20 Years After Tiananmen, China Stifles Online Dissent

Posted by timothy on Sunday May 31, 2009 @09:46AM from the do-the-wave-if-you're-an-authoritarian dept.

alphadogg writes with this snippet from Network World: "The Internet has brought new hope to reformists in China since the country crushed pro-democracy protests in the capital 20 years ago. But as dissidents have gone high-tech, the government in turn has worked to restrict free speech on the Internet, stifling threats to its rule that could grow online. China has stepped up monitoring of dissidents and Internet censorship ahead of June 4, when hundreds were killed in 1989 after Beijing sent soldiers to its central Tiananmen Square to disperse protestors. The authoritarian government wants to ensure that date and other sensitive anniversaries this year pass without public disturbances, observers say. In recent months, China has blocked YouTube and closed two blog hosting sites, bullog.cn and fatianxia.com, known for their liberal content."

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Sounds like many private companies in the US by billybob_jcv · 2009-05-31 13:35 · Score: 1, Offtopic

The US gov't may not censor sites, but many US corporations certainly do. Post the wrong thing on Facebook (assuming your corporate proxy server will let you get to Facebook) or send an email from work with an F-bomb, and you might be told to clean out your desk. We're free - as long as it doesn't violate company policy.