China Blocks Bloggers' Sites

JollyGoodChase writes "Not only are some some sites blocked in China, but according to NewScientist.com so are blogs. One anonymous Chinese blogger on a US site on Sunday: 'I know that a lot of Chinese people have blogs and that they will not be pleased to see their personal journals taken away for unknown political reasons.'"

It's a relative thing

[MacAndrew]

Considering the people who have been picked up, beaten, and killed in custody after officials objected to their internet activities, a few blogs getting blocked seems almost quaint. Deaths in custody are serious problem for Chinese detainees [amnestyusa.org]. The real problem of course is not usage of the internet but the expression of "subversive" thoughts and ideas.

A Harvard project [harvard.edu] has been studying the pattern of official site blocking, up until the Chinese gov't figured out a way to block them.

The U.S. does not seem to have a focused policy in surprise, and for many years our presidents have been reluctant to comment on human rights abroad in our political or economic allies. I think President Carter, whatever his merits of demerits, who was the last one willing to make a stink about it.

Heh.

[Kibo]

Guess who didn't RTFA :). (The F stands for Fluff right?) It mentions the Harvard project, and that they've been blocked, rendering them unable to confirm the reports of blog blocking.

I woulda thought you had enough karma. For shame.... :)

Re:It's a relative thing

[pstemari]

Of course the US has a focused policy--they want to see Cisco get all the contracts to implement the border routers and firewall. Gotta keep those high-tech exports up, dontcha know?

It's not like the Bush family has any qualms about trading with dictators. The Union Banking Corporation, then controlled by Prescott Bush and George Herbert Walker, was seized by the US Govt in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act for funding the Nazi regime during World War II.

Heh...heh...heh...

[C0LDFusion]

In Soviet China, government writes about blogs.

I see a pattern...

[Dr. Photo]

Maybe they should just block Slashdot, to improve worker productivity... ;)

National Security (*giggle*)

[Mirkon]

Accounts of people's lives are matters of national security.

I mean, can you imagine what would have happened if Anne Frank's diaries had gotten out before Normandy?

Re:National Security (*giggle*)

[ocelotbob]

I don't think much would have changed if Anne Frank's diary had gotten to the outside world before Normandy. There were already rumors and articles of the Holocaust dating back to 1942, although many of the articles were very short, and unconfirmed. Personal accounts were trickling out. It wouldn't be until the camps were liberated that people truly understood the scope of the problem, and by then, for many, it was too late.

Re:National Security (*giggle*)

[Mirkon]

Notice the "*giggle*".

See?

Re:National Security (*giggle*)

[ocelotbob]

Yipe. I think now, I 'll go look up gullible in the dictionary. Someone told me it wasn't in there.

Re:National Security (*giggle*)

[TheOnlyCoolTim]

You fell for that one good.

Tim

Shit and Perdition

[TheOnlyCoolTim]

Every time I read the word "blog" I feel like putting on boots and stomping on baby kittens.

It's about the stupidest word ever. There's not even a clear definition. As far as I've ever been able to figure out, a "blog" has to be:

-A Website
-Updated Sometimes
-The Updates are displayed in reverse chronological order

Which makes half of the internet a "blog." Take out the requirement that it's a website, and newspapers and magazines would be "blogs" too.

It's a stupid, dirty word.

Tim

Re:Shit and Perdition

[Kris_J]

Stay with me here.

• It's a journal or log
• It's on the web
• It's a web log
• Therefore, what do we do when we maintain a web log? We blog

web log, we blog -- not that hard.

Re:Shit and Perdition

[TheOnlyCoolTim]

It sounds even dumber now that I now it comes from splitting "weblog" in half not to just get "blog" but to get "we blog."

Tim

Re:Shit and Perdition

[Hadlock]

just so you know you're not alone, i think it's a pretty dumb term, also.

Re:Shit and Perdition

[jgoeres]

Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself: "Mank ind."

Basically, it's made up of two separate words- "mank" and "ind". What do these words mean ? It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind.

Chinese Blogs

[alphaseven]

Here's a list of Chinese Blogs that are written in English. Some of the blogs (especially those hosted on blogspot) are quite vocal about how pissed off they are. Fun reading for getting an idea of what's going on over there.

http://www.sinosplice.com/chinablogs.html [sinosplice.com]

Suprising...

[Ransak]

I'm suprised that they are simply pulling access, and I wonder if there is more to it than the story tells. From past actions I would think that they would want to control and censor blogs rather than simply pull all access. Anyone have additional info?

aw man

[st0rmshadow]

Now I'm stuck with just reading about what Americans had for lunch today.