Leak Shows How a Chinese Company Is Exporting the Great Firewall to the World
19 hours ago
- #censorship
- #China
- #surveillance
- Leaked documents reveal Geedge Networks, a Chinese company, sells censorship systems modeled on China's Great Firewall to governments worldwide.
- Geedge's Tiangou Secure Gateway (TSG) can monitor, filter, and block internet traffic on a national scale, including encrypted data via deep packet inspection.
- The company has clients in Kazakhstan, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Myanmar, and possibly others, with systems capable of targeting specific individuals and blocking VPNs.
- Geedge repurposes existing hardware (e.g., from Canadian firm Sandvine) to deploy censorship systems, raising concerns about the limits of sanctions.
- The company collaborates with Chinese research institutions and has ties to Fang Binxing, the 'father of the Great Firewall.'
- Geedge is expanding domestically, piloting projects in Xinjiang, Fujian, and Jiangsu, with experimental features like user 'reputation scores' and geofencing.
- Researchers warn Geedge's systems enable mass surveillance and malware injection, posing risks to privacy and national security globally.