The New York Times vs. The Chinese Authorities

Quietly, the New York Times is helping to enable the end of censorship in China, and preparing to take advantage of a free and open media in a post-censorship China. In this regard, they are unique amongst their peers - no other media organization has shown anywhere near the same level of determination. Some might call it stubbornness.

The blocking of the New York Times in 2012 fits well within the pattern of how foreign news organizations get treated in China (see a short history below this story). Soon after the launch of the Chinese New York Times in the summer of 2012, the Times published a story (in English and Chinese) about the personal wealth of Wen Jiabao and quickly found both of their websites blocked.

It is not hard to imagine that in October, 2012, after their sites were blocked, the senior management at the New York Times thought about cutting their losses early and pulling the plug on their Chinese language news effort. Even when the New York Times found that their journalist visas were not being renewed, this hardly affected editorial or the business. The Times actually strengthened their team, hiring journalists who were responsible for some firewall-blocking worthy stories of their own.

The Times recently launched a new Chinese-language product - in print. In May, 2015, they released a publication in Hong Kong and Macau, in simplified Chinese, targeting mainland visitors. The publication includes uncensored news and helps to build their brand with affluent Chinese travelers.

On the launch of this publication, Craig Smith, Managing Director for the New York Times in China, said:

Our Chinese audience has grown enormously through cn.NYTimes.com and we are excited to complement our digital offering by bringing high-quality coverage of world affairs, business and culture to our Chinese readers in print.

The Times have also exploited holes in the great firewall to distribute their uncensored content inside China. In March, 2013 both the New York Times and GreatFire.org news sharing pages on GitHub were attacked by the Chinese authorities.

Most recently, GreatFire has worked with the New York Times to integrate our technique of collateral freedom behind the New York Times Android application. Once downloaded, news stories are constantly updated. No information is censored and because of our advanced circumvention technology, the authorities have not found a way to block the app, or any of our other apps (like FreeBrowser). The authorities back off from taking such action because they understand that this manoeuvre would have considerable negative economic consequences.

Most critical to the Times success in China, senior management have rarely swayed in the face of pressure. Current CEO Mark Thompson said in 2013:

My view is that the New York Times should be seeking to report the entire world objectively and fairly but pursuing stories of public interest wherever we find them - that includes China.

We believe not just for ourselves but for all news outlets. It is in all countries' interest to allow journalists to do their work freely.

In 2012, after the websites were blocked, a Times spokesperson said:

China is an increasingly open society, with increasingly sophisticated media, and the response to our site suggests that the Times can play an important role in the government’s efforts to raise the quality of journalism available to the Chinese people.

Compared to other news outlets or media companies, it is likely that the Times has benefitted from a consistent approach to doing business in China. That approach has been relatively simple. They have have refused to compromise on their principles and have delivered the same message to the Chinese authorities - that by not allowing their content to be accessible by all Chinese the authorities are doing themselves a disservice.

What have the authorities done in response? Seemingly, the authorities have loosened their controls. Late last year Times journalists started to receive visas to work in China again. Could the New York Times be setting the best path forward for news organizations in China?

Disclaimer: GreatFire.org works with The New York Times to deliver uncensored content to audiences in China.

-----

A very short history of news censorship in China

Post-opening up and before the rise of the internet, foreigners who wished to publish in China would have to obtain a local license. Obtaining a license meant paying big bucks, agreeing to self-censorship, losing control over your brand, having no say in day-to-day operations, or a combination of these factors.

The opening of the internet in China presented new opportunities and with it new challenges. Most foreign news organizations were trying to figure out business models at home. A few tried to make inroads into China by publishing news in Chinese. But then the great firewall rose and since then it has simply been a matter of just adding news organizations to the list of blocked websites.

There are always exceptions and anomalies, but the following guidelines apply for the vast majority of foreign news websites in China.

The question of being blocked or not blocked is relatively straightforward. Organizations who do not agree to self-censor their content get blocked. Even organizations that self-censor may remain blocked. Bloomberg falls into this category. If your organization is involved in any major investigative journalism piece that involves the Chinese leadership, your site will get blocked (see ICIJ). It is not just English and Chinese language news sources that get blocked. French (Le Monde), Spanish (El Pais) and content in other languages will also be blocked.

Organizations that have paywalls in place may not be blocked (FT). Those whose websites are unencrypted (http rather than https) may find that the home page is accessible while certain negative stories are not (FT Chinese). But even the authorities are tiring of this approach and are more likely to block entire sites rather than bother with blocking selective stories.

Foreign news organizations that are producing content in Chinese will likely see both their Chinese and English language websites blocked (WSJ, SCMP). Almost all major overseas Chinese language news websites are blocked in China (Boxun, Duowei).

 

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Thu, Aug 10, 2023

1.4 million people used FreeBrowser to circumvent the Great Firewall of Turkmenistan

Since 2021, the authorities in Turkmenistan have taken exceptional measures to crack down on the use of circumvention tools. Citizens have been forced to swear on the Koran that they will not use a VPN. Circumvention tool websites have been systematically blocked. Arbitrary searches of mobile devices have also taken place and have even targeted school children and teachers.

