It is important to consider the biases that accompany popular press articles when reading any informative paper. Our opinions and perspectives on many global situations are more influenced by media control than we may think. An extreme example of media control can be seen in China's online censorship system. Many popular sites such as Wikipedia, Flickr, MySpace, and YouTube are banned from browsing in the Middle Kingdom because the government finds these types of sharing sites hard to control the type of information that gets put out there. There is a growing dissent in the public eye now as people are starting to fight China's big brother approach to governing. When I was in China last semester, I had to download a Mozilla plug-in to access Flickr. People have also found a way to access YouTube. As web access gets increasingly accessible, it will be more and more difficult for the Chinese government to maintain their control over the Internet.
If we were in China, we would have to find some other way to keep up a blog site, since Blogger is also banned there. And even if it was not blocked, this post may be enough to trigger the government to shut down the entire site!
Monday, February 4, 2008
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4 comments:
I think we take for granted the amount of freedom of communication we have in America. It's stunning to see that sites we view as harmless, fun, or even useful are being blocked in China. What is even worse is that there is often no explanation for why some things are censored. It will be interesting to see if people in China feel that this is important enough to fight the government on and to see what happens.
After reading this article, I tried to imagine what life in the United States would be like if we had similar media control like the Great Firewall. I really cannot imagine what it would be like with such extreme media control regarding online censorship because America values freedom of speech. There would be a huge uproar if something like the Great Firewall were to be practiced in America. People would protest and argue against such censorship causing the government to rethink their control. There would be many angry voices and the voices would be heard. But would a country like China tolerate such protesters? Probably not. It seems as though those who want to resist the Great Firewall are having trouble actually doing so because their voices are not tolerated. Howard French, the author of the article, states that “many, in fact, seem only vaguely aware that China’s Internet universe is carefully pruned, and even among those who know, a majority hardly seems to care.” Maybe not many people are aware of it, but I think those who do know about the Firewall, do care but do not want to say anything that goes against the government. Reading this article caused me to be thankful in a country where free speech is highly valued. But I think some of us, who have grown up in the U.S. or who have lived here for awhile, forget that freedom of speech is a luxury and that we should not take it for granted.
Government interference has long been a heated topic. In America, we pride ourselves in the freedom of speech and press and could never even consider the possibility of having this right limited. However, this article reveals that this right is often muffled in other countries. Government regulation in China is an example of how a government has the authority to restrain its people. Although many of China's regulations infringe on what we call our natural rights, these regulations are enforced because the government is trying to protect its people. Thus, I think it's important to look at what threats these sites pose from the government's point of view. Over the summer, I spent my summer in South Korea researching North Korean policies. If you thought China was "firewalling" its country, imagine that control multiplied by a hundred. North Koreans' everyday activities are highly monitored and controlled by the government. All programs and reading material are filtered through the government. I strongly agree with Christie's comment that these examples of international government interference show how privileged we are in America to not have our lives completely censored.
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