In this vividly reported narrative, James Griffiths describes exactly how China managed to control the Internet.

Foreign Affairs

Griffiths has an eye for character and writes with impartial rigour. He effectively details how China built its alternative internet.

New Statesman

A readable, well-documented history of the internet in China ... Griffiths writes in a fluent, storytelling style.

Asian Review of Books

A timely look at the world's most sophisticated censorship system. Griffiths explains a technical subject - Beijing's internet controls - through the lens of Chinese politics and the logic of social movements.

Financial Times

/i>'The book is well worth a read for anyone who wants to know more generally about online censorship, China's emerging social credit system, and the concept of cyber-sovereignty (in which each nation controls its own Internet). Griffiths also provides food for thought for the coming conversations about human rights online and whether and how we can regulate the Internet in a way that serves the common good.

Forbes

An excellent book on China's online strategy ... Fascinating and eye-opening ... This is an exciting and sobering account of how freedom, which was never in the internet code in the first place, can be effectively curtailed with the tools that were supposed to liberate us.

Guardian