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The Beijing Olympics are underway with the spotlight on China. Unfortunately, our TV announcers are so awed by the grandeur of the spectacle that they are overlooking the country’s authoritarian regime and its stranglehold on free speech.

China now has the world’s largest number of Internet users, having recently surpassed the United States. This number, however, doesn’t account for whether the Chinese government allows for a free and open Internet. So while a record number of Chinese people are logging online, they certainly can’t read or watch anything they choose.

While China had promised to increase Internet freedom during the Olympics, many of those promises have not been kept. The government vowed to relax Internet restrictions for foreign journalists, and finally complied only after intense international pressure, making some previously blocked sites available. Chinese Internet users, however, still face the same firewalls.

China maintains control over Internet users by blocking access to a wide range of Web sites and online activities it believes are a threat to the security of the state. To accomplish this monumental task, the government has created an elaborate system of filters, commonly referred to as “the Great Firewall of China,” using technology called deep packet inspection or DPI.

When an Internet provider installs DPI equipment, it allows them (or a third party) to see everything you do on the Internet. DPI technology has been in the U.S. news recently, as ISPs have begun using it to track customer activities for targeted advertising. But two U.S. broadband providers were using this technology for purposes that mirror China’s to block online content. Which American providers do such a thing? None other than Comcast and Cox, two Net Neutrality violators.

The companies have installed DPI equipment to block Internet communications they don’t like using reset packets (as China does). As the Electronic Frontier Foundation explained, their use of reset packets is akin to “a telephone operator that interrupts a phone conversation, impersonating the voice of each party to tell the other that ‘this call is over, I’m hanging up.’” While legitimate purposes exist for the reset command, only these two companies and malicious hackers use it as a third party to interrupt people’s communication.

Comcast and Cox purchased the equipment from the corporation Sandvine, which hit the “on” switch to let the companies start violating Net Neutrality. Since Free Press filed a complaint with the FCC against Comcast for its illegal blocking, Sandvine has had a tough time. Their stock price has tanked and their biggest customer, Comcast, has had second thoughts.

As long as Sandvine’s business model is violating Net Neutrality, we consider this good news. A couple weeks ago, however, their stock price received a bump. How is this possible after the consumer win on Net Neutrality, with the FCC telling Comcast to stop blocking?

Sandvine simply looked to the example of the Great Firewall of China. Feeling the heat in the U.S., Sandvine struck deals with two countries – Qatar and Kuwait – looking to follow China’s lead and prevent their citizens’ access to a free and open Internet.

As you’re watching the Olympics, in the rare instance that an announcer actually brings up the current lack of online freedom in China, remember that Comcast and Cox utilize the same technology to impose their vision of what the Internet should be. Unless we continue to organize and fight for our online freedom, your Internet provider will assert an increasing level of control over what you say and do on the Internet, and Net Neutrality will no longer exist.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 18th, 2008 at 4:14 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.