41% of Chinese Websites Shut Down In 2010 203
BinaryMage found a pretty shocking bit- apparently the Chinese government has shut down 1.3 million websites in 2010, an incredible 41% of all sites behind the great firewall. The usual reasons (pornography) are cited, as well as the reminder that China blocks Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube from its citizens. Anyone behind the firewall know if Slashdot is currently blocked? I've heard it varies.
To answer your question (Score:5, Informative)
I am in P.R. China and I have never had trouble accessing Slashdot. In fact, it is so reliable that it is the site I typically check if I want to see if the internet connection is working.
Not blocked (Score:5, Informative)
Slashdot is not blocked in China, but citizens are forced to use older browsers that choke on Slashdot's excessive CSS and Javascript goodness. The result is an experience - not unlike my own - that makes Slashdot increasingly too annoying a site to visit.
Facebook and Youtube varies (Score:2, Informative)
Just spent 36 days in china.
Youtube would work maybe 1 or 2 clips, before you had to change connection.
Facebook, would work for an hour or so and then be offline for an hour. Keep bouncing up and down.
Re:Not blocked (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Not blocked (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Not blocked (Score:4, Informative)
Re:To answer your question (Score:4, Informative)
Re:To answer your question (Score:1, Informative)
You know what site my U.S. govt censors? None. Not a single one. They do shut down a handful of sites though. Child porn sites for one which I am ok with since raping children is pretty fucked up. The only other thing I can think of is them shutting down online gambling sites. You could argue they should just stay out of that and collect taxes, but oh well, guess if I want to illegally gamble online I will have to do it on out of country servers.
The point is that you guys don't have freedom of speech. The government decides what words can and can't come out of your mouth. They decide what words can and can't be seen by your eyes. I am sorry that you can't realize that, but it is oppressive. "Do the things that work for the U.S. automatically work in China?" Yes, yes they do. You may have a hard time believing it because your govt wont allow you to even attempt it, but humans are humans are humans are humans. We have all the same social capabilities no matter where we are born. What is in your DNA but not mine that would prevent you from being able to have freedom of speech without tearing each other apart? Nothing. We are the same. These countries try to divide us and make you think you are SOOOO different, but we are all humans plain and simple. The only difference is location and cultural history, which is only significant if you want it to be. Please quit being so brainwashed and help move your country forward in to this century. Your fellow Chinese brothers and sisters need your help.
Re:To answer your question (Score:2, Informative)
but to be honest, propaganda is everywhere. How many times have you watched a commercial where everything was true? How many people do you know who watch Fox news or listen to Rush Limbaugh? Even NPR and the BBC have their own biases. How many actual, purely objective articles can you find in the mainstream media? Certainly, we don't have the state mandated media in the U.S. like China does, but the important thing to accept is that everyone has their own propaganda, no matter where they are. It's just a matter of which ones you agree with and which ones you don't.
Yes, it's human nature that organized groups enjoy pushing their own agenda, and are willing to hide certain facts or bend the truth in order to do it. When governments do it, we call it propaganda. When companies do it, we call it advertising. It's everywhere.
The critical difference here is what a government does when you publicly disagree with its propaganda. You mentioned the Bill of Rights; consider Freedom of Speech. Yeah, it's not carte blanche to say whatever you want (you can't scream "Fire!" in a crowded theater, and recent hate crimes legislation comes to mind). But it *does* mean that the US *cannot* imprison [reuters.com] political [washingtonpost.com] dissidents [wikipedia.org] like the PRC. And if we tried, that shot would be heard around the world.
(Indeed, the US has other ways of silencing a political dissident, such as labeling them a terrorist, or using the media to marginalize them and/or paint them using loaded terms. That's true and worrisome, but it's not the fundamental issue here, so don't let it become a red herring)
Astounding economic growth doesn't excuse human rights abuses. Just because a system of government "works decently well" doesn't mean it shouldn't be changed.
P.S. Last Sunday I was in Beijing, and visited a certain heavenly-peace-gate square. The surveillance there puts anything else I've seen to shame. Security checks, camera installations every thirty meters, and at least 50 uniformed officers inside -- not to mention a number of under-cover ones. And for what? Not to protect property, even government property... but to ensure nobody can speak out. Tell me it isn't a sickening irony that the current period in history is called the "liberated era".
Re:To answer your question (Score:4, Informative)
Ooh, the culture card. To oppose Internet censorship is to be provincial, parochial, imperialist, colonialist, or whatever the bad word is today. Imagine how silly it would be if someone from some other culture objecting to TSA groping were to be told that the US was getting along just fine without trying to fit into that other culture's ideals.
You do understand that it was the free states which wanted a slave counted as zero, and the slave states who wanted a slave counted as a full person, for the purposes of representation?
Indeed it is. Enjoy your job at the (Chinese) Ministry of Propaganda.