据称,中国的网警多过中国路边警察的总和。
…………………………
据估计中国每天有3万多网警在网络上巡逻,形成了世界最大的但仍无法控制的互联网过滤系统。不过专家指出,当中国庞大的网络警察队伍正忙着从网上删掉那些诸如“言论自由”和“人权”等讨厌的短语时,放荡不羁的西方资本主义已从中国的真正经济转移到了实际的网络生活中。
分析家们指出,的确,互联网上所存在的未被查出来的言论自由,可能正不知不觉地把中国引进一个令人惊愕的社会变革的时代。对中国的所有网民来说,互联网已成为一个兴旺的大市场,其中包括那些只想把消费者变成受害人的骗子艺术家、石油贩子还有核心犯罪分子。
纽约时报3月8日发表了题为《中国放荡的网络充斥着色情和毒品但没有改革》文章,对这个世界第二大的互联网市场所存在的严重问题和拥有的市场前景进行了介绍。文章指出,随着中国网民的增多和互联网的不断发展,那些早前已厚着脸皮从其网上店铺出售下载的盗版音乐和电影的中国企业家,现在已把生意扩展到他们的产品销售线--在网上兜售起毒品、色情、偷来的汽车、武器,甚至还有供来移植的人体器官。
中国互联网上所正在发生的一切,很大的原因是互联网的增长速度实在太快了,中国现在已经拥有了1.1亿网民,成为仅次于美国的世界第二大互联网市场。中国互联网发展研究中心公布的统计数据显示,去年中国互联网的收入已经达到690亿美元,比一年前增长了58%。华尔街分析师说,到了2010年,中国可能会拥有世界最大的网上商业,其收入来自线上广告、电子商务和订阅费用,当然也包括那些违法的服务。
中国官方已发誓要打击那些非法网站,声称近年来已关闭了2000多家淫秽色情和赌博网站。不过,新的网站却每天都在躲避着政府的打击。有资料显示,据中国官方统计,2000年中国接报互联网违法犯罪案件2700起,2004年达到1.4万起,并且还保持着较快的增长态势,2005年可能还在增长。网上淫秽色情、赌博和诈骗活动已经成为多发性违法犯罪案件,仅2005年公安机关就依法关闭境内淫秽色情和赌博网站1800余个。
纽约时报的文章说,加州大学伯克利分校传播研究所中国互联网项目负责人肖强在谈到中国互联网现状时指出:“那是一个放荡的场所,除了政治外,中国象其它任何地方一样是自由的,你可以象在其它地方的互联网一样(在中国网络)找到色情(网站)。”
在中国的任何一家主要搜索引擎,只要你输入那些象“天安门广场”或“法轮功”这样的敏感关键词,电脑可能就会停止运转,或只是简单地提供一个已被审查的网站名单。相反,如果你要输入一些象“淫秽色情”或“非法毒品”之类的关键词,就会查到数十个相关连接,允许使用者下载色情录像,可以进入线上体育赌博网站的老窝,甚至还可以购买到可卡因。
在编译纽约时报的这篇文章时,记者检索到中国一家网站在3月8日发表的也谈中国互联网“自由”的文章,文章指出,事实上,中国是世界上网民言论空间最宽松的国家之一。为什么?国外的互联网管理又有多严厉?这里我们拿几个与网民言论有关的代表性因素来比较一下:新闻跟贴、论坛、搜索引擎、法律法规。
文章说,一份针对亚、欧、北美、澳等地区20多个国家50多个世界着名英文媒体网站的调查显示,只有雅虎新闻、印度时报等5家媒体网站开设了新闻跟贴功能。在中国,但凡发布新闻的网站都有新闻跟贴功能,网民可以即时的发表自己对某条新闻的看法,这一点恐怕会让外国佬羡慕不已,因为他们至今还只能通过电子邮件的方式来对新闻进行评论,而且只有符合网站新闻倾向性的少数评论或许会出现在网站的读者来信栏目中。
论坛是公民社会的言论平台。中国几乎任何一家媒体网站都开设论坛,且论坛内一片繁荣景象,内容无所不包,形式多种多样,可以说中文论坛在世界上也是蔚为大观,让拥有第一语言的英文媒体自愧不如。且不说境外拥有论坛或者留言板的英文媒体网站区区可数,即便是纽约时报和华盛顿邮报这样的世界级大媒体网站,其论坛内日平均发贴量不过100篇左右,还不到中国人民网强国论坛日发贴量的百分之一。
文章在谈到搜索引擎时指出,关键字过滤成为国外大肆攻击中国的第一话柄。但你也许不知道,美国政府2002年就耗资1470万美元在大大小小的学校安装了过滤软件,甚至于出现查分网站被当作赌博网站给屏蔽的事情。在中国,至少学校还没有受到如此照顾。
与这篇替中国互联网“辩护”的文章恰恰相反的是,纽约时报在文章中主要介绍和分析了中国“自由的”互联网所存在的现实问题,甚至是日趋严重的犯罪问题。纽约时报在文章中列举了最近从中国互联网所查到的一些网站的内容:
*一家假冒成中国工商银行分支机构的网站,要求访问者输入他们的账号密码;*一家自称是诚实公司的网站专门在网上搞欺骗,出售监听装置、伪造信用卡的机器、破解老虎机的工具等;*一家色情网站要求访问者每月支付2美元,下载色情录像,网站还提供裸聊服务;一家网站还打出出售迷奸药GHB的广告,并且还附带着如何使用此药来攻击妇女的说明。
纽约时报说,甚至就连象中新社这样的中国半官方新闻社也不能“免俗”,似乎也得用实际行动表现出来。在中新社的官方网站显着位置发表着象“中国旨在2006年实现支付平衡”的报导,但在网站的下边却有一些软色情的连接,贴着中国着名女影星巩丽和周迅的照片。
