China will censor text messages
Published: 22 Jul 2003 08:45 BST
Chain SMS (short message service) on mobile phones are causing comment in India, but in China, authorities plan to censor messages that are sexual or offensive in nature.
In a BBC report that quoted the state-run Beijing Morning Post newspaper, officials in Liaoning province want to clamp down on distasteful or "fabricated" SMS messages, expanding on powers the state already exercises on email, Web sites and Internet chatrooms.
An official from the Liaoning Telecommunications Administration said that his department was already able to track every message, the report said.
About 10 million text messages are sent every day in Liaoning, while in China as a whole, the country's biggest service provider, China Mobile, has estimated that its customers sent 40 billion text messages last year.
The Liaoning official declined to say how SMS messages were going to be censored.
Access to thousands of Web sites is blocked by what has become known as the "Great Firewall of China". Users complain of very slow Internet connections as all data packets have to squeeze through a few filter servers. Across Asia, governments are tackling the problem of hoaxes that can spread like wildfire from one mobile phone to another.
Last November, Singapore police tracked down the man who was the source of a hoax message about a bomb at a popular local nightspot. He was let off with a warning, but could have been jailed a maximum of seven years or fined S$50,000 (£17,830).
The SMS about the bomb was spread to hundred or even thousands of phones in a matter of hours, emptying the normally crowded Holland Village area.
SMS chain messages are on the rise in India.
Religious messages such as "Lord Ganesha, I love you, come into my heart now" are being sent around with the plea that they be forwarded to more people. These chain messages seem to be becoming more common, according to a Times of India report.
Users usually follow instructions to send them on to keep evil at bay, as a sign of religious devotion, or to receive good luck. There are even suspicions that the cellular companies may be initiating some of these chain SMSs, said the report.
''Earlier, people used to send postcards with such messages, asking recipients to forward them to other people. These play on a person's guilt and inherent fear when they speak of 'mataji no prakop" -- the goddess' anger -- if the chain is broken,'' Ahmedabad-based psychiatrist Mrugesh Vaishnav was quoted as saying.
''This may well the cellphone companies' ploy to increase use of SMS. It might be a marketing strategy."
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