Slashdot Mirror
Complete Net Cafe Shutdown After Beijing Fire
lunchlady doris writes: "The BBC has this story that tells of a fire in an internet cafe in Beijing that killed 24 people. The mayor responded to this tragedy by shutting down all 2,400 cafes in the city, most of which are operated illegally. Only 200 cafes will be allowed to reopen, pending municipal regulation. Needless to say, the netizens of Beijing are pissed and see this as a move to quash the limited access to the net that the Chinese people currently have."
> high death toll on locked emergency exits. " This > is all there is to the story.
That's not all there is. The point of the story being on /. is that the Bejing mayor is using the fact that the building was an Internet cafe as an excuse to crack down on *all* Internet cafes. This is obviously something they would like to do, and the argument looks at first like:
1. Cafe crowded and not following safety procedures because of lack of regulation
2. Cafe burns down, terrible loss of life.
3. Regulate Internet cafes so they follow safety prcedures.
Which in theory is great. The worry is that if the city starts regulating the cafes, due to past behaviour it's quite likely the authorities will also try to use the move to curtail Internet use and content.