Censoring the blog

Can information be censored in this age and time of ours? Are blogs spreading unhealthy information? asks Puneet Mehrotra.

Censoring the blog

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Can information be censored in this age and time of ours? Are blogs spreading unhealthy information? Does the Internet and its search engines need censorship and control? Do we need a nanny to govern our thoughts, words and deeds?

A "yes" for all the above. "You must be joking" will be your probable reaction. But it's true. It's a "yes" for a country that has 37 million Web logs, which will soon touch 60 million. The Information Office of the world's second-biggest Internet user thinks blogs are unhealthy and it wants to play nanny.

The land of the dragon

China one -- the earliest centres of human civilization -- is a fascinating country. Today it is also one of the fastest developing economies of the world. It's a country that attracts one of the highest Foreign Direct Investment. A country that has seen progress and prosperity over the last few years like never before.

The progressive China, the growing China, the prosperous China also has its share of pre-reform baggage. In this age and time the Director of the Information Office of China's Cabinet is reported to have quoted "As more and more illegal and unhealthy information spreads through the blog and search engine, we will take effective measures to put the BBS, blog and search engine under control."

In the age of information the Chinese information office wants to control information.

Bend it like US Corp

United States -- the land of freedom and free will -- and its wonder corporations aka the Microsofts and Googles of the world have all bowed down before the Chinese Govt. Just last year Google, a company whose foundations were based on "innovation, creativity and openness" sold itself to the Chinese diktats. They actually had the audacity to launch an "eunuch search engine" www.google.cn. An emasculated Chinese version of the popular search engine that keeps in line with the demands made by the Chinese government. The search engines filters out dissident literature, websites on computer security, anything with gay and lesbian overtones, teenage pregnancy, sites on dating and jokes.

Yahoo, Microsoft and tens of other organizations have silently followed the orders of the Chinese Govt orders. According to reports last December Microsoft shut service of a Chinese customer whose blog was seen discussing political sensitive issues.

The Great Chinese Market

China is the place of peace and prosperity today. All conflicts have been put on the backburner and today economics rules China. From one of the most backward nations in the world China today is one of the fastest developing nations. To put the record straight the Chinese government does encourage the use of the Internet for business and education purposes. The problem area is its hyper sensitivity to flowing of information pertaining to political issues, human rights and democratic ramblings.

The Chinese web presence is immense. It's not for nothing that Yahoo, Microsoft, Google and other companies have forfeited their values of freedom and silently followed the Chinese government diktats. China has 37 million Web logs, and a study by Beijing's Tsinghua University claims that this is set to double to 60 million this year. Another study claims this figure is being increased by 100,000 each day.

China currently has 111 million web users. That's the second largest Internet user population in the world after the US.

Can the blog be censored?

China was one of the earliest centers of human civilization. Chinese civilization was also was one of the few to invent writing independently. So much was the emphasis on expression in China. Today it's a super growing economy but when it comes to information it is still living in the past. Censorship of free speech has never worked and never will. Keith Henson has advice for information controllers "Trying to control information in the network age is about as successful as pissing into the wind."

Puneet Mehrotra is a web strategist atwww.cyberzest.comand edits www.thebusinessedition.com you can email him onpuneet@cyberzest.com