Quoted – China’s iron grip even extends to the Internet – Pioneer Press

China is infamous for clamping down on dissent, not only physically — as it did in Tiananmen Square two decades ago — but also electronically.

“The Chinese have some of the strongest censorship in the world,” on the Internet as well as with print and television, said Scott Testa, a professor of business at Cabrini College in Philadelphia.

In the Information Age, stemming the flow of information isn’t easy.

President Barack Obama, visiting China this week, has called for Internet freedom in China as a human rights issue. Obama told Shanghai students Monday that information should be free.

According to the Washington Post, Obama was asked in a town-hall style meeting what he thought about the Chinese government blocking several Internet international sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and critical news sites. “I’ve always been a strong supporter of open Internet use,” Obama said.

In response, Chinese officials Tuesday defended their policies as protective to national interests.

China’s online content-control strategy is a massive monitoring operation to spot forbidden content inside the country’s borders as well such information coming from outside sources.

While it’s often called the “Great Firewall of China” — as if to suggest a massive electronic barrier that repels online speech — the reality is a bit more nuanced, experts say.

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