Word leaked out slowly, spread by Web-savvy folks on Twitter: Internet porn that once was blocked by Chinese government censors was now openly available.
“Are they no longer cracking down on pornographic Web sites? A lot of porn sites and forums are accessible,” technology blogger William Long wrote on his feed.
Messages like that startled Chinese Web surfers, long accustomed to the authorities’ Internet blockades. The country had been in the midst of highly publicized anti-pornography sweeps, and there had been no announcement of any change in government policy.
Yet eight weeks later, the porn sites are still accessible. Still unanswered are questions about whether it is an official change in policy, a technical glitch or some sort of test by the usually disapproving Chinese Internet police.
“This has never been done with the [Chinese] Internet before,” said Beijing-based Internet analyst Zhao Jing (趙靜), who goes by the English name Michael Anti.
Whatever the reason, the change has thrown into sharper relief what many people see as the main mission of China’s aggressive Internet censors: blocking sites and content that might challenge the political authority of the communist government. Web sites about human rights and dissidents are also routinely banned.
“Maybe they are thinking that if Internet users have some porn to look at, then they won’t pay so much attention to political matters,” Anti added.
The government has not said why the porn sites were unblocked.
China has the world’s largest online population of 420 million — more than the entire US population. While the Internet is the most freewheeling of tightly controlled media in China, the government has the most extensive Internet policing system, from technical filters that block sites based on certain words to human monitors who scan bulletin boards and micro-blogging posts.
Tired of the controls, many Chinese have learned to get around “the Great Firewall.”
Few Chinese will admit to surfing for porn because it is illegal.
Many sites are still inaccessible, and of those, sites that somehow evade control are usually blocked within hours. However, the demand is there.
“The more they restrict something, the more people pay attention,” said a 29-year-old employee at a state-owned logistics company who did not want to be identified because he surfs for porn on business trips.
Sites that suddenly became available around late May include the English-language YouPorn and PornHub, along with numerous Chinese sites offering downloads, though Anti and others say well-known Chinese-language sites remain blocked.
Some speculate the proliferation of social networking sites and Twitter-like services was taxing the Great Firewall, requiring the government to unblock some porn sites to free up capacity for other snooping.
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