Proportion of Sites Blocked by Google Search Term
Empirical Analysis of Internet Filtering in China

In August-September 2002, the authors conducted Google searches for the top 100 results associated by Google with the terms listed below. For each term listed, the middle column of the table reports the proportion of the top 10 Google results found to be blocked in China (inaccessible in China on at least two occasions from at least two distinct locations, and simultaneously accessible from the US) while the right column gives the corresponding result as among the top 100 sites for each term. Terms designated "in Chinese" were entered in Chinese into the Chinese-language version of the Google search engine. This data is also available in chart form.

Google search termProportion of Top 10 Sites BlockedProportion of Top 100 Sites Blocked
tibet100%64%
taiwan china100%37%
equality100%24%
democracy china80%42%
dissident china80%37%
taiwan70%47%
revolution70%21%
dissident60%31%
性病 ("STDs" in Chinese)60%13%
freedom china60%32%
justice china60%30%
counterrevolution china50%21%
news china40%40%
liberty china40%17%
民主 ("democracy" in Chinese)40%15%
正义 ("justice" in Chinese)40%15%
战争 ("war" in Chinese)40%15%
革命 ("revolution" in Chinese)30%11%
china blog30%11%
法轮功 ("falun gong" in Chinese)30%15%
tibet china20%39%
democracy20%34%
dissident blog20%11%
news20%43%
famine china20%23%
自由 ("freedom" in Chinese)20%17%
民主 中国 ("democracy china" in Chinese)20%12%
正义 中国 ("justice china" in Chinese)20%12%
战争 中国 ("war china" in Chinese)20%12%
liberty20%28%
counter-revolution china20%21%
STDs china20%9%
HIV 中国 ("HIV china" in Chinese)10%7%
平等 ("equality" in Chinese)10%12%
AIDS china10%21%
sex china10%19%
revolution china10%18%
equality china10%15%
性 中国 ("sex china" in Chinese)10%15%
疾病 ("disease" in Chinese)10%12%
counterrevolution10%9%
war0%32%
justice0%26%
freedom0%28%
war china0%24%
hunger china0%24%
AIDS0%21%
饿 ("hungry" in Chinese)0%20%
famine0%16%
艾滋 ("AIDS" in Chinese)0%16%
disease0%16%
disease china0%14%
HIV china0%14%
blog0%14%
hunger0%13%
反革命 中国 ("counterrevolution china" in Chinese)0%12%
革命 中国 ("revolution china" in Chinese)0%11%
新闻 中国 ("news china" in Chinese)0%10%
sex0%9%
反革命 ("counterrevolution" in Chinese)0%9%
中国 疾病 ("disease china" in Chinese)0%9%
自由 中国 ("freedom china" in Chinese)0%8%
天安门事件 ("tiananman massacre" in Chinese)0%8%
中国 饿 ("hungry china" in Chinese)0%8%
STDs0%8%
平等 中国 ("equality china" in Chinese)0%8%
艾滋病 中国 ("AIDS china" in Chinese)0%7%
新闻 ("news" in Chinese)0%7%
HIV0%7%
counter-revolution0%6%
("sex" in Chinese)0%4%
性病 中国 ("STDs china" in Chinese)0%4%