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from the what-about-the-ones-you-did-NOT-catch? dept.
Chinese authorities have detained a software developer for selling computer services that allow internet users to evade China's "Great Firewall," which blocks access to thousands of websites, from Facebook to Twitter to some news outlets, a media report said Monday.
The software developer, who is from the coastal province of Jiangsu, near Shanghai, was arrested in late August and held for three days for building a small business to sell virtual private networks, the Global Times newspaper reported, citing the official Xinhua news agency. VPNs create encrypted links between computers and allow Chinese web users to see blocked sites by hiding the address from government filters.
Subscribers paid 10 yuan, or about $1.50, for one month of the developer's service. Authorities also seized the developer's earnings, which totaled 1,080 yuan, or about $165.
Some internet businessmen have faced far harsher punishments: Earlier this year, a 26-year-old entrepreneur who sold VPN services in Dongguan, near Hong Kong, was sentenced to nine months in prison.
How far away from having this happen in the West are we, really?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 19 2017, @04:41PM (1 child)
Naw it is just that China is the great evil and we must use that caricature to promote "the land of the free". I still agree with most of the statements, I just doubt their authenticity. At the very least the statements are profoundly naive and quite hypocritical given his statements in the past. As long as the Great Evils are coming from private corporations it is OK because it is a "choice" to use whatever Great Evil you need. He just sidesteps the fact that these giants are able to purchase their power and are intertwined with the gov. But of course the blame only goes to the gov, unless its an evil west coast tech company. #hypocrisy #grudgingapproval
If he is a real person he needs to broaden his perspective so he can step outside the partisan divide. Corrupted power is non-partisan as the DNC and GOP have made painfully clear.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday September 19 2017, @11:04PM
That sounds just as authentic a criticism as an American Chinese meal.