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'Net nanny' talks about keeping online content clean
(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-12 10:20
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METRO: So what is your job exactly?
A: I remove the so-called 'illegal' websites posts and links to banned content. But I am not the person who decides what content should be removed. My superiors give me assignments. And sometimes the Internet police will send us notes on what content or which websites should be removed or disconnected for displaying something 'illegal'.
METRO: What is your working routine?
A: Like the staff of any government institutions, we work 8 am to 5 pm shifts, with occasional overtime. And we sit in offices, doing not much as we wait for assignments from superiors. When there is no project, we usually write work reports on computers not connected to the Internet. But sometimes when the big assignments arrive, we work on authorized computers using special tools to locate, label and remove the information. That's pretty much everything.
METRO: How does it feel when you have to remove something that you find interesting?
A: I tell myself that netizens will find a way to work around our barriers before long.
METRO: You are also an Internet user - how do you view your job from that perspective?
A: Everybody likes to ask me this question. But there isn't a big conflict. I think there should be mutual understanding between Internet users, which includes me, and Internet supervision staff, which also includes me. This is the Internet ecology around us. Both Internet supervision staff and Internet users must cope with it.
METRO: Exactly what kind of Internet ecology do we live in?
A: You know the answer. Everybody does.
METRO: But how do you find this environment? Restricted?
A: I find it the same as everybody else.
METRO: What happens to the websites that get deleted?
A: It's a simple technique actually. The removed sites are still online, but we apply a code using simple software, so that we can block domestic visitors who try to access them. The error pages on the browsers are actually fake pages created by our software. You are virtually inches from the content, but the error pages become the virtual wall between you and the content. That's how it works.
METRO: How many websites do you have to block each day?
A: I don't keep track of my workload. I always hate to think about it. But let me tell you this, several of my colleagues deleted almost all the links to the "Shoushou" sex tape (an explicit video featuring a famous Chinese model) on websites in Beijing.
METRO: Do they get a copy for themselves by any chance?
A: You already know the answer.
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