A new study conducted by Harvard University, the University of Toronto and Cambridge University in England, found China has developed sophisticated methods of blocking what its citizens can read on the Internet.
The study concludes that Internet users in China are routinely blocked from sites dealing with information on such politically sensitive subjects as Taiwanese independence, the Dalai Lama, Falun Gong, and the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989.
John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, was among those leading the study.
Mr. Palfrey says the findings could have implications beyond China. "China's advanced filtering regime presents a model for other countries with similar interests in censorship to follow," he added. "Importantly, China now acts as a regional Internet access provider for neighboring states, North Korea, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, for instance. Through this important role as a gatekeeper to the Internet for other neighboring states, China may be able to export its filtering technologies."