Data breach exposes global risks of the Great Firewall
Reports of a ‘leak’ have ‘shown that Chinese censorship is no longer just a national project’
It appears the Great Firewall has sprung a leak, oozing authoritarian slime as China’s censorship virus spreads globally. Earlier this week, reports circulated about a “huge breach,” exposing the “inner workings” of Beijing’s powerful online suppression system.
Researchers claimed it was “one of the most detailed leaks of censorship technology ever seen,” Interesting Engineering, a technology site based in New York and Istanbul, reported on September 16.
“It provides a rare view into how China designs, exports, and operates its national traffic filtering tools,” it pointed out, adding that the data allegedly came from Geedge Networks, a Chinese cybersecurity company.
“Additional files [purportedly] traced back to the MESA lab at the Institute of Information Engineering, a branch of the [state-backed] Chinese Academy of Sciences,” Interesting Engineering added.
The domestic censorship … system now extends beyond the country.
Global Voices Advocacy
Behind the news:
- Still, the leak has shown that Chinese censorship is no longer just a national project, China Business Spotlight said in a newsletter.
- “It is becoming an export commodity, finding buyers primarily in countries where governments want to nip opposition and protest movements in the bud,” it added.
Delve deeper: A bedrock of Beijing’s Digital Silk Road, China has exported its draconian tech to “autocratic” regimes. They include those in Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, and Pakistan, further tightening the screw on free speech.
Between the lines: “This shows that the Chinese government is actively translating its political control model into a capitalist business model that caters to the needs of authoritarian and autocratic governments,” Global Voices Advocacy revealed.
Big picture: “The domestic censorship and surveillance system now extends beyond the country, affecting people who live under oppressive regimes around the world,” the anti-censorship network stated today.
China Factor comment: When China’s President Xi Jinping launched the Digital Silk Road a decade ago, it was to wire up Belt and Road Initiative partners. Ten years later, that winding road only leads to repression.