China to censor mobile phone messages

Chinese authorities plan to use new technology to improve surveillance of mobile phone messages amid efforts to intensify policing of private communications, reports said Friday.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the campaign was aimed at cleaning up "pornographic, obscene and fraudulent" phone messages that have "infiltrated short messaging content."

According to the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders, the campaign also aims to widen surveillance of political dissent.

The technology uses filtering algorithms created by the government-run Chinese Academy of Sciences to identify key words and combinations of words that might be associated with political rumors and "reactionary remarks," the group said. The new surveillance systems can automatically alert police and keep records of suspect messages, it said.

Under the cover of cracking down on Spam, China will also be cracking down on political dissent by SMS. Send someone in China a text message to their cell phone, and if you pick the right words, you can probably get the police to stop by their house for a "chat".

One comment I get a lot from people who don't understand my views on government, and on this country, is the old adage: if you don't like it, why don't you move? And the answer is simple: I'm not leaving. I believe America is the last, best hope for freedom. We're not perfect, and there are other countries that do some things better. But overall... we're it. The buck stops here. Our ancestors bought their freedom with their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor; so too shall I. If we give up, it's a very short trip down the slippery slope to China's cell phone censorship. And that's just the beginning.