China Cyber-Police Blocked iPod Sweatshop Stories
10.11.07 - 03:14pm
The report that first came out in 2006 detailing the appalling working conditions of Chinese laborers working for Foxconn and by default Apple to produce iPods, was a story that was quickly shutdown. Word has now come out of China from undercover reporters of why and how.
China has longed suppressed all information coming into the country controlling the news, media and print with zeal. When the internet first came into play, information began to filter through to the Chinese people. In order to combat this crack in the Chinese wall on information, before it could break through and become a flood, China set up cyber-police to monitor all activity of internet users.
In the 17-page report just released by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, allegations are made that there are tens of thousands of these Chinese cyber-police who often send text messages dictating to writers what they can, and what they can not write about.
The report called, “China, Journey to the Heart of Internet Censorship” was produced in cooperation with the Chinese Human Rights Defenders and an anonymous “Chinese technician working in the internet sector”, who called himself, “Mr Tao”.
If an internet site doesn’t comply with censorship guidelines they are immediately banned. The report states, “The government monitors the Internet by means of a skillful mix of filtering technologies, cyber-police surveillance and propaganda, in all of which China invests massively. Draconian censorship hunts down anything to do with human rights, democracy and freedom of belief. It nips free expression in the bud.”
In the iPod Foxconn case, warnings were sent out saying, “Do not disseminate reports about the Foxconn case so that it is not exploited by those who want independence to advance their cause.”
The report also reveals that there is a weekly meeting on Friday from 9am to 11 am. At the meeting stories set for the internet are looked over. “Then the bureau members announce the subjects to be covered in the coming week, the articles to be written under their supervision, and the articles to be eliminated,” states the report.
The report also claims that China uses censorship such as keyword blocking to further prevent rogue information from getting through.
The Reporters Without Borders and the Chinese Human Rights Defenders are asking for a call to action. They said in a statement that Chinese media censorship was “unparalleled anywhere in the world and is an insult to the spirit of online freedom. With less than a year to go before the Beijing Olympics, there is an urgent need for the government to stop blocking thousands of websites, censoring online news and imprisoning Internet activists.”
Apple did conduct it’s own investigation into the Foxconn sweatshop incident and supposedly put tighter control over the environment in which iPods are made. Whether or not Foxconn is actually following the protocol will be something I’m quite sure we will only hear good things about.
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