China is characterized by strong control over all information and opinion online.
Sociologists are increasingly a mission impossible to try to censor the flow of information on the Web as they grow into the possibilities for Internet publishing.
Blogs, forums, microblogging, social networking... multiply, grow and become more powerful "enemies" for a government used to curb freedom of expression.
China stands firm in its battle to control the flow of information circulating on their media and the Internet but are you able to control the Asian country's growing "threat" posed by social networks and the possible effect of such in public ?.
China seeks to control every single move and opinions of the people when in 221 BC Qin Shi Huang, considered the first emperor of unified China, he began building a wall to protect him from the feudal lords who threatened his power, many considered an impossible dream aspiration. Today, more than 22 centuries later, China builds and maintains another wall, invisible but equally effective, a barrier which prevents the free expression of its more than 1,300 million people and hindering the expansion of the Internet in the Asian giant, a project that, according to experts, tries to cover it incomprehensible.
"China wants to control every single move and opinions of the people. It is impossible and a lot of censorship is applied to the Internet there will always be new roads, "said Gao Feng, a sociologist based in Beijing.
The last of these pathways cited by Gao and has given a new twist in the pressure on the Chinese Executive Weibo Network is the most important microblog with more than 200 million users in China, where Twitter is censored.
The publication of some messages with direct accusations to the authorities in cases like the murder of a young woman in Wuhan, capital of central Hubei province, or the resale of bags of donated blood, took the executive to require Weibo to close "accounts that disseminate hoaxes." Thus, the Communist Party secretary for Beijing, Liu Qi, visited the headquarters of Sina Corporation, which owns the microblog, which was quoted by Xinhua, said the Internet companies "should prevent the dissemination of false information and damaging. "
I think the fear of a revolution like those in Egypt and Tunisia are unfounded in China These statements were supported by a government official surnamed Hu and considers "necessary and priority" control those events that put "threat to the stability, progress and advancement China ". For Weibo is the latest in a long list that began in 1996 with the "Temporary Regulations for the Management of Information on the Internet" directive approved by the State Council made permanent and updated as the Internet grew.
Thus, in recent months there have been frequent strenuous efforts of the executive to avoid any mention of jasmine revolution or the "Arab Spring" for fear of contagion, with the internet, take to the streets in a population unhappy about the lack of freedoms.
"I think the fear of a revolution like those of Egypt or Tunisia are unfounded in China. There are people dissatisfied with the work of government but much less to make a protest to bring down this political class, "says Gao.
Unfounded or not, the fear of China's population to know what happens with issues like the repression of the Falun Gong religious group, persecuted and banned in China, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 or Uighur riots of 2009, has made the control Internet from the authorities increasing gradually.
The 'Great Firewall'
According to Fang Binxing, creator of the "Great Firewall" (Great Firewall) last version of this system of censorship, it is applied in two ways, one trial, which affects sites like Facebook, YouTube or Twitter , and other circumstantial executed according current needs and social and political situation.
"We need to control what is posted on the Internet and know who is the source. In fact, many countries like USA, South Korea and some of the European Union have control of content managers, "said Fang.
So far, the model followed by China has been successful and few have been content that has escaped his control. However, the growth of the Internet and, above all, social networks, a challenge for a government that can be lost after many years of struggle, the battle against their most feared enemy, freedom of expression.
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