By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
BEIJING, China – The Chinese government continued to ease a six-month-old blackout on communications in the northwest region of Xinjiang by restoring some text-messaging services, according to the state news media, however, cellular companies in Beijing and Shanghai have been told to suspend text services to cell phone users who are found to have sent messages with “illegal or unhealthy content.” The effort is an attempt to further what the Chinese government calls, “a campaign against pornography.”
Originally, restrictions on Internet access, international telephone service and text messaging were put in place after ethnic violence last July killed at least 197 people and injured more than 1,700 in the regional capital, Urumqi. The government says it severed communications to ease tensions it claims were inflamed by social networking sites and text messages.
The increased surveillance of text messages is the latest in a series of government initiatives to tighten control of the Internet and other forms of communication. Since November, the government has closed hundreds of Web sites in the name of weeding out pornographic and pirated material.
Xinjiang, with its combustive mix of Han and Uighur ethnic groups, has been under a heightened state of security of internet access since the rioting, which was the deadliest outbreak in China in decades. But, in recent weeks, the authorities have begun to restore limited Internet service. It has allowed the region’s 20 million residents to view pages from the Communist Party’s main newspaper, People’s Daily, which is the official Xinhua news service. The ban has also been eased to allow access to two popular Web portals.
In response to scrutinized text messaging monitoring, Kan Kaili, a professor of telecommunications at Beijing University, called the routine surveillance of cell phone messages a violation of privacy rights and the Chinese Constitution. According to Kalli, “They are doing wide-ranging checks, checking anything and everything, even if it is between a husband and wife,” he said. Kalli went on to say that, the government had established no clear legal definition of unhealthy content. He also said commercial authorities such as phone companies, even though government-owned, should not be involved in checking the contents of private messages.
As it stands presently, according to China Daily, China Mobile will suspend the text-messaging function for phone numbers whose users are suspected of transmitting unhealthy content while the police evaluate the users’ messages. If the authorities clear a user of any violation, they will issue a certificate allowing text-messaging services to be resumed, the newspaper said.
For More Information, please see:
The New York Times – Text Messages in China to Be Scanned for ‘Illegal Content’ – January 21, 2010
The Epoch Times – China’s All-Out War Against Internet Freedom – January 20, 2010
United Press International – Text message censorship in China – January 22, 2010
The New York Times – China Restores Text Messaging in Xinjiang – January 17, 2010