设在北京的中国互联网网络研究中心分析师卢伟刚(译音)说:“互联网是真实世界的一个反射,你在现实世界所看到的一切,都会出现在网上。”纽约时报指出,在中国数不清的网站,都有人在兜售警察武器、胡椒喷射剂等。近日,在中国的eBay网甚至还有人贴出拍卖自己的肾和肝的广告,要价10万美元。eBay中国网3月6日说,该网站禁止出售人体器官,并已删除了这条信息。
此外,中国还有一个名叫“爱国黑客”的网站,该网站宣称,一名黑客“领导和发动了对日本网站进行了10次攻击”。该网站声称,此人甚至还组织黑客准备黑掉日本的靖国神社网站,因为这个神社供奉着日本在二战时期的甲级战犯。还有一家中国网站专门出售“神奇药品”,声称可以治疗癌症和爱滋病。这家网站还说,他们将伪造政府的身份证;还有人许诺能攻破全国教育数据库来更改官方纪录。
纽约时报指出,绝大多数这样的网站都是中国法律所禁止的。中国政府颁布的互联网规定,禁止发布任何损害国家安全、伤害国家尊严的信息;禁止淫秽色情和赌博,以及传播“邪教”和“封建迷信”。违反者可能面临被判3年至10年的徒刑,有些甚至可以被判死刑,那么这些人是如何“冒险”躲过网警的搜查呢?分析师指出,由于互联网增长太快,他们只是建立太多的网站让网警很难追查。相反,又有太少的网站被关闭,尤其是在国有的互联网服务提供者、电信公司甚至政府网站,都在从中大获其利的时候。
中国互联网网络信息中心的卢伟刚指出,“中国政府每年发动一至两次打击色情和赌博网站的运动,但这不是一个有效的方式。”文章说,线上娱乐在中国各大网站大获成功。中国的百度网推出了每天评比最佳10大美人活动;中国的新浪网推出了名人博客,现在最火的就是女演员兼导演徐静蕾。
总部设在上海的一个名叫“我永远的家”(51.com)的社交网站,去年8月才正式开业,但这家私人网站介绍说,目前已拥有了300多万注册用户,其中绝大多数人的年龄在15岁至25岁之间,这些网民在该网站建立个人的网页,以在网上结识朋友。这家网站的创建者、29岁的庞升东说:“除了挣钱外,人们每天都在做些什么?那就是自娱自乐。”
摩根士丹利的一名网络分析师指出,中国上网的主要是年轻的单身一族,许多人上网是寻找游戏、约会、娱乐和交际。最近的一个调查结果发现,约有38%的互联网使用者是在网上寻找娱乐。中国人对互联网不断增长的热情,也是美国几大网络公司“不惜一切”进军中国市场的主要原因,如雅虎、微软、古狗等都已向中国的审查制度“低头”了。
文章最后指出,用芝加哥大学政治科学教授杨大力(Dali L. Yang)的观点来看,中国互联网是“真正的非同一般,从根本上看,这是一场社会革命”。杨教授说,这种出现在网上的社会活力,可能已被认为带有政治性,当然带有资产阶级生活方式的标志,“但现在,中共意识到在一个市场经济和一个全球化经济中,他们没有人力去控制全部。它可能会变成政治问题,但不会涉及到高度政治。”
□ 一读者推荐
- Re: 中国放荡的网络充斥着色情和毒品(CND)posted on 03/28/2006
没有找到NYT里的原文,哪位帮帮忙? - posted on 03/29/2006
玛雅 wrote:
没有找到NYT里的原文,哪位帮帮忙?
玛雅, 这是原文的LINK:
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30617FE39550C7B8CDDAA0894DE404482
文章已过期,要花钱买才行。
原文标题:The Wild Web of China; 110 Million Surfers Can Buy Sex and Drugs, but Reform Is Still Illicit
前50字:
By some estimates, there are more than 30,000 people patrolling the Web in China, helping to form one of the world's far-reaching Internet filtering systems. But while China's huge Internet police force is busy deleting annoying phrases like "free speech" and "human rights" from online bulletin boards, specialists say
我用别的办法“偷”到了原文:
SHANGHAI, March 7 — By some estimates, there are more than 30,000 people patrolling the Web in China, helping to form one of the world's far-reaching Internet filtering systems.
