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The Chinese can rest easy tonight. I should know. I saw it on the news.
Tonight, I flipped on the evening broadcast of CCTV1. The station is part of the China Central Television (CCTV) family, which also runs channels such as CCTV2, CCTV3, CCTV4, CCTV5, and, well, you get the gist. Not exactly creatively named, but they don’t have to be—any more than they have to sell ads. That’s the glory of being a sub-ministry of the central government.
Tonight’s evening news featured cops and computers. According to the report, today China’s Internet police convened via a nationwide telecommunication conference to address the development of investigations into “yellow,” or pornographic websites. China’s first online meme in 2008, “very yellow, very violent,” uttered by a middle-school student who was interviewed about the dangers of online porn by CCTV earlier this year, has already gone viral. Many have also ravishingly snatched up ethical debate regarding smut. It seems everyone has sex on the brain. Especially cops.
Most people know the Chinese government censors the Internet, but few understand the depth of monitoring that is undertaken and the amount of resources aimed at the effort, which include legions of officers tracking users and investigating infringement at the municipal, provincial and national level, 24-7. Friendlier reminders that you’re being watched are “Jing Jing” and “Cha Cha,” two characters who work to serve and protect you (from getting your jollies) and more. Find them as icons on many mainstream websites just above the complaint box where you can fink out someone who’s being baaad. Although Jing Jing and Cha Cha serve as names for the two characters, jing means “alert, vigilant,” cha means “inspect,” and together, jingcha, means police. Whether surfing on your mouse or playfully trampling your keyboard, they’re just here to remind you that you can be friends too. Sort of.
Tonight’s report, which I have hastily translated below (from the original Chinese transcript), featured puckish Chongqing ‘net cops who reenacted hustling from hunching over their computers to the scene of the crime, or the scene of the server, as it were. Trying to look the part of serious policemen, however, their years of playing Counter-Strike failed them as they stumbled over one another running flat-footed and giggling to the police car.
Even after living here for five and half years, there’s still something very disconcerting about turning on the news at 7pm and watching this. Through some cultural lens that I can’t seem to completely shake, it’s still obscene to me.
The Destruction of “Black Sunglasses”
(Broadcast on CCTV1 on January 22, 2008)
Today, 13 committees convened together for a nationwide telecommunication conference addressing continuing development of legal strikes on obscene pornographic websites. The meeting called for increased dynamism in the action of combating these sites. From last year onwards, there has been great national momentum towards this goal with every Public Security Bureau destroying a group of pornographic sites. In the past few days, Chongqing investigated and captured a live video porn site.
When Chongqing Internet authorities received a tip off about the “Black Sunglasses Entertainment” website, they quickly and vigorously commenced an inspection. The police discovered the site was actually a P2P entity with live pornographic broadcasts. In order to increase popularity, each of the areas within the website competed with the other. The combined areas covered all angles of pornography. Because the site hasn’t been up for long, members had not been required to register to sign on, which makes the danger of this site’s proliferation greater.
The Chongqing Ministry of Security Internet Supervising Squadron quickly organized an elite team, and several criminals will be facing jail time in different Chinese cities. Currently, the website’s main organizers have already been captured by the police and sentenced by a court of law.
It is reported the website operated on a Chongqing server. It is clear that the server operator, who under law is responsible for any rented space, was neglectful in undertaking the necessary duties to monitor its guest. Currently, as creators of pornographic websites transform their methods, every Internet inspection department has adopted 24-hour surveillance. Internet police boxes and police icons also often appear on the web.
Currently, in comparison to before this attack on online “yellow” smut began, the web is already a cleaner one, but it’s not completely rid of this problem. Especially, as evident in this program, we see that a small amount of telecommunications operations, content providers and pornographic websites have already built a profitable chain that creates a web enabling the space and the place for smutty material. Only by cutting this chain and checking the bloom and spread of obscene and pornographic activity can we provide the public with a “green” (healthy) Internet space.
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