• Stemming political dissent in China
  • What The Great Firewall censors
  • How The Great Firewall works
  • Why The Great Firewall is effective
  • Where censorship in China is headed
• Curtailing bloggers' rights in Egypt
• Preserving community standards in Europe
• Walking the constitutional tightrope in the U.S.

What The Great Firewall Censors

The general goal of the Chinese government's internet censorship efforts is to curb political dissent and limit the availability of news and information that is unflattering to the Chinese government or disruptive to the status quo. To this end, the Chinese government blocks websites which discuss the authoritarian elements of the Chinese government, the growing ecological and health problems caused by pollution and a host of other topics which the government thinks will sow insubordination in the populace. While the list of blocked websites is constantly changing, websites like blogger.com, nytimes.com, and wikipedia.com have all been blocked at some point in time.