Internet Users Invent Ways to Outwit Beijing's Censors

Chinese Internet users are finding inventive ways to bypass Internet controls, as Beijing intensifies its efforts to stifle political dissent online, especially on popular microblogging sites.

Web censors have worked hard to delete almost every reference to dozens of dissidents, including artist-activist Ai Weiwei, who have been detained since appeals for a "Jasmine Revolution" in China began circulating in mid-February. They also have stepped up efforts to prevent access to virtual private networks and proxy servers that wealthier, more tech-savvy urbanites use to access Twitter, YouTube and other sites blocked in China. But as fast as the government blocks words, phrases, websites and servers, Chinese Internet users figure out how to share information and opinions in ways unthinkable before the Internet took off in the country. To confound Beijing's bowdlerizers, users have been known to post images of text rather than text itself, to jumble Chinese characters so they appear vertically, or to substitute sensitive terms with similar-sounding characters.