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Chinese Internet crackdown reveals cracks in Western Free Speech advocacy machine?
Another day, another crackdown. So is life in China. And a good deal or Irony, to boot.
From the AP:
China has shut down 41 websites as authorities continue a crackdown on online porn that has seen Internet giants like Google and MSN ordered to cut links with such material, state-run media said Friday.
Xinhua news agency said the sites were the first casualties in the campaign announced Monday and which has already seen major Chinese and foreign Internet sites apologise and take steps to clean up.
"There are still some websites that are not doing enough. Relevant government departments are now thoroughly checking and further raising the strength of the clean-up," Xinhua said.
The report gave few details on the sites that were shut.
China's Ministry of Public Security and six other government agencies launched the drive against sites that post or link to content that "harms public morality" and corrupts the nation's youth, Xinhua said.
The have included Google, MSN and Baidu, the most popular Chinese search engine.
Companies that ignore government warnings to remove obscene content or links to such material have been threatened with closure.
Google, Baidu and other Internet portals have since issued apologies and moved against online porn.
Google said Wednesday it had deleted all links to vulgar material from its search indexes and go all-out to prevent such material re-appearing.
"Google is willing to be a law-abiding citizen in China," it said in a statement.
China has launched Internet crackdowns on pornography, con artists and political activists in the past, but officials have warned the latest campaign would include tougher measures, without giving specifics.
China has the world's largest online population at more that 250 million, according to official figures, and it is growing rapidly as computer use rises along with income levels.
However, some of the Internet companies named have said it would be difficult for them to immediately spot and eliminate all obscene content due to the nature of Internet search engines.
China's communist rulers generally exercise strict control over the Internet, blocking sites linked to many politically sensitive subjects.
ACB cannot help but find it ironic how double edged a sword both a restricted media (ala China) and a free media (ala the West) can be.
Chief amongst these ironies is that the very same state apparatus allows the Chinese government to stifle freedom of speech and freedom of expression can also be used to crackdown on undesirable material on the Internet for the wider good of society. Yet, in the US, the same laws that protect the freedom of speech and expression so denied to the Chinese people also serve to render US authorities powerless to tackle all but the most debased material on the web.
ACB also cannot help but wonder whether US freedom and democracy advocates will campaign as vigorously to protect the Chinese people's right to see naked woman penetrating themselves with household objects as they do to protect the Chinese people's right to criticize their government.
To date the answer would appear to be a resounding no. There has been some protest, but most of it only by those who believe that Beijing's vice crackdown is a cover for further restrictions on free speach (and ACB isn't sying that this isn't the case). When it comes to concerns over the removal of pornography, even that which is legal in the West, Western campaigners appear to be remarkably silent. Even those who are usually most vocal have completely failed to come forward in order to protect China's right to access Internet pornography.
Then again, having long had dealing with the West, ACB has come to understand how fickle some people can be when it comes to freedom of speech. The mantra is often "Free speech, so long as it's the right kind of speech". Boobs in an oil painting good, boobs in a centerfold bad. FOX good, Aljazeera bad. And so on.