Is really the Chinese government able to censor all the internet?

Any government can restrict access to the Internet if it wants. Global internet access in North Korea for example is only permitted with special authorisation. Online services for most people is restricted to a domestic only network.

China has blocked sites such as Google, Facebook and YouTube but you can access these in China by using a VPN. I didn’t use a VPN when in China but I found I could access most of the sites I wanted and I could search using Baidu, China’s equivalent of Google.

I don’t know, but how many routes are there to the Internet? It is surprisingly small. Control those and you control the Internet for your peope.

Most traffic is carried over a small number of cables. See submarinecablemap.com for those underwater.

Add land cables to that. And then satellite access.

That’s it (I think).

If I had to put money on it, I would bet you can’t control ALL the access, but you can control all the access for 99% of the people.

The same is true in the US. The vast majority are restricted to whatever the big cable and cell phone companies allow.

I think that they are not restricting, but they could.

It can be and is controlled. It’s actually quite simple and that is why the recent ‘net neutrality’ bill in congress was so important. Traffic can be controlled. I’ve had to help researchers in China to have access to research material that is easily accessible here. They don’t just shut down the frivolous media crap about the Kardashians, they also cut off any access to scientific papers and research done elsewhere.

@ScienceChick That’s why I think if the government wanted to it could block the black market online and any site that shows how to make a bomb or make illegal weapons.