Chinese Government Blocks Yahoo Meme and Social Network Sites

Let’s expand to China…let’s invest in China…China is the fastest growing economy…China this and China that.  The Chinese government has been savvy enough to control the better portion of their 1.3 billion citizens and silence the ones who have gotten in the way.

Supposedly if you are on Chinese soil and search Google for “Tiananmen Square” you will not receive any results that mention a student revolt, death, demonstrations, worldwide outrage – nothing like that.  This link to the Huffington Post illustrates the point succinctly – China censors Google. Of course, Google allows this to happen, but that is not the point of this article.

Tienanmen Square Student Tank Protest

Tiananmen Square Student Tank Protest

Chinese ability to muzzle their citizens is masterful, bordering on amazing.  Yahoo has a microblogging site called Meme, that is now available in Chinese, but the world’s largest audience of Chinese speakers and readers cannot access this site because the Chinese government has blocked access on the mainland.  Yes, Yahoo’s Meme in Chinese is not available in China.

Facebook, Twitter and many other blogging and social networks have been blocked at times or are currently blocked to Chinese Internet users.  Some members of the government believe that increased online access can lead to social instability and unrest and have requested that websites “monitor” content.

If faced with these restrictions in the USA, there would be a revolt of citizenry, as we are accustomed to and granted certain freedoms, whereas the Chinese are just now able to own personal property, wear (fake) Nike shoes and watch (bootlegged) Hollywood movies.  My question is, are we as Americans better off with China becoming more open and democratic or with their government running the show?

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Leave a Reply

*