China is leading the global trend towards cyber sovereignty, a norm based on the use of technology to control what sort of information can be accessed and exchanged within a national boundary and by whom. Several recent reports...
In the two weeks since the Ministry of Public Security and the Cyberspace Administration of China published a draft law proposing an ostensibly voluntary national Internet ID program and opened it up for public comment, there...
Chinese internet regulators are purportedly considering new methods to safeguard users’ personal information online. Their solution, however, involves giving the government greater control over user data. The proposal has...
On April 6, a Weibo user from Zhejiang province reported a case of local anti-fraud center overreach that resulted in his bank cards and Alipay account being frozen after he made a work-related call to a Singaporean bank. In a...
Hong Kong is set to pass a new domestic national security law that critics worry will further curtail civil liberties already endangered by the 2020 National Security Law imposed by China. The passage of domestic security...
As part of a larger interview series about Tibet, CDT recently published two interviews specifically about digital surveillance in Tibet: “Lhadon Tethong on Tibetans’ ‘Spirit of Resistance and Desire for Freedom,’” and “Tenzin...
As the one-year anniversary of the lifting of China’s “zero-COVID” policy approaches, residents in many provinces in China have been dismayed and alarmed by the apparent return of mobile phone app-based health codes. Screenshots...
Earlier this week, Apple removed over 100 generative AI and ChatGPT-related apps from its mainland Chinese store in response to new Chinese government regulations on managing generative AI. The regulations were introduced in...
The extraordinary Sitong Bridge protest on October 13 sparked displays of solidarity and protest across China. Some of those moved by the protest have used Apple’s “AirDrop” function to share information about the solitary...
“Voices of June” continues CDT’s monthly “Voices of …” collection of viral audio-visual content from pandemic lockdowns in Shanghai and other Chinese cities. Inspired by the original audio-visual compilation “Voices of April,”...
The latest wave of Omicron outbreaks and lockdowns in Shanghai, Changchun, Dongxing, Taiyuan, and other cities has resulted in food shortages and supply chain disruptions. The lockdowns and road closures have been particularly...
A Bilibili content moderator’s death has renewed debate on China’s culture of overwork six months after the Supreme People’s Court ruled “996” working schedules illegal, and just a year after a young tech worker died in similar...
As the Australian public discovered earlier this week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison no longer has access to his WeChat account. Morrison had opened his account in 2019 to court Chinese-Australian voters before the federal...
Authorities in Xi’an have locked down the entire city after reporting over 100 new coronavirus cases. China has employed lockdowns, mass testing, and centralized quarantines to pursue a “zero-covid” strategy. The Xi’an...
China’s “zero-Covid” policy relies heavily on mobile phone apps that display a health code in one of three “traffic light” colors: red, yellow, or green. Users install the apps via WeChat or Alipay, enter their...
As the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic approaches, China continues to adhere to a stringent “zero-COVID” policy, long after many other nations (including Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand) have abandoned their...
One of the hottest new apps in China over the past few months came not from private developers in booming tech hubs, but straight out of the Ministry of Public Security. Called “National Anti-Fraud Center,” the app was launched...
Ideological orthodoxy has long been a top Party priority, and in recent years digital technology has been increasingly utilized by authorities toward that goal. Xuexi Qiangguo, a slick Alibaba-made app designed to teach users Xi...
Click on the image to download Firefly for circumvention
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