Would you support government censorship of the Internet for less spam, viruses and other attacks?
Chinese government Internet censorship: The pros and cons
By SUMj on Mon, 05/12/2008 - 10:49am.
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good idea
I might say it is a good idea for schools
Censorship?!
I'm an American, and my government-funded schools taught me that government censorship is bad! It's what evil countries do to their poor downtrodden citizens. I can't find any evidence to the contrary, because anyone who advocates censorship doesn't get much attention in our wide-open free media, so I have to conclude that censorship is never good.
American teachings
Hehe. Your school really taught that?! Now wonder hating America seems to be a multi billion $$ industry today! American seems to have grown too ignorant to form a balanced opinion. Its more like - those who dont have the same opinion as us as "evil". Reminds me of a verse in the Qoran that is very frequently misinterpreted as - those who dont believe in the same god as we do are "infidels"!!
Cisco
So in the end the justification for Cisco seems to be that at the time it was only profiting from something that it was pointless to refuse on ethical grounds because it was inevitable, and it doesn't matter now because the Chinese have stolen/reverse-engineered the necessary technology themselves? Why don't we apply the same reasoning to selling nuclear arms to Iran? I mean, it's inevitable, eventually, so it's pointless to refuse on ethical grounds. May as well make a profit while you can!
No
The pros and cons of whether it's useful right now is simply short sighted. Ultimately the more control the government has over what the populace can say, the more likely corruption will go hidden and unnoticed. When there is rampant corruption (as there is in China), the interests of the people are ravaged by the interests of those is power. Corruption still happens in the US for example, but because it's more transparent, it can be fixed by the populace through peaceful means, which isn't true in China. Perhaps China is doing fine now, and they probably will be for many years but they will always be one really corrupt administration from the brink of collapse.
Would be nice if they blocked abuse
I see a lot of spam and hacking attempts from China. I have reported at least a dozen IP addresses for hacking today alone to Chinanet.
You'll never get a reply
You'll never get a reply from China about abuse from their networks. Either because of lack of English speaking people, or just that no one monitors the abuse emails. I figure it's just that they don't care, and I just firewall all .CN IPs based on their APNIC netblock assignments.
Chinese Firewall
Thanks for an excellent article.
The complaints by westerners about Internet Freedom in China are complaints about the Chinese Firewall's blocking of articles critical of China written by western writers. What these westerners don't get is mainland Chinese are not looking for dirt on their country's leaders. Most don't read English anyway. So that Firewall is not noticed let alone resented.
There is already so much information out in the Internet that an ordinary person can use. What the Firewall does not block is more than enough to satisfy anybody's need for information on any subject. All ordinary people seek is a sampling of a few versions of the same subject. If these versions generally say the same thing and they agree with one's common sense take on the issue we accept that as the truth and move on. No one person can know everything or wants to. If compelling evidence appears later on to change that first version of "truth" then we change our version to accommodate the new truth. Millions were fully supportive of the original reasons given for invading Iraq. We all now know them to be lies and have changed our trust on anything that comes out of Bush's White House.
Truth will always triumph. No amount of Firewall blocking and no amount of propaganda spin can fool the people. What this Firewall does is to focus people on issues that do NOT create unnecessary dissension. For example what compelling need is there for real time reports on the DL's scheming and the TYC instigated rioting. All that would do is to inflame passions for revenge. Without the Firewall in place that would have happened. In any case, for those who really want to know, there are always ways around the Firewall. Thus I am grateful for the author's conclusion that China's Firewall does a lot more good than it does evil.
” : Right now, even with the controls, more Chinese people have more access to more and freer information than has ever been true in the country's very long history. So for now
it's understandable that more of them are thinking about what they can find than what they can't. “
A good example
That the Chinese people don't seem to be looking for "dirt" on their government officals may have several alternate causes not related to disinterest or apathy.
Naivety -- they may just not know better, given the information vacuum that has existed for so long there.
Fear of discovery and reprisal -- if they perform searches that smack of potential "disloyalty" to the totalitarian regime and its minions, might they not be severely punished or "disappear".
Despair -- they have been under the thumb for so long that they may just not have any hope at all that it could get better.
Relativity -- having had endured such a dearth of information for so long, just a sliver of information, no matter how redacted or censored or "modified" it is, may seem like nirvana.
As far as "truth will always triumph" goes, that is not always correct. In any conflict, be it physical, political or intellectual, the history as written by the "victors" almost always outlives that written by the "vanquished".
For now, the "truth" in China is what the Chinese government says is the "truth"
For instance, what might have been actual acts of terrorism as viewed during the fact might be reported historically as the "heroic" actions of "freedom fighters", if those perpetrators were on the side that "won" the conflict. Or actual heroic and necessary deeds might end up being recorded as cowardly, vicious acts of oppressors if the "wrong side" "won".
Similar historical revision has occurred regarding the current war in Iraq. Right now, the far left and mostly liberal factions within the U.S. control a majority of the popular media, resulting in a huge tilt of news coverage toward charges of conspiracy, abuse, war crimes, lack of necessity, lies, deceit, losing the war, etc., regarding the U.S. involvement in the war. This is exemplified by Anon's comments which mirror those current media sentiments. Given a few years for the politically motivated hype to die out and be proven false, perhaps a different view of the war will be written. But if the left and politically liberal factions manage to take over the government, the current view of the war may end up written in stone regardless of the actual facts of the matter.
For another recent example, one only has to look back at the Vietnam War, regarding the media's treatment of the armed forces, which focused on headline grabbers such as Fonda and Kerry who gave untold aid and comfort to the enemy's cause through their disinformation, which was treated as if fact by the contemporary media. If, perhaps, a very tiny number of criminal actions were actually committed by isolated individuals during the war, it did not justify painting with a wide brush the overwhelmingly heroic and lawful service of the vast majority of armed service members, with the labels of "child killers" and "butchers" and "rapists". Fortunately, enough time has passed that those with immediate desire for political fame have dispersed, and the true course of activities is coming to light. Perhaps in this instance, truth will triumph. But the "truth" is ultimately determined by the victors.
For now, the "truth" in China remains that which the Chinese government says is the "truth"
Ignorant Bliss
Ok, I've been living here for 10 months. The text touched on the fact that there is no uprising or backlash from the people. Talking with several Chinese friends and students, the reason is they know/think (depending how you look at it) they need to be lied to to control the population.
Another point mentioned was the unpredictability of the censorship. It's not a day to day thing, or an hour by hour change... it can literally change within minutes. A favorite target seems to be google news. Links to the major foreign newspapers would be blocked on minute and free the next. Sometimes they're blocked for days, but sometimes it just takes a minute.
It's really interesting knowing that no one really cares. Our cultures sure are different.