Chinese Father Documents Life With Son Every Year of His Life for 3 Decades

1997: Great Firewall

In 1997, the Chinese government attempted to regulate the Internet by imposing Internet censorship across the country. The Communist Party of China blocked its citizens from viewing certain websites, filtered keywords out of searches, and criminalized certain speech and activities. This came to be known at the Great Firewall of China that remains in effect to this day. Research indicates that suspicion of the Great Firewall and the knowledge that one is being watched is more effective than actually blocking internet content, because users tend to self-censor out of fear. The Great Firewall has been a point of controversy between China and tech companies based in the United States.