But while China's huge Internet police force is busy deleting annoying phrases like "free speech" and "human rights" from online bulletin boards, specialists say that Wild West capitalism has moved from the real economy in China to the virtual one.
Indeed, the unchecked freedoms that exist on the Web, analysts say, are perhaps unwittingly ushering in an age of startling social change. The Web in China is a thriving marketplace for everyone, including scam artists, snake oil salesmen and hard-core criminals who are only too eager to turn consumers into victims.
Chinese entrepreneurs who started out brazenly selling downloadable pirated music and movies from online storefronts have extended their product lines — peddling drugs and sex, stolen cars, firearms and even organs for transplanting.
Much of this is happening because Internet use has grown so fast, with 110 million Web surfers in China, second only to the United States. Last year, online revenue — which the government defines more broadly than it is in the United States — was valued at $69 billion, up around 58 percent from the year before, according to a survey by the China Internet Development Research Center.
By 2010, Wall Street analysts say China could have the world's leading online commerce, with revenue coming from advertising, e-commerce and subscription fees, as well as illicit services.
The authorities have vowed to crack down on illegal Web sites and say that more than 2,000 sex and gambling sites have been shut down in recent years. But new sites are eluding them every day.
"It's a wild place," Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project at the graduate journalism school of the University of California, Berkeley, said of China's Web. "Outside of politics, China is as free as anywhere. You can find porn just about anywhere on the Internet."
On any of China's leading search engines, enter sensitive political terms like "Tiananmen Square" or "Falun Gong," and the computer is likely to crash or simply offer a list of censored Web sites. But terms like "hot sex" or "illegal drugs" take users to dozens of links to Web sites allowing them to download sex videos, gain entry to online sports gambling dens or even make purchases of heroin. The scams are flourishing.
