The Chinese Internet: An Insider's Perspective
Not to sound unpatriotic but there are times when I feel more free living in China than in the US. Foreigners seem to be allowed to do what they want as long as they have a visa and aren’t organizing “Free Tibet” marches or running a drug ring. Some people seem to think China is just a step below North Korea but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In North Korea you can be sentenced to 15 years hard labor(or death) for stealing a poster or carrying a bible. Sarcasm is even illegal there. Meanwhile, I’ve never been arrested, or even fined, while making videos in China the last 5 years. Those same videos would have gotten me a pretty sizable record back in the US. Matter of fact, when I moved back to the States in 2016 it didn’t take me more than four months before I caught a drunk in public charge for falling asleep at a Lil Ceaser’s in downtown Clemson. I spent $1000 and did about 40 hours of community service just to get it off my record, only to then get a job at Barstool Sports, the one company that could give less than zero fucks about a charge like that and has most likely never done a background check in its existence. In China, they would have let me keep sleeping.
However, there are definitely still aspects about living out here that hit you like a ton of bricks and make you realize “Ok ya I’m definitely living in an authoritarian communist society.” One of those things is a little something called “the internet.” Chinese internet is the absolute WORST!” *Frankie Midnight Voice*. Here’s a list of just a few of the websites that are blocked: Google, Gmail, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Dropbox, Twitter, Pornhub, The New York Times, xHamster, BBC, TIME, Venmo, The Economist, Netflix. The list goes on and on. And the websites that aren’t blocked are usually censored to shit. The fact Barstool Sports isn’t banned is a god damn miracle but it’s only a matter of time before they pull an India and Cuncel Da Stool for good. It seems the Chinese government has created such a restricted internet for two main reasons. First, so it can prevent it’s citizens from seeing sensitive information that could make the government look bad and potentially stir up unrest. And secondly, so local Chinese tech companies like Youku, a Youtube knock-off, and Weibo, a twitter knock-off, don’t have to compete with their US counterparts. They’ve created their own online eco-system. There is no Chinese version of Barstool Sports JUST YET but I’ll keep my eyes peeled.
LUCKILY, there is something called a Virtual Private Network(VPN) that allows you to bypass The Great Firewall of China like a cybermongol. In layman’s terms, a VPN is a piece of software that makes it look like you are accessing the internet from a different location or country than your actual location. I have a free one for my phone and pay about $70/year for the one installed on my computer. With my VPN on, I can use the internet just like any average joe in the US. It’s literally the only thing that allows me to work from Barstool while living in China.
About once a year China claims that it’s finally figured out a way to get rid of VPNs once and for all but it always ends up just being hot air. However, Bloomberg recently reported that China has serious plans in place to block access to all personal VPNs by February 2018.
“China’s government has told telecommunications carriers to block individuals’ access to virtual private networks by Feb. 1, people familiar with the matter said, thereby shutting a major window to the global internet.
Beijing has ordered state-run telecommunications firms, which include China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, to bar people from using VPNs, services that skirt censorship restrictions by routing web traffic abroad”
This could just be another empty threat as I’m not even sure if its technologically possible to block all VPNs but one thing is for sure, if China successfully bans the use of a VPN, my time in this country will have come to an end. Did you see that list of blocked websites?? I work for an internet company and an internet without social media and porn is no internet in my book. I’d rather play with the ole stick and wheel.
Luckily, I’m Barstool’s “international” correspondent, not their China correspondent, so if the day comes when I must leave the Middle Kingdom I’m sure there is another country out there that would happily take me in. Right??… Right guys??? I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.