Chinese anti-censorship virtual voodoo campaign returns!

Thanks to Jeremy for alerting us to the fact that the Beijing-based blogger Keso has revived the anti-censorship voodoo doll on his blog. A version of the doll, directed more specifically at those who were censoring Google, first appeared in the Chinese blogosphere around this time last year.

This year's revised caption now says: "This person has blocked many websites that we love. Click on the photo to stick a pin into him."

There has been much uproar in the past couple days specifically over China's blockage of Flickr. But as Keso points out, many other popular Web2.0 services like Wordpress.com, Wikipedia, and Blogger have already been blocked. Not to mention tens of thousands of other sites and many keywords that trigger a meltdown of your internet connection.

Chinese netizens are getting less and less patient with this state of affairs: arbitrary blocking with no explanation, no accountability, no means of appeal, no recourse, nothing. As Jeremy has reported here and here, this man who blogs under the name Yeetai is suing China Telecom for blocking his website with no explanation. The court date has been postponed (we are shocked and stunned), but it will be an important one to watch. 

Nobody gets anywhere in China making human rights-related arguments, but perhaps Chinese Internet users and businesses may get somewhere, eventually, by making legal arguments centered around consumers' rights, rule of law, regulatory transparency, and even anti-corruption. Consider these scenarios: what if somebody pays off some techie at China Telecom to block their business competitor's site? Or what if the head of an enterprise has a quiet word with friends in the "relevant departments" to put information about their polluting behavior on the national block lists?  Is there any recourse whatsoever? Or any way of exposing the collusion? Do we know who ordered the Flickr block and why? No idea. Are we given any information about whether any Chinese laws were actually violated by pictures appearing on Flickr? Nope. Does China want to be considered a country ruled by law or not? The GFW is one of the many things that makes a complete joke out of Chinese government lip service to "rule of law."

As Yeetai writes:

If censorship is unavoidable, how it can be monitored and made transparent? With monitoring and transparency, errors can be corrected. Certainly, China Telecom should have an official (and helpful) answer. With one, I could learn why I am blocked and to whom I can ask in order to recover access from China to my website.

Keso's post is aptly titled "Fuck the GFW" (GFW stands for great firewall of China) and includes a link to this photo:

A favorite anti-GFW image that Chinese users can no longer see on Flickr without using a proxy is this one:

Comments

[davesgonechina]

FYI, flickr appears to be back. I can see the photo again.

[Rebecca MacKinnon]

Cool. I guess the voodoo worked!! ;)

[mahathir_fan]

one of my favourite website is still blocked in china. it is hitler.org.

I just checked it using:
http://greatfirewallofchina.org

so the litmus test, will you freedom lovers help to unblock hitler.org? or are you selective (like the censors) to decide which websites to be blocked or not?

the people of china could not read the words of an anti-communist like hitler who once said: "The Jewish doctrine of Marxism rejects the aristocratic principle of Nature and replaces the eternal privilege of power and strength by the mass of numbers and their dead weight."

[mahathir_fan]

communism.org is also blocked by china

[Rebecca MacKinnon]

MF, aha. Your favorite site is a nazi website eh? Now you have really shown your true colors.

I have never advocated zero censorship by the way. I am against unaccountable, arbitrary censorship that is done in such a way that internet users have no idea what is the decision making process for deciding what gets blocked... and users als have no way to appeal for the unblocking of websites that are not violating any Chinese laws.