June 2: The day China tried to shut down the Internet ?

June 2, 2:07 PMDC Technology ExaminerTanya Gupta

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There is no official confirmation, but Twitter is buzzing with the news that China has finally clamped down on social networking apps.  Twitter, Flickr, Youtube and even Blogger.com are reported to be blocked.  If true, this would be the single largest act of censorship thus far, in China

Censorship is not new in China.  There are many ways that Internet censorship is imposed in the People's Republic of China.  There are many laws and regulations that allow officials to do so. Organizations that impement censorship include state-owned Internet Service Providers (ISPs), private sector companies, and semi-government organizations.

According to Wikipedia, the escalation of the government's effort to neutralize critical online opinion comes after a series of large anti-Japanese, anti-pollution and anti-corruption protests, many of which were organized or publicized using instant messaging services, chat rooms, and text messages. Estimates for the size of the Internet police are at about 30,000.  The internet police is surprisingly effective - any comments critical to the government is promptly erased within minutes, if not hours.

However, as with any internet technology, there are many ways to get around the censorship.  People from all over the world, have already started posting, and emailing instructions to Chinese citizens on how they can get around this censorship. 

Previously Censored content (from Wikipedia) include:
-Websites related to the persecuted Falun Gong spiritual practice
-News sources that often cover some taboo topics such as police brutality, Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, freedom of speech, democracy, and Marxist sites. These sites include Voice of America, BBC News, and Yahoo! Hong Kong
-Media sites which may include unregulated content, social commentary or political commentary censored by the PRC. The Chinese Wikipedia and Livejournal are examples of such blocked sites.
-Sites hosted by Taiwan's government and major newspaper and television media and other sites with information on Taiwanese independence
-Web sites that contain obscenity, pornography, and criminal activity
-Sites linked with the Dalai Lama and his International Tibet Independence Movement, including his teachings"Nine Commentaries" or the nine articles that were published by theepochtimes.com that comment on the Chinese Communist Party