The Chinese government has deployed an update to its national firewall, to block encrypted HTTPS connections that are being set up using the latest internet standards for encryption.
The ban has been in place since the end of July, according to a
joint report published this week by three organizations tracking Chinese censorship -- iYouPort , the University of Maryland , and the Great Firewall Report.
In particular China is now blocking HTTPS+TLS1.3+ESNI.
TLS 1.3 is the latest
encryption standard that can be used to implement https. Server Name Indication is used to specify which website is required when several websites are hosted using the same I address. By default it is unencrypted letting ISPs and snoopers know which
website is being accessed even when using https. ESNI (Encrypted Server Name Indication) closes this loophole.
Other HTTPS traffic is still allowed through the Great Firewall, if it uses older versions of the same protocols -- such as TLS 1.1 or 1.2,
or SNI (Server Name Indication). This rather suggests that these old encryption standards are now compromised.
Per the findings of the joint report, the Chinese government is currently dropping all HTTPS traffic where TLS 1.3 and ESNI are used, and
temporarily banning the IP addresses involved in the connection, for small intervals of time that can vary between two and three minutes.
Note also that this news about Chinese censorship probably informs us about snooping capabilities in the UK.
Presumably GCHQ and UK ISPs would be similarly blinded by HTTPS+TLS1.3+ESNI, whilst still being able to block and snoop on older standards.
The Chinese government has begun rolling out its real-name identification system for video games nationwide, while also removing over 15,000 unlicensed games from the Chinese App store.
The law includes the extension of an existing social media
real-name requirement, where everybody has to provide a form of valid identity information. Both Tencent and NetEase reportedly begun using their own verification systems.
The authentication system aims to be rolled out in September.
Chinese developers were further compounded by 15,000 unlicensed games being removed from the Chinese App Store since July 1st, in preparation of an August 1st deadline. This was due to those games lacking permission from the Chinese National Press and Publication Administration.
One of the drivers behind the latest moves is that in-game messaging and voice systems in more obscure have enabled people to evade the country's repressive censorship stranglehold on communications.
A Cambodian proposal to ban girls wearing short skirts and men's shirtless has been tabled in parliament. MPs supporting this proposal have claimed that this will not only stop the increasing sexual violence in society but also strengthen Cambodian
culture. If this resolution is passed in Parliament, the local police will get the right to take legal action against those wearing such clothes.
If the proposal gets approval from many Cambodian government ministries and the national parliament, it
will be implemented from early 2021. After this, if a man appears shirtless in public places or a woman / girl in short skirt, then they will be fined.
China's new censorship laws effectively ban film content that portrays the life of Jesus Christ.
The broad new guidelines to make films fit the Communist party line include 20 categories that will now be outlawed. The categories include any
content that promotes contentious history -- and film-makers believe this includes the life of Jesus . Other banned categories include the depiction of sacred relics and demonic possessions and content showing miracles and healing.
A Chinese
film-maker said:
The guidelines almost entirely ban such content. If we film the life of Jesus, avoiding the content banned by the guidelines, we will only be presenting Jesus as an ordinary person. This is unacceptable to
Christians.
Of course it may not be wise for Christians make too much of a fuss lest the government decides that religious re-education may be in order for Christians as well as Muslims.
A book that recounts life in the Chinese city of Wuhan while under a strict coronavirus lockdown has been effectively banned in China, its author said in a recent written interview with Kyodo News.
Chinese critics have been trying to thwart
publication of the book titled Wuhan Diary , whose English version has received international recognition, although the country's authorities have not officially prohibited it, said the novelist known as Fang Fang.
The book is a collection of
60 posts from her account on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, regarding daily life during the so-called world's harshest coronavirus lockdown as well as, what she described as, the dark side of the authorities.
A publisher had prepared to
distribute the book domestically but shied away from doing so out of fear of getting pressure from critics, she said.
365 Days (365 DNI) is a 2020 Poland drama by Barbara Bialowas. Starring Michele Morrone, Anna Maria Sieklucka and Bronislaw Wroclawski.
Massimo Torricelli, a young and handsome boss of a
Sicilian Mafia family, has no other option but to takeover after his father has been assassinated. Laura Biel is a sales director in a luxurious hotel. She has a successful career, but her private life lacks passion. She is taking one last shot to save
her relationship. Together with her partner and friends, she takes a trip to Sicily. Laura does not expect that Massimo, the most dangerous man on the island, will get in her way, kidnap her, hold her captive and give her 365 days... to fall in love with
him. "365 dni" is the first Polish erotic film. It is based on the best-selling novel of the same name from author Blanka Lipinksa.
A British singer named Duffy is asking Netflix CEO Reed Hastings to remove the sexy film 365
Days claiming that it glorifies rape and sex trafficking.
365 Days is an erotic thriller from Poland that has been likened to Fifty Shades of Grey . It is quite sexy for Netflix and has become the services's biggest movie of the summer. The
film is is about a mobster who kidnaps a woman he's been stalking, holding her captive for an entire year so that she'll fall in love with him. Naturally, she eventually does fall for her hunky captor and has a lot of sex with him, in various positions
filmed from many angles.
The films detractors have organised a petition against the film which has been signed by about 54,000 people.
Now Duffy has weighed in against the film citing her own experience with being drugged in a restaurant
and being abducted. She found the premise of 365 Days was just a little too familiar to the singer, so she wrote an open letter calling Netflix irresponsible for airing the film.
When it was first launched in New Zealand,
365 Days carried a rating of R16, but that was bumped up after Chief Censor David Shanks got involved. Shanks said:
We felt that age rating was inadequate, we thought that this was more at the 18-plus level. We also wrote to Netflix and
advised that they should warn for sexual violence as well as potentially highly impactful content in this film that viewers should be warned about.
Shanks said it was frustrating that the legislation his office operated under was from 1993,
and therefore did not cover streaming services. But there was a bill before parliament which if passed, would change that and allow for Netflix to rate films more in line with New Zealand standards.
A petition to ban the Polish Netflix film has gained about 70,000 signatures.
The Change.org petition's author, fitness influencer Mikayla Zazon, wrote:
Netflix clearly stands on the side of
the abusers by having a movie that glorifies, romanticizes, and condones sexual assault trending on their top 10 recommended movies to watch around the globe.
As a social media public figure and a victim of these crimes, I am
outraged and heartbroken that this movie shows up on teens' 'watch next' recommendation.
By taking down this movie on Netflix, we can protect sexual violence in adolescent women and adult women. And we can prevent boys from
seeing such horrific behaviour as permission to sexual assault and rape women.
The Chinese government has deployed an update to its national firewall, to block encrypted HTTPS connections that are being set up using the latest internet standards for encryption. 
The Chinese government has begun rolling out its real-name identification system for video games nationwide, while also removing over 15,000 unlicensed games from the Chinese App store. 
A Cambodian proposal to ban girls wearing short skirts and men's shirtless has been tabled in parliament. MPs supporting this proposal have claimed that this will not only stop the increasing sexual violence in society but also strengthen Cambodian
culture. If this resolution is passed in Parliament, the local police will get the right to take legal action against those wearing such clothes. 
7th July 2020. See 