Wie Chinas Internetpolizei arbeitet

Die Financial Times hat eine große Reportage über die Internet-Zensur in China:

As for particular duties, the police – 1.9 million strong, under the control of the ministry of public security – work the frontlines. Although they refuse to comment even on whether they supervise the internet, an insight into their operations comes from those who supply them with the technical wherewithal. “Currently [the police force] still does surveillance via keyword searches on search engines, with every officer being given a certain number of keywords to cover,” says a marketing manager at Beijing TRS Information Technology. Increasingly, however, more advanced methods are being employed, such as the use of “data-mining” software. “We equipped eight police stations in Shanghai with such equipment,” says the manager. “Now the work of 10 internet cops can be done by just one.” The “internet cops” can also order website hosts to take down unwanted content ...

Elsewhere, government departments monitor the online response to their policies and watch out for unrest brewing in their area of responsibility, or for accusations of misconduct or corruption against one of their own. This information is then – selectively – passed on to the local propaganda department and information offices, which decide on a response. This might include dictating to state media the line to be taken on the issues at hand, or instructions to websites about which news items they may run. More often than blocking a news item entirely, the departments will instruct websites to keep coverage short, and bury it.

... “Censorship 2.0”, in which bloggers paid by the government aim to neutralise debates that the authorities don’t like. ... “50-cent bloggers” – named after the price paid per posting when these freelancers first appeared – sign up to chatrooms or bulletin boards and speak up for the government, or against its critics.