like about the government, but if you try to get a demo together, you could be censored and have a knock on your door, King said.

Susan Shirk, an expert on China at the University of California, San Diego said that the findings make a lot of sense. In an authoritarian state, Shirk says, leaders are unsure about public sentiment because there are no elections or public opinion polls to gauge popular views.

http://news.techeye.net/security/chi...e-overreaching