Chinese government uses a software which can filter and record chat messages containing words deemed to be politically-charged, according to a recent report conducted by Toronto-based research group.
Citizen lab, a research organization which specializes in Internet and politics issues, has conducted a report entitled “Breaching Trust: An Analysis of Surveillance and Security Practices on China’s TOM-Skype platform” which stated that Chinese authorities are using TOM-Skype software designed to scan and record messages and personal details of Internet users.
Tom-Skype is joint enterprise between Internet giant eBay and TOM online which is one of the major players in the sector of Internet service providers in the country.
In his blog, Skype’s president Josh Silverman defended the use of the platform, stating that his company and its partner TOM were bound by the Chinese law and should follow regulations and requirements to monitor activities in the Internet to filter subversive messages perceived to be offensive by the government.
But Silverman stated on his blog that he was unaware that TOM is recording messages since it was not part of their agreement, adding that the initial protocol would just allow the Internet company to filter and block “offensive” messages.
Chinese government has long been known to conduct surveillance in the Internet. In 2005, newsman Shi Tao, who revealed irregularities in the government, has been sentenced 10 years imprisonment. With this event, Yahoo! was been widely criticized for assisting the authorities to know where the email bearing politically-charged messages came from, which led the government to identify the reporter.
According to a report published in the “The New York Times”, over 3000 “online police” are monitoring Internet activities including political blogs, personal correspondence, and websites.
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