U.S. cloud services caught in activism against China's censors

BEIJING, March 17 (UPI) -- Activists outside China are battling China's Internet censorship by transmitting encrypted information through cloud servers operated by companies like Amazon and Microsoft, but the move also is drawing U.S. firms into conflict with China's regulators.

The Wall Street Journal reported the censored Internet traffic couldn't be blocked unless Chinese authorities agree to ban all servers run by U.S. companies. The move also would shutter China's window to outside information that does not violate official censors and present drawbacks to major U.S. companies offering cloud services.

But China's government has made moves against the encrypted Internet traffic that violates their censors. In November Beijing blocked EdgeCast, a cloud service run by Verizon Communications. In the past, bloggers have faced jail time for making comments deemed as threats to the government.

Cloud servers have accelerated the dissemination of information globally because the technology allows multiple copies of data to be saved at different locations around the world. Mirror versions of banned websites are accessible through encrypted channels for Chinese users behind the firewall.

U.S. corporations were complying with Beijing, with one firm cutting off a U.S.-based service delivering encrypted information. China's cloud-computing market is expected to grow by 45 percent this year and has already reach $1.1 billion in 2014.

Internet censorship has also hit Chinese social media, reported Forbes.

Two Chinese Internet giants, Sina and Baidu, recently complied with new regulations and deleted more than 60,000 accounts, because Beijing believed the accounts were using "harmful or misleading names."

The move is reducing online spaces of honest discussions related to China's politics and society and could reduce user engagement, reported Forbes.

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U.S. cloud services caught in activism against China's censors