China Pinpoints YouTube, CNN, Google News for Tibetan Riot Censorship
March 17 2008 / by Marisa Vitols / In association with Future Blogger.net
Category: Government Year: General Rating: 12
It surfaced yesterday that the Chinese government is selectively denying its citizens access to YouTube. Google News has also been blocked and media coverage has been denied to CNN. According to the AP, the censorship is in response to the dozens of videos posted of Friday’s violent Tibetan protests.
Although Chinese web/news restrictions are nothing new, it’s nevertheless a bit unsettling to see how quickly such a big country can so selectively shut down such potent communication channels. It makes one wonder how fast that could occur in “more advanced” nations given the “right” situation. Surely the contingency plans have been laid even here in the United States and elsewhere.
At the same time, how could such control possibly be sustainable? The advent of cheap videophones and pervasive connectivity are making it very difficult to restrict information. The next generations of both will further add to the censors’ headaches. For better or worse, we’re heading toward an increasingly transparent world in which the cost of suppressing information may soon be too high for nations (and companies) to stomach.
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