How Freegate Helps You Get Around Online Censorship Circumvention in China
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What is Freegate? Freegate is an exclusive software program developed in China by Dynamic Internet Technology (DYNAMICS), which allows web users in mainland China, South Korea, North Korea, Iraq, Iran, United Arab Emirates, and others to access websites blocked by their respective governments. Unlike regular search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN, this particular software program is designed for "unblocking" websites in China. What it does is to search for the websites in Chinese language using a sophisticated algorithm which "lacks key words commonly used by Chinese censorship authorities." It then displays the result - the website - unblocked.
Freegate effectively bypasses the various layers of censorship usually installed on most websites found in China. But to understand how Freegate works, one must also know how Chinese censorship works. Websites are regularly blocked either by the government or by individual Chinese people and organizations. The main objective of these websites is to promote Internet freedom and open the Web to everyone. To achieve its goal, China's government resorts to a diverse range of methods including disabling websites, mirroring sites, and even changing the web browser's homepage.
To make matters worse, China's government implements "double filtering," a more sophisticated form of censorship circumvention. In this method, websites are first searched for using keywords familiar to Chinese internet users. If they are successfully located, they are then sent to a special link with instructions explaining that accessing them requires special consent. The resulting webpage then contains only text or minimal graphics (making it virtually impossible to decipher what it says) and a link that lead to the original website.
