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gubasx t1_iy2kofc wrote

Well.. even if we knew.. it would be really dumb to explain it here publicly so that the Chinese censorship machine would also be able to see it and use that info to stop it.

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bbqroast t1_iy3b6ae wrote

Plenty of Chinese netizens know how.

These types of things aren't secrets that the government doesn't know about, rather it's simply the case that the government doesn't have the resources to shut all the various backdoors down without limiting the internet so much it causes other issues.

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gubasx t1_iy3lfv6 wrote

it's pretty easy for them to limit any server within china "intranet" (call it local internet if you prefer) to not be able to establish any type of communications with any computer or server working from outside of that intranet. when we're talking about china we are talking about a lot more than a simple firewall.

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bbqroast t1_iy5rb2r wrote

I mean, yes, the great firewall is sophisticated. That example though is probably the most basic feature of the most trivial firewall possible, your home modem could probably do it.

More interesting examples would be some of the clever packet analysis they do on encrypted connections.

But again, even this isn't enough to prevent all undesired traffic, especially given that there's legitimate uses for VPNs, overseas file sharing sites, etc.

For instance, if they blocked external access to every server in China they'd be knee capping their entire economy, so they have to work out which ones. That's not easy or cheap to do accurately at scale.

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TImetalker OP t1_iy2ps1o wrote

Fair point i’ll have to do some googling then

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TImetalker OP t1_iy2psnh wrote

Fair point i’ll have to do some googling then

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No-Comparison8472 t1_iy3cm3y wrote

Reddit is banned in China anyway

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gubasx t1_iy3l2is wrote

this is not about Reddit.. this is about ways to circumvent the Chinese censorship, and if you believe the Chinese government doesn't scrutiny the Western social networks you are being naive.

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No-Comparison8472 t1_iy59khr wrote

I think it's you being naive for thinking China is looking on Reddit for ways to prevent its population from sharing media. I think they know exactly how it is shared and do not look to Reddit for information.

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Ricwil12 t1_iy2lt8o wrote

Or the great Chinese censorship is a Western creation.

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cx5zone t1_iy2o91e wrote

Well, the exact way is secret of course. And shouldn't be digged at too hard lest the Chinese government just stumble on a reddit post explaining it and then fixing it. But basically, no wall is perfect, there's always holes if you look hard enough. Even the Iron curtain and Berlin wall let some people through. But the great Chinese firewall do nothing about passing along physically. For example, as soon as a thumbdrive reaches a computer not governed by that firewall, uploading is simple. There are also ways to bypass firewalls, every lock is beatable, it's just a question of time

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Laerson123 t1_iy37q8v wrote

1- The Chinese firewall doesn't control the internet, it only blocks access to some sites from within ISPs located there. Anyone can set a VPN, and it isn't illegal, even the government provides VPN.

2- Some areas aren't under this protection, like Hong Kong.

3- For things like the lockdown "protests" (that are basically color revolutions funded by imperialist countries), the ones recording are journalists from other countries. They either can ship the physical media, or they can use VPN to send the recordings

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YessikZiiiq t1_iy3yr9i wrote

>3- For things like the lockdown "protests" (that are basically color revolutions funded by imperialist countries)

This kids is how you identify a Tankie. Tankie is a slur used for Authoritarians who pretend to be leftist. They will more often than not deny any crime that the states that they support commit, and if you can prove a crime, they'll say that it was justified.

Tankies are not leftists.

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-Aerobrake- t1_iy5g925 wrote

> 1- The Chinese firewall doesn't control the internet, it only blocks access to some sites from within ISPs located there. Anyone can set a VPN, and it isn't illegal, even the government provides VPN.

This is extremely misleading, borderline false.

The only "legal" VPNs in China are the ones provided by the government which are backdoored by the government. They are not ways around censorship. Individuals running VPNs are absolutely illegal.

For actual info from not-a-tankie: https://nordvpn.com/blog/vpn-for-china/

> (that are basically color revolutions funded by imperialist countries)

wut lol

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lemoinem t1_iy3j7va wrote

The great firewall basically works in four different ways:

  1. Completely blocks access to some platforms/IP (e.g., twitter, WhatsApp, Reddit, known TOR entry nodes, etc.)

  2. Completely forbids some sort of traffic (e.g., VPN-like traffic)

  3. Intercepts traffic to allowed platforms and applies keyword filtering

  4. Huge moderation teams across state supported media platforms

Being able to hide traffic (e.g., special hidden TOR entry nodes whose traffic is designed to blend in with standard HTTP traffic) will allow users to bypass points 1 and 2. The physical transfer of storage as another user mentioned will also work to exfiltrate info.

Using euphemisms (Winnie the Pooh instead of Xi Jinping), non-text media (screenshots, photos and videos), will bypass point 3, at least until the moderator teams catches on.

Point 4 is trickier, but it's basically a race against the clock. Subversive content will be removed, but it might survive long enough to be saved and forwarded somewhere else.

None of this is secret... They are technical limitations (mostly), not really anything that can be done about it.

What I'm not sure is why point 4 is based on accept-by-default (i.e., they could block all publications until moderators reviewed it), but I guess it would put too much strains on the communication, instant messaging would become impossible, for example. So they have to live with it.

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YessikZiiiq t1_iy3y8nm wrote

Unless the country runs an Intranet (which would cripple the country in many ways), outside access must be possible. If outside access is possible, there's several ways of accessing the internet in ways that are untraceable. These ways aren't secret, the government knows about them, there's just little that can be done if you want the benefits of the internet in your country.

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spddemonvr4 t1_iy2oqa6 wrote

In short VPN or just PN.

While the Chinese government shuts down most access to known Vpns, it's nearly impossible to block all IPs available. I can set up a email sever that isn't blocked then tell some one in china to save content to it. It will run until their IT teams find and block it... Then rinse and repeat after the server is registered elsewhere.

Or worst case scenario, like they do in Cuba and N. Korea, store content on memory cards and bring them to another country to then upload to the web.

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InflationOk2641 t1_iy37xes wrote

Perhaps but from experience, I setup a VPN endpoint on a server in France, then went over to China. I could connect to the VPN but I got just 1-2 minutes of access before it was blocked.

That firewall is fairly smart and I would think is doing some dynamic blocking based on the packet contents.

You're might have more success if you used stenography, hiding each byte in a stream of ASCII text

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