Science
and Technology: China is employing two million people to keep tabs on people’s
Internet use, according to state media, in a rare glimpse into the secret world
of Beijing’s vast online surveillance operation.
Many of the employees are simply
performing keyword searches to monitor the tens of millions of messages being
posted daily on popular social media and micro-blogging sites, reported Beijing
News.
The exact number of people
employed to trawl through the Internet in a bid to prevent social unrest and
limit criticism of the ruling Communist party has long been the subject of speculation.
Internet
users in Nigeria- 2 million cops monitor messages to China
The “web police” are employed by
the government’s propaganda arm, as well as by commercial sites, the Beijing
News said.
It said that despite their large
number, the monitors are not always able to prevent comments that are deemed by
the government to be undesirable from being published and reposted.
China’s censorship authorities
tightly control online content for fear of political or social unrest that
could challenge the Communist party’s grip on power.
Authorities in recent years
banned the popular social media sites Facebook and Twitter, which were
instrumental in the wave of uprisings that swept the Middle East and North Africa
from late
2010 in what became known as the
Arab Spring.
Last year authorities blocked
The New York Times after it cited financial records showing relatives of former
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao had controlled assets worth at least $2.7 billion —
a report China branded a smear.
In recent months authorities
have ramped up already strict censoring of domestic social media sites such as
the popular microblog service Sina Weibo.
They have detained hundreds of
people for spreading “rumours” online, and warned high-profile bloggers with
millions of followers to post more positive comments.
The Supreme Court said this
month that Internet users could face three years in jail if “slanderous”
information spread online is viewed more than 5,000 times or forwarded more
than 500 times.
China has more than 500 million
Internet users, making it the world’s largest online population. (PMNEWS)
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