GFW: Nuwa vs. Fuwa in Aussie Rules

Posted on July 29, 2008
Filed Under Apparatchiks, Beijing Olympics, China Internet, GFW |

Amnesty International has developed a tool designed to monitor the extent of internet censorship in China, and is asking Australians to help use it.

The tool, known as the China Internet Censorship Index is designed to collect data and monitor the censorship framework known as the Great Firewall of China.

The CICI can help determine exactly which sites are blocked by the firewall. The tool can be used to conduct automated tests via proxy servers in China - measured against a control test checking availability from outside of the country.

There are also Amnesty International volunteers conducting frequent manual tests.

The tool generates a daily index which will be updated dynamically, and can be displayed on badges that can be put on blogs or social networking pages.

Amnesty Australia’s proxy servers are in Beijing and Shanghai.

CICI, which they note should be pronounced chi-chi (er, how does an Australian pronounce chi-chi?), rates whether or not a site is blocked in China based on a score. 0 is site available, 1 means some errors, 2 mean inaccessible. Not the most sophisticated measure, it doesn’t account for latency and network problems. However, it should provide a reasonably rough and ready guide to what’s being blocked.

The Nuwa icon is about as annoying as the Fuwa, but in a sad, gagged, kind of way.

It’s part of a larger effort by Amnesty Australia to protest internet censorship in China. Like a lot of human rights organizations around the world, they’re using the Olympics as a means of raising awareness. Whatever you may think of that, it’s bound to have absolutely no impact on China (except, perhaps, a concerted effort to find the proxy servers and whoever is running them).

I’d put my money on Fuwa to run away with this match.