China believes that each country should control what is on the internet. Last Monday trial of a prominent human-rights lawyer started for writing seven social-media posts criticizing Chinese policies and government officials. Further on-line messages support him posted were swiftly taken down. At the same time, China’s Internet began to fill with images of Wuzhen, a scenic southern river town that is playing host to China’s biggest annual Internet conference this week. And on Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping, in the presence of leaders of several Central Asian countries and a who’s who list from China’s biggest and richest online companies, where governments like Beijing’s could regulate the Web how they see fit. The two events in the same week evoke the words of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who famously said China’s Internet censorship would fail because it was trying to “nail Jell-O to the wall.” Now the Chinese public is experiencing increasingly tight online censorship, even as its digital industry booms and some Chinese Internet companies become global giants. China, it appears, has figured out how to nail Jell-O to the wall—and get rich doing it. Wuzhen represents its effort to sell that approach abroad. The danger now, some human rights advocates argue, is that China is trying to get foreign firms to comply with its censorship rules while exporting this filtered and policed Internet model to other countries. I don't think this is right and censorship of any kind should not be tolerated. Crime is a different matter. For example hate crimes or paedophiles should be prosecuted in each country by the appropriate agency.
perhaps its time we had a breakaway internet? To be honest.........if the internet was taken away tomorrow, i would be over it within a week. How much time would we all get back
E.T. This is not a sideways jab at any censorship (for all the right reasons) on here. Its a genuine jab at China (government) continuing to control what Chinese people think.
i will gamble at 99% of the info on the WWW is inaccurate and deliberately misleading any way. possibly even the reporting of this story. maybe the peoples party are on to something.
Control of the internet is certainly a very important topic but this article is all a bit miss leading. China can't regulate 'the internet'. All they can do is regulate the parts that are based in China. For the same reason they cannot export this Internet model to other countries. Even in their own country they cannot 'fill the internet' with pictures of their choosing as they don't control the servers that all the websites are on. China has been much the same for years and I dont think that they have suddenly made any progress with their regulation policies.
Basically, China want to close its borders to the net and decide what its citizens see and what they don't. And then, to avoid looking like complete arseholes, they want everyone one else to adopt the same policy. Totalitarian states will follow them enthusiastically. The West that likes free speech won't. These are the people who make all the things you own. One day you may have to vote with your wallet (but I'm not holding my breath).
is bombarding people with misinformation any better? the cynic in me suggests this is the beginning of better together project fear part2 starting to kick off. no info is better than wrong info.
