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The only mainstream site that's been consistently blocked is bbc news. Interestingly, no US news outlets are blocked. It always makes me wonder why.
Also, the major cities tend to have more liberal access policies than more remote areas.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/world/asia/12beast.html?em
This article is inaccurate. It makes it seem as if YouTube is no longer blocked in Turkey when, last I checked, it still is...
Actuality, they don't say it works in Turkey only that: YouTube, which has country-specific sites in 23 countries, has in the past been blocked in certain countries, including Turkey which might suggest it currently works but does not say so. Anyway, while I don't think it's an issue with Turkey I expect China blocking YouTube might become a free trade issue.
The bans are about our archaic laws allowing anyone to claim any site for being a threat to our national unity. And these lawsuits usually end up with banning the whole thing. At some point even Blogger.com was gone (probably because some smart-ass didn't like one post and issued a suit).
And as for the inaccuracy of the write up, Youtube's status is quite flaky because of all the lawsuits against it - one after another. Even we lost the track of what's going on there - let alone the poor guy :)
Don't be too quick to blame this on political fear - China probably just wants to increase productivity in the workplace. Next on the chopping block.. Facebook, Digg, and Reddit.
Don't be too quick to blame this on political fear - China probably just wants to increase productivity in the workplace. Next on the chopping block.. Facebook, Digg, and Reddit.
You've got to be kidding. Stifling another outlet for free speech is just to get a few more widgets produced per day right? Of course it has nothing to do with political fear, even though every other instance of such an action did. Right, you can't be serious.
This is hardly big news. Sites rotate in and out of being blocked all the time. wikipedia, wordpress.com, news.bbc.co.uk, etc. have all been blocked at one point or another. The only mainstream site that's been consistently blocked is bbc news. Interestingly, no US news outlets are blocked. It always makes me wonder why. Also, the major cities tend to have more liberal access policies than more remote areas.
This is hardly big news. Sites rotate in and out of being blocked all the time. wikipedia, wordpress.com, news.bbc.co.uk, etc. have all been blocked at one point or another. The only mainstream site that's been consistently blocked is bbc news. Interestingly, no US news outlets are blocked. It always makes me wonder why. Also, the major cities tend to have more liberal access policies than more remote areas.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actuality, they don't say it works in Turkey only that: YouTube, which has country-specific sites in 23 countries, has in the past been blocked in certain countries, including Turkey which might suggest it currently works but does not say so. Anyway, while I don't think it's an issue with Turkey I expect China blocking YouTube might become a free trade issue.
I hadn't thought about that angle - I'm sure Youku and Tudou, the native competitors, are getting huge traffic surges right now.
This is hardly big news. Sites rotate in and out of being blocked all the time. wikipedia, wordpress.com, news.bbc.co.uk, etc. have all been blocked at one point or another. The only mainstream site that's been consistently blocked is bbc news. Interestingly, no US news outlets are blocked. It always makes me wonder why. Also, the major cities tend to have more liberal access policies than more remote areas.
This doesn't make me wonder at all.
The US and China were the two biggest allies in World War 2, became economically unified during the cold war to defeat the Soviet Union (remember the Soviet Union?), and now are the two biggest economic powers in the world. Don't look at official GDP figures, they're meaningless. Look at influence, manufacturing/logistical and financial power centers, and purchasing power parity.
After all, what is China but a United Provinces of Asia? You think 1.3B people are naturally part of the same country/culture/creed/flag? No fucking way, to think otherwise is racist ignorance.
Japan is quickly being usurped by Korea as well. Once the re-unification of Korea happens and there is a large source of inexpensive labor from the North for the developed economy in the South to employ, Japan will start its relative decline. They've already started to use Chinese manufacturing to remain competitive and leverage what's left of their engineering/design head-start given to them by the Marshall plan and previous Imperialist mindset.
The big picture, folks. It's always worth looking at.
I suppose that if you grow up in a society where heavy-handed censorship is widespread in all media and even conversation, you'd accept it as normal and perhaps necessary. Self-censorship is even more effective and omni-present.
Note: I'm not claiming that censorship is absent in the West, but you'd be silly not to acknowledge that there's less of it.
One local told me that he wouldn't dream of giving an unfiltered Internet connection to many of his countrymen, as nothing in their culture has prepared them to deal with what they'd run into. Of course, he himself uses a VPN to dial out.