Google China Internet Filters

Understanding how Google.cn filters

The anti-censorship community has been hard at work today trying to figure out just how Google’s new Chinese search engine prevents access to controversial content. Nart Villeneuve, pretty much the smartest guy out there working on Internet censorship, offered a post yesterday with some early insights into how sites are being blocked.
One of the observations Nart made: Google.cn is working from a blacklist of URLs, possibly provided by Chinese authorities, possibly generated from following traffic to search results and adding domains that are consistently blocked by the firewall. This blacklist includes activist sites, news sites, homepage hosting and forum sites.
Please read more here.



HOW GOOGLE CENSORS ITS CHINESE PORTAL

~Search for images of "Tiananmen," as in Tiananmen Square, scene of the 1989 student democracy protest, on the China site, Google.cn. Most of the time the results turn up pictures of the Beijing plaza: a flock of birds soaring above the grounds, the square all lit up at night, tourists posing for the camera. Run the same search again on Google.com, the uncensored version used here in the United States, and the images are strikingly different. The highest-ranking results are photographs of tanks rolling into the square to put a stop to the demonstration more than 16 years ago. "Google uncensored shows a bunch of tanks streaming in there," said Danny Sullivan, founder and editor of Search Engine Watch. "Google China has smiling, happy people."
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Race For Tibet

Race for Tibet~The International Campaign for Tibet invites Tibet supporters to join our Olympics campaign, Race for Tibet, by participating in two events coinciding with the arrival on U.S. soil of China's official 2008 Olympics Torch.
At the University of California in Berkeley on April 7 and at U.N. Plaza in San Francisco on April 8, ICT will engage the public in an examination of China's human rights record in Tibet in this Olympics year.
Read more here.

Exile Group Says 30 Killed in Tibet
~China ordered tourists out of Tibet's capital Saturday while troops on foot and in armored vehicles patrolled the streets and enforced a strict curfew, a day after riots that a Tibetan exile group said left at least 30 protesters dead.
Read more here.

China rolls out tanks to suppress Tibet Protests

Hundreds and thousands of Tibetans and several foreign supporters held candle light vigil in Dharamsala on Friday, March 14, 2008, to express their solidarity as fellow Tibetans steered strings of protest demonstrations across Tibet against China’s occupation of Tibet.
Tibet.net[Saturday, March 15, 2008 00:14]
Dharamshala: Chinese armed police have killed around 100 Tibetans and injured many others for taking part in peaceful demonstrations, according to unconfirmed sources. These protests have spread from Lhasa to all over Tibet both in intensity and scale.

His Holiness The Dalai Lama has issued the following statement today.
"I am deeply concerned over the situation that has been developing in Tibet following peaceful protests in many parts of Tibet, including Lhasa, in recent days. These protests are a manifestation of the deep-rooted resentment of the Tibetan people under the present governance.
As I have always said, unity and stability under brute force is at best a temporary solution. It is unrealistic to expect unity and stability under such a rule and would therefore not be conducive to finding a peaceful and lasting solution.
I therefore appeal to the Chinese leadership to stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue with the Tibetan people. I also urge my fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence."

OM MANI PADME HUM

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Unhappy Bad-day to Than Shwe

Unhappy Bad-day to Than Shwe
Than Shwe is the supreme leader of the Burmese military regime who has been carrying out human rights abuses on the peoples of Burma for over two decades.
2nd February is Than Shwe's birthday and Burma supporters gathering to make sure Than Shwe has an Unhappy Bad Day, rather than a Happy Birthday.
Lanna Action for Burma
www.lannaactionforburma.blogspot.com

Burma Trickle Down Economics

Thank you Irrawaddy