Does China censor the internet when it is read in English?

[Amanda180]

What about Facebook, are you even allowed to use it? What about Infowars and such, are you allowed to read sites like that?

[Goupidan]

Facebook is blocked, and if I were in charge of blocking websites, I would block infowars.

[Frank S]

Read in English?? What does that mean? Info is info no matter what language it is. But it's yes to your question. English or Chinese, it does not matter. FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE, TWITTER, most BLOG sites are blocked as well.
There are always around it.... Use a PROXY like http://www.ssltube.com or get a STRONG VPN to go around the Chinese internet.

[Craftylass]

The primary tool of scanning content on the internet is a filtering software. It searches for key words chosen by the one(s) doing the filtering and goes from there. You can read more about it here: http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/

Spammers try to get around filtering software by mixing up their words with characters, etc. That's why you'll receive something that says "V!@gra" instead of "Viagra" as the spammer is trying to get past the initial filter. Good filtering programs keep up with current trends in avoidance tricks.

Many times, once a filtering program "flags" content, a human then reads the information to decide whether or not it is a risk to go in/out of the country.

Due to a variety of reasons, China blocks a lot of user-submitted information. This includes social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, as well as many blog sites, etc.

China's government also blocks political and religious sites that they have deemed dangerous to their State government.

Yes, English-related content is monitored as well. Never underestimate the power of a government that has 1.4 billion people (with at least 50% of that number in the employable work force) to provide jobs for.

I do know that my text messages in northwest China are often screened. I will send a message and most of the time, it takes up to ten minutes for them to go out. I'm not sure why my messages are screened . . . my husband's are not . . . but perhaps my screener likes my English and uses them as lessons. I don't use shortcuts or use text lingo . . . I type full words! However, in spite of the screening, the messages always go through.

My husband's cousin's husband (in China) used to work in the internet screening (censorship) department of the military. He's the source of my information. He has told us that "someone is always watching" so we should assume that everything is being read. This doesn't necessarily mean that every word is read, but the chance is always there.

[Cisco]

No. The censor or blocking of websites are due to the content, much of contents considered blocked or inaccessible are porn and some postings that is against Chinese government. In US, we have Cyber Nanny, Net Nanny, surfWatch, NetContent, etc. most of which will regulate kid's internet usage and filter out porn sites. With China, the difference is that they added the filtration of sites that criticizes their government. With a use of VPN and some free proxies, you can access your Facebook account. Actually, I never really understood the harm of Facebook - it's just a social networking site. I don't know about infowars though.