China shuts access to Twitter, Flickr, Bing, Live, Hotmail, Blogger via the “Great Firewall” filters
China is closing down access to various internet services as they approach they anniversary of the Tiananmen Square democracy protests in 1989. The early report from TechCrunch says that Twitter, Flickr, Bing, Live, Hotmail, Blogger have all been made hard to access via the “Great Firewall” filters. I did notice when in China last year that there are various programs like ‘Great Ladder” that allow people to bypass these filters, but obviously not many are going to have the combination of nerve and savvy to do this.
I believe that China’s censorship policies are probably counterproductive *even to the Chinese Government’s goals* in the long term, and I’d sure like to find a way for the internet community to make this clear to China’s leaders. Ironically China’s leadership has done a remarkable job transitioning away from the bulky, centralized, bureaucratic economy that had been stifling progress for decades. China’s citizens now enjoy a higher level of prosperity and *economic* freedom than they arguably have ever had in history. Much of this prosperity is the result of producing goods for the US market. What exactly does the government think will happen if they allow more open dialog in China? I’d suggest they’ll find this would tend to reduce the tensions created by unhappy citizens rather than increase them. Suppression of dissent in Tibet routinely brings international scorn to China, where a more open dialog will bring praise, respect, and support.
China needs to realize that the world’s fascination and respect for China’s culture and international influence will be enhanced by free speech, not reduced.
TechCrunch UK is reporting on this and I’m looking for more direct information now.
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The early report from TechCrunch says that Twitter, Flickr, Bing, Live, Hotmail, Blogger have all been made hard to access via the “Great Firewall” filters.
The new Hotmail/MSN should not be merely filtered, but abandoned–the new hotmail seens slower, ad/cookie glutted, offering the consumer-bot a few millimeters of space to write a message. Unfortunately MS seems to have a Midas touch–each new IE/Win/Vista update brings down the quality.(though firefox not so great either). Yahoo email platform a bit superior, really.
Seriously, I am against censorship in principle, yet given the low-level writing of most blogs, the ads and photos, the celebrity hype, and the porno, one can understand some controls on content. The older chinese (ie Red) had no problem censoring pop music, disco, movies, and western entertainment in general. The usual ‘Merican rebels instinctively to that sort of state control–yet there may be some method to the madness. Do citizens, whether chinese, or western–especially younger ones–need the endless hollywood hype, the celebrity drana, or even most blog chat? I don’t think so. They might need Joe Duck, or Slate–they don’t need the Us glitz, or Billy Bob’s favorite 60s sit-coms blog (Larry Hagman.com!). That said, I’m not sure how a kinder, gentler maoist information-control could work without preventing access to some important writing/topics.
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horatiox probably got it right. I dont think China wants it`s citizens exposed to a lot of the “cack” that appears on the western media. No doubt, as they advance at their own rate in economy as well as freedom and censorship, China will itself address those “western” hot issues with the Chinese people. In reality, I wonder just how many Chinese Citizens would be affected by those bans or care about them!
After a few months of having Bing pop up–an unending parade of cheesy bimbos and celebrities, overpaid, egotistic atheletes, general sensationalism, and MSN schlock ads–I believe the comrades made the right decision (tho’ not likely to please US management…or Mr Duck, MIA).