Internet

Proof that China censors online content?

Posted by Maya Alexandri, December 2, 2007 1:19 AM

China's one, young netizen

In mid-November, Financial Times ran an excellent piece by Mure Dickie about China's censorship of online content. In it, Wang Guoqing, the vice-minister of the State Council Information Office, was quoted saying: “As I understand it, the censorship of websites or online content is completely impossible.”

Your correspondent had occasion to remember this quote when using Baidu to search for pictures using the following search terms "中国年轻网民" (China's young netizens). Baidu produced a single result: the picture of premier Wen Jiabao shown here.

This picture is not the only image on the Internet that meets the search criteria. An identical search on Google Images found 228 results.

Is this difference in search results the consequence of China's censorship of the Internet? Or is it just evidence of Google's superiority to Baidu?

Links and Sources

Financial Times: China traps online dissent
Image source (in Chinese): China's Internet youth give Premier Wen 304 Internet names

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There are currently 3 Comments for Proof that China censors online content?.

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Comments on Proof that China censors online content?

I personally find this very interesting.

[swapped out tinyurl. -JM]

Posted by: Blogge Bloggelito | December 2, 2007 1:55 AM

what? why is this worth posting? is this search of yours the *only* evidence we have of china's potential censoring of online content?

Posted by: don't drink the kool-aid, maya | December 2, 2007 2:45 AM

Internet is virtually useless without VPN connection, it's not only the obvious news sites but common software download sites, discussion groups, company websites etc. But as long as gov does it, foreigners can make lot of money out of Chinese.

Posted by: Mr. Lin | December 2, 2007 3:12 PM