The Great Firewall

Slang for the Chinese government's firewall that identifies, filters and blocks websites.

Historical perspective: In 2018 Google began planning a censored version of its search engine in China that will blacklist websites and search terms about human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protest, according to The Week. Previously unwilling to censor search results as China’s government demanded, Google had not operated in China in eight years. Now the Chinese search app in development would automatically identify and filter sites blocked by the Great Firewall, such as websites with information about political opponents, free speech, or the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. The existence of the customized app was revealed by Google employees concerned about the ethics of cooperating with China’s government.