<p>The Chinese government is forcing tech companies like Alibaba to provide law enforcement with unfettered access to their databases.</p>
<p>Here&rsquo;s an example: ;A former Alibaba employee recalls an instance in which the police wanted to find a person who had posted content related to terrorism. &ldquo;They came to me and asked me for the user ID and information,&rdquo; said the employee. He gave it to them. ;</p>
<p>This would not happen in the United States, where ;requests for information must be court-approved. In China, cops can use search warrants issued by their own department. To make matters worse, Chinese companies do not release any information regarding requests from the government. ;</p>
<p>In effect, the Chinese government is using tech companies to build a sophisticated, high-tech system to spy on its citizens. This system includes facial-recognition technology, surveillance cameras, and massive computer systems that are able to search through terabytes of data. ;</p>
<p>Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, and others are required to help the government hunt down criminal suspects, silence political dissent, and participate in a project that calls for the creation of &ldquo;smart cities&rdquo; that are completely wired for surveillance.</p>
<p>Cooperation is not an option in a country where the Communist Party controls the legal system and the right to operate as a business. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;The political and legal system of the future is inseparable from the Internet, inseparable from big data,&rdquo; says Alibaba founder Jack Ma, adding that technology will one day make it possible to predict crime. &ldquo;Bad guys won&rsquo;t even be able to walk into the square.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>The ability to predict crime ;sounds like a good thing, ;but is it worth the privacy of every citizen?</strong></p>
<p>&ldquo;Everyone has a spy watching them. That spy is their smartphone,&rdquo; says Beijing activist Hu Jia, who was confronted by state security agents after he sent a list of activists&rsquo; names to a friend headed to Taiwan. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Experience has proven that WeChat is completely compromised,&rdquo; he added, referring to a popular app owned by Tencent. ;</p>
<p>Other WeChat users say they have received automatic warnings regarding politically sensitive content. Some say their accounts were suspended or deactivated for posts critical of the government. ;</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p>There have been instances in which Alibaba and other companies have pushed back against a request they feel is unwarranted &ndash; but the Chinese government always has the last word. ;</p>
<p>Unlike the US, &ldquo;there is no independent judiciary to approve or review government requests &ndash; or for companies to appeal to if they disagree with a demand,&rdquo; notes the <em>Wall Street Journal. ; ;</em></p>
<p>This means that regulators can force platforms to stop streaming videos with political content the government doesn&#8217;t agree with (this has already happened). Regulators have also threatened to shut down companies if they fail to comply with social media rules.</p>
<p><strong>Facebook, Twitter, and most of Google&#8217;s services are blocked in China. ;</strong></p>
<p>On June 1st, a new law went into effect that requires ISPs to help the feds locate content that &ldquo;endangers national security, national honor, and interests.&rdquo; Acting under this law, China&#8217;s Cyberspace Administration was able to slap massive fines on Tencent for allowing users to spread pornography and &ldquo;false rumors.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>Tencent&rsquo;s online monitoring operations current filter news feeds and videos for content such as:</p>
<p>&bull; Pornography</p>
<p>&bull; Terrorism content</p>
<p>&bull; Content promoting gambling</p>
<p>&bull; Content containing state secrets</p>
<p>&bull; Content undermining public morality</p>
<p>&bull; Unfavorable references to the Communist Party and its leaders ;</p>
<p>&bull; Foreign news stories that cast China in a negative light ;</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p>It is virtually impossible for a Chinese citizen to get through the day without using an app run by Alibaba or Tencent, both of which ;are among the world&#8217;s top 10 most valuable companies.</p>
<p>Alibaba is an e-commerce giant second only to Amazon. Tencent is a gaming company whose WeChat messaging service has a virtual monopoly on communication in China. ;Shop signs demanding payment through WeChat are common, and Tencent&rsquo;s massively popular &ldquo;Honour of Kings&rdquo; mobile game has 200 million registered accounts in China. ;</p>
<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s note:</strong> While China&#8217;s restrictions are draconian in terms of free speech, let&#8217;s not forget that NSA still has a massive spy program against American citizens. It is really time to dial that back.</p>