The government has also blocked servers hosting VPNs which led to “near complete” internet shutdowns on several occasions in 2022. Current reports indicate that 66 hosting providers, 19 social networks and messaging platforms, and 10 leading content delivery networks (CDNs), are blocked in the country. The government presumably is unconcerned about the negative economic impact that such shutdowns can cause.

Fri, Mar 18, 2022

Well-intentioned decisions have just made it easier for Putin to control the Russian Internet

This article is in large part inspired by a recent article from Meduza (in Russian).

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Russian users have had problems accessing government websites and online banking clients. Browsers began to mark these sites as unsafe and drop the connection. The reason is the revocation of digital security certificates by foreign certificate authorities (either as a direct consequence of sanctions or as an independent, good will move); without them, browsers do not trust sites and “protect” their users from them.

However, these actions, caused - or at least triggered by - a desire to punish Russia for their gruesome actions in Ukraine, will have long-lasting consequences for Russian netizens.

Digital certificates are needed to confirm that the site the user wants to visit is not fraudulent. The certificates contain encryption keys to establish a secure connection between the site and the user. It is very easy to understand whether a page on the Internet is protected by a certificate. One need just look at the address bar of the browser. If the address begins with the https:// prefix, and there is a lock symbol next to the address, the page is protected. By clicking on this lock, you can see the status of the connection, the name of the Certification Authority (CA) that issued the certificate, and its validity period.

There are several dozen commercial and non-commercial organizations in the world that have digital root certificates, but 3/4 of all certificates are issued by only five of the largest companies. Four of them are registered in the USA and one is registered in Belgium.

Mon, Aug 03, 2020

Announcing the Release of GreatFire AppMaker

GreatFire (https://en.greatfire.org/), a China-focused censorship monitoring organization, is proud to announce that we have developed and released a new anti-censorship tool that will enable any blocked media outlet, blogger, human rights group, or civil society organization to evade censors and get their content onto the phones of millions of readers and supporters in China and other countries that censor the Internet.

GreatFire has built an Android mobile app creator, called “GreatFire AppMaker”, that can be used by organizations to unblock their content for users in China and other countries. Organizations can visit a website (https://appmaker.greatfire.org/) which will compile an app that is branded with the organization’s own logo and will feature their own, formerly blocked content. The app will also contain a special, censorship-circumventing web browser so that users can access the uncensored World Wide Web. The apps will use multiple strategies, including machine learning, to evade advanced censorship tactics employed by the Chinese authorities.  This project will work equally well in other countries that have China-like censorship restrictions. For both organizations and end users, the apps will be free, fast, and extremely easy to use.

This project was inspired by China-based GreatFire’s first-hand experience with our own FreeBrowser app (https://freebrowser.org/en) and desire to help small NGOs who may not have the in-house expertise to circumvent Chinese censorship. GreatFire’s anti-censorship tools have worked in China when others do not. FreeBrowser directs Chinese internet users to normally censored stories from the app’s start page (http://manyvoices.news/).

Fri, Jul 24, 2020

Apple, anticompetition, and censorship

On July 20, 2020, GreatFire wrote to all 13 members of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law of the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, requesting a thorough examination into Apple’s practice of censorship of its App Store, and an investigation into how the company collaborates with the Chinese authorities to maintain its unique position as one of the few foreign tech companies operating profitably in the Chinese digital market.  

This letter was sent a week before Apple CEO TIm Cook will be called for questioning in front of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law. The CEOs of Amazon, Google and Facebook will also be questioned on July 27, as part of the Committee’s ongoing investigation into competition in the digital marketplace.

This hearing offers an opportunity to detail to the Subcommittee how Apple uses its closed operating ecosystem to not only abuse its market position but also to deprive certain users, most notably those in China, of their right to download and use apps related to privacy, secure communication, and censorship circumvention.

We hope that U.S. House representatives agree with our view that Apple should not be allowed to do elsewhere what would be considered as unacceptable in the U.S. Chinese citizens are not second class citizens. Private companies such as Apple compromise themselves and their self-proclaimed values of freedom and privacy when they collaborate with the Chinese government and its censors.

Mon, Jun 10, 2019

Apple Censoring Tibetan Information in China

Apple has a long history of censorship when it comes to information about Tibet. In 2009, it was revealed that several apps related to the Dalai Lama were not available in the China App Store. The developers of these apps were not notified that their apps were removed. When confronted with these instances of censorship, an Apple spokesperson simply said that the company “continues to comply with local laws”.

In December, 2017, at a conference in China, when asked about working with the Chinese authorities to censor the Apple App Store, Tim Cook proclaimed:

"Your choice is: do you participate, or do you stand on the sideline and yell at how things should be. And my own view very strongly is you show up and you participate, you get in the arena because nothing ever changes from the sideline."

In the ten years since Apple was first criticized for working with the Chinese authorities to silence already marginalized voices, what has changed? Apple continues to strictly follow the censorship orders of the Chinese authorities. When does Tim Cook expect that his company will help to bring about positive change in China?

Based on data generated from https://applecensorship.com, Apple has now censored 29 popular Tibetan mobile applications in the China App Store. Tibetan-themed apps dealing with news, religious study, tourism, and even games are being censored by Apple. A full list of the censored apps appear below.

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