Monday, March 17, 2008
How Do You Hide The Internet From 1.3 Billion People?
byStories were all over the place this weekend about China denying its Internet users access to YouTube because of videos posted about the crackdown in Tibet (see NY Times story). Other countries such as Pakistan and Turkey have recently done the same.
Considering the viral nature and growing pervasiveness of the Web, it will be interesting to see how these countries attempt to control future information they deem unacceptable. Many governments administer the Web portals in their borders, but even with legions of censors, it is going to be difficult to slam the door shut on information.
I predict China will have monumental problems with this around the time of the Olympics. Information wants to be free—even if its poorly presented or biased. People in free countries are left to decide on the veracity of the things they view, read or hear. People in free countries are their own personal censors of media.
The Web is now so intertwined with business and society in the free world, it will be increasingly difficult for countries who wish to censor content to do so without hampering their social and economic progress. The next few years will be an interesting experiment to see if a wired world can promote the cause of free speech — and other freedoms — where today it is being denied. This will certainly be the case for China, now with the world’s largest Internet market.
