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China Continues to Shut Down Video Sites
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "It's not just YouTube that's blocked in China. After the unrest in Tibet, at least 25 video sharing sites have been shut down and others have been penalized. While the Chinese government is not admitting that violence in Tibet had anything to do with it, they do have a sudden interest in strictly enforcing licensing restrictions that require video sharing websites to register with the government. Among other things, Chinese video sharing sites must promise not to show videos that inspire fear, contain pornography, or endanger national security."
I haven't seen many Youtube videos that endanger the US's national security...
inspire fear, contain pornography, or endanger national security
... that'd be inspire fear in the government leaders that the people might SEE what they're really doing
... as in, see the government naked and have some of their dirty secrets exposed for all to see
Lets see. inspire fear
or, contain pornography
and finally, endanger national security would be endanger their position of power by inciting unrest
There, that's better.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Haven't they learned from the 1936 and 1980 Olympics? A totalitarian government might promise the IOC that they will be more open and peaceful if they are allowed to host the Olympic Games, but they will not honor it. Perhaps this will be the first Olympic Games where the government hosting the games is massacring people while the athletes compete.
Personally, I think it is time that the Olympics are removed from the control of the IOC. The games in China should also be canceled.
I'm sure that somewhere there's a Girls Gone Wild video that does all three...
Wouldn't carpetbombing China with dirty magazines be more ironic? Fear, pornography, and national endangerment all in one go!
Run a tor node! Remove the potential for censure of information by oppressive regimes like China, Cuba and _[insert favorite oppressive country here]_ http://tor.eff.org/
I posted the following info on a previous thread a few days ago, but it was long enough after the story had been posted that it got buried. Anyway, because I believe that it's significant, I will again point out that Google would seem to be coalescing to the wishes of governments such as China. Google's automated the process of blocking particular videos in particular countries via new country blocking XML tags ([media :restriction type="country" relationship="deny">CN]") that they've added in YouTube/Google Video. If you're not familiar with Google's latest (Do no evil???) addition to YouTube, see the write-up that YouTomb did on the matter. Anyway, I can think of no other reason that Google would add in such capability, but I've admittedly not devoted much time to pondering it.
But the majority of you will go to Wal-Mart at some point in the next 3 days and buy goods made from China. So who's winning the war here?
Yeah, my karma sucks....but so do the mods.
China is fighting unarmed(or lightly armed) monks in clear view of the world. While they can censor their own media, everyone else sees China as a bully. The Dali-Lama is actually being given an amplified voice. I sincerely do not believe that China wants the person they're trying to repress be given a bigger soap box, but that is what is happening in reality.
God spoke to me.
There is some truth to that, as much as we like to think what a particular country's government should be, ultimately it is up to its people to decide their own fate. While the (perhaps ignorant) individual may not consciously think of how their country should be governed, the mass which makes up the society as a whole does ultimately, whether consciously or not, ended up dictating the type of government that it deems unacceptable (at least in the sense that they would rather live with the government than revoke against it).
You see, the U.S. people got their freedom as their British ancestors who immigrated to North America decided to revoke against its government for paying too much tax (they had the geographical advantage of having an ocean divde), and the French followed similar course of action (their people were desperate). Their people, as a whole, paid its due for the price of freedom and fought through it. However, it should be noted that each culture and nation has its own unique situation. In the case of China, ultimately it'd be up to its citizens to decide.
Maybe it's utopian to imagine that the Chinese government cares about its international reputation, but just in case they do (say because of the upcoming Olympics), we might be able to make a tiny bit of difference by expressing our support for the Dalaï Lama and his call for dialog, eg. here: http://www.avaaz.org/en/tibet_end_the_violence/
That being said, China is fskced. I've met some native Chinese who came here to go to school, and the propaganda they carry with them is unreal. "One China" anybody? That freaky film, "Hero" canonizing a butcher pretty much sums that one up. And I've met people who have lived here for over a decade who still hunch up and look frightened when you ask them what they think of the Chinese government. Like abuse victims. I guess the truncheons haven't fully come out yet in the U.S., and real information is still being controlled through ridicule rather than simply being locked down.
I've heard the U.S. described as the largest social experiment on the planet; the objective being to see if it is possible to fully control people without the use of force. Kind of like a beef farmer letting their cattle think they're living happy, free lives when in fact almost every thought and decision is dictated.
-FL
I think another reason that is also pleasing the government a lot is that this will keep all these students away from the camera of international journalist.
You know, with all these habits that we students worldwide have of protesting and organising processions and strikes, it's good side effect that the campus will be closed, just in case if some Chinese students decided to overcome their fears and copy us trying some of the silly stuff that the foreign colleagues are doing.
It would be specially embarrassing since they won't be able to handle potential students protest the usual way (it's not very encouraged to send tank against students in front of cameras).
Except that if the government had said "Students aren't allowed to express publicly their political opinion" the whole western world would be complaining about attacks to their freedom of speech. Whereas "China announce it will happily lend its Colleges' gyms so athlete can win, saddly this means that the duration of the students summer break will have to be extended" suddenly sounds a lot more benevolent. The government hit two birds with single stone : They both do us a favor giving a place to our athlete and managed do discretely shut the Chinese students up.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Um, ah, are you calling the Dalai Lama a lier then? Be cause he says it himself *repeatedly*.
Despite what the Chinese have done to *his* country: the rape, murder, and willful and blatant destruction of the institutions most precious to Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama does not see independence from China as possible because he recognizes a hard case when he sees it.
The Chinese constitution guarantees some sort of autonomy, and within autonomy there is no reason why the Tibetan people can not move forward and have some sort of normal existence. The Dalai Lama sees that as a win-win situation. Tibetans get to live unoppressed, and the Han Chinese can still say to themselves proudly "Look, Tibet is ours!".
So the Dalai Lama is more concerned with the livelihood of his people than reptilian territoriality. China has placed such a pathetically small value on human life, that I'm sure they struggle with that concept. Sad really.
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right