A small sampling recently turned up these sites:
● Look-alike Web site pretending to be part of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China asks visitors to enter their account passwords.
● Web site that calls itself Honest Company specializes in deception — selling bugging devices, machines to produce fake credit cards and tools that rig casino slot machines.
● Pornographic Web site asks people to pay $2 a month to download sex videos and chat with other online customers in the nude.
● Web site advertises the sale of gamma hydroxybutyrate, a drug that acts as a relaxant and is thought to reduce inhibitions. Sometimes called a "date rape" drug, it is sold on the Web in China with instructions about how to use it to assault women.
Even the official New China News Agency seems to have gotten into the act. While the top of its news pages carries dispatches like "China Aims to Achieve Balance of Payments in 2006," some at the bottom feature links to soft-porn photographs of Chinese movie stars like Gong Li and Zhou Xun.
"The Internet is a reflection of the real world," says Lu Weigang, an analyst at the China Internet Network Information Center in Beijing. "Everything you have in the real world appears on the Internet."
Countless Web sites peddle police weapons, pepper spray and even machines to siphon electricity from power lines. Earlier this week, an eBay user in China offered to put up for auction his or her kidney and liver for $100,000. Reached on Monday, eBay said that selling human organs was forbidden on its site and deleted the entry.
And a Web site called the Patriotic Hacker asserts that an instructor "led and initiated attacks on Japanese Web sites more than 10 times." It says he even managed to shut down the official Web site for the Yasukuni Shrine, dedicated to Japan's World War II military heroes.
There are also Web sites here that sell "miracle drugs" promising to cure cancer or AIDS, sites that say they will create fake government ID cards; some that even promise to break into the national education database to change official records.
Most of the sites are forbidden by law. On paper, the government's Internet regulations forbid the display of any information that damages state security, harms the dignity of the state, promotes pornography and gambling, or "spreads evil cults" and "feudal superstitions."
How does all this get by the Internet patrols in a country where violators risk 3 to 10 years in prison, or in some cases even the death penalty? Analysts say that the growth in the Internet has simply created too many sites to patrol. In contrast, there are too few incentives to close down sites, particularly when government-owned Internet service providers, telecommunications companies and even state-run Web sites are making big profits from them.
"The Chinese government launches campaigns on the Internet to crack down on pornography or the sale of illegal goods once or twice a year, but this is not an efficient way," Mr. Lu at the China Internet Network Information Center said.
What is successful is online entertainment. Baidu.com, a Google-like search engine, has a daily poll of the top 10 most beautiful women. Sina.com publishes a popular celebrity blog by the actress and director Xu Jinglei.
A social networking Web site, 51.com, opened last August, and months later its owner, a Shanghai-based private company, said the site had more than three million registered users, mostly 15 to 25, who create personalized Web pages and meet online. "Most Internet services are about entertainment," said Pang Shengdong, 29, who founded 51.com. "What do people do every day other than make money? They entertain themselves."
Richard Ji, an Internet analyst at Morgan Stanley, said traffic in this country was dominated by young singles, many of them searching for games, dates, entertainment and community. A recent survey found that nearly 38 percent of the nation's Internet users search for entertainment on the Web. The growing enthusiasm for the Internet in China is one reason some of the biggest Internet and technology companies, like Microsoft, Yahoo and Google, are eager to have a presence here, even if it means submitting to China's stringent censorship rules.
In the view of Dali L. Yang, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago: "It's truly remarkable. This is fundamentally a social revolution."
Mr. Yang says that the social dynamics taking place on the Web might once have been considered political, and certainly marks of a bourgeois lifestyle.
"But now," he said, "the Communist Party realizes that in a market economy and a globalized economy, they don't have the manpower to cover it all. It may be political, but it's not high politics."
Please paste HTML code and press Enter.
(c) 2010 Maya Chilam Foundation