China orders telcos to purge "unhealthy" SMSes as Nero fiddles

Ah, China, that perennial lover of free press, open social dialogue, and right of peaceful assembly have now shocked the world by ordering telcos to purge the "dirt hidden in the telecommunication networks" including SMSes containing smut, "superstitious content" and other "unhealthy" influences which are polluting society. Perhaps the Ministry of Information Industry just made a typo, certainly this just can't be true.

[Via techdirt]

[PC @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

If they filter this, people will certainly find ways around it, or switch to a different medium.

[jdcbomb @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

this is not a surprise at all...after what we've seen china had yahoo do earlier this year

what's hilarious is all this "regulation" is going to become rather meaningless...the chinese government is rather comical in what claims it will enforce and and what it actually does.

[Scott Orchard @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Again, not surprising. I think its got to be difficult to keep track of all of the infomation they block and all the lies they feed their citizens.

[Joe @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

#2,
Unless you consider the torture done to believers of falun gong comical. Never know though... maybe China's right and propagandists plan to use text messaging to convert more people to pacifism. Oh no!

[Peter @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

This is ridiculous, the rest of the world wants to take the control of the internet away from US and give it to the UN. They need to take care of this great firewall of china situation first before even trying to take away something that WE as tax payers helped pay to create, if we had never started out with ARPANET and funded it there would not be a network of the same fashion existing today. It is the same situation with the GPS network which we offer free access to. We made it so we keep it.

Fix the censorship problem first.

[Badison @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

I think this different than just censorship. This is really about punishment (as the yahoo case shows). I always found China and its political prisoners (and executions) a bit ... worrisome. I notice that documents discussing China as a possible future economic superpower don't talk much about their human rights issues. I wonder if it's because they assume it will change, or that it doesn't particularly matter in terms of business (the latter of which I find hard to believe, but who knows). Thoughts?

[David @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

I know a lot about China because I watch CNN and have seen "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" three times.

[Andrew B @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

I got to hear Senator George Allen speak last week. When I asked him what he thought about Yahoo! helping the Chinese, he told me he hadn't heard about it and was outraged. We need to inform those in power about the horible actions of the Chinese, especially when American companies aid them.

[whtrbt7 @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Strike another one up to communist China, where capitalism meets socialist idealism. This is a good move since I don't like to be "sold" everywhere I go. Don't you just want to trace telemarketers and beat them with a bloody blunt object?

[Fink @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

what did yahoo do with the chinese government anyways? did i miss something?

[David @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Maybe Senator George Allen should know where his priorities lie and be "outraged" about the Patriot Act instead.

[David @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Holy shit batman! Those evil communist bastards put an end to smut spam??!! How dare they?!? I think I speak for everyone when I declare those tyrants have gone too far!
I urge everyone to call up his/her local senator and DEMAND he/she be outraged! We must fight to let smut spam fly free like the bald eagle!!

[Rusty @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

China is on a different path to its on destruction, similar but different than the U.S.S.R. in the late 80's. As they come to grips with an increasingly "informed" public (albiet less informed, but still informed), it will become increasingly more difficult to clamp down on what is actually going on outside the "walls" of their own country. As more and more information gets INTO china, the public will come to realize that they have been oppressed, and eventually they will demand changes. The old communist (as defined by China) way of doing things will go the way of the old soviet communist government. But, the difference is that unlike the Russian empire, the chinese have a capitalist work force already in place working and making a living. It will still take decades to rid the old soviet population of "depending" on the government for everything. China is already ahead of the curve, but, they have a LONG way to go as far as civil rights, etc...

[claude @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

hey guys, any of you been to china or used mobile phone in China?
The fact is, we've got too many spam sms selling firearms, paid-for murder and drug dealing or stuff like that. so don't use our associations too much here in this issue, it's true about the government's dislike of free speech, but it has simply nothing to do with this.

[David @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Have any of you "armchair experts" actually ever BEEN to China? #13's post is laughable in its assumptions of how ignorant and "walled off" Chinese citizens are. Parroting Time's Special Reports does not make one an expert on life in China.

[Lawrence Sheed @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Thank god. I get about 3 sms's a day advertising cheap cars and company registrations (typically from guanzhou/shenzhen), crappy 3 gen "service messages" of the pr0n kind which would probably cost a few rmb to open for a crappy music+sound thing from monternet, and lest we forget, the occasional government message most recent being have a safe national week.

I guess i'll still keep getting those ones then.

Lawrence.

http://www.shanghaiguide.com

[Steve @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Hmmm, and its not like Western governments censor information they give out...but they is communist! Isn't that just the WORST? And that means they also all must be dumb too, right?? Right??? Thats what CNN tells us all to think, anyway...