How The Great Firewall Reflects Beijing’s Policy

The internet censorship analyst talks about the evolution of China’s system, how it differs from and affects other countries, and when, exactly, The Wire China got blocked in China.

Hoàng Nguyên Phong is a PhD candidate at Stony Brook University, where he studies online security and privacy. He is also a visiting research fellow at University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, where he focuses on internet censorship measurement. His recent paper “How Great is the Great Firewall? Measuring China’s DNS Censorship” explores China’s restrictive cyber policies, and how they impact both the Chinese and global internet. In this lightly edited interview, we discussed the two-way nature of the firewall, how China’s censorship regime differs from other systems, and why anti-censorship technology is important.