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China Blanks Nobel Peace Prize Searches

Posted by Soulskill on from the par-for-the-course dept.

1 a bee writes "CNN is reporting that China is attempting to block all communication regarding Peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo. Even texting is affected: 'Text-messaging on mobile phones is not immune from censors, either. A Shanghai-based netizen, @littley, tweeted his unfortunate experience: "My SIM card just got de-activated, turning my iPhone to an iPod touch after I texted my dad about Liu Xiaobo winning the Nobel Peace Prize."' Might as well add Slashdot to the censored list." Further coverage is available from NBC.

4 of 326 comments (clear)

  1. But, but... by thestudio_bob · · Score: 5, Insightful

    China is just trying to protect it's citizens against the terrorist and child porn. Sheesh.

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    The real Sig captains the Northwestern. This one captains /.
  2. Hacktivism by BJ_Covert_Action · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Somebody ought to write an exploit for Chinese iPhones and Android based phones that autotexts the name "Liu Xiaobo" to everyone in a person's contact list, then goes on to force their phone to do the same thing. Within a matter of days the entire population of the two most popular smartphone platforms in China would have their favorite toys censored. I am pretty sure that could cause an effective public outrage.

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  3. Re:Chinese people know... by clarkkent09 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    most Chinese are aware of the award. Honestly, most of them don't care that much.

    So a Chinese man is kept in prison purely because his opinions disagree with the government and he gets a Nobel prize and now the government will censor your website, email and even deactivate your cellphone if you as much as mention his name. If they really don't care they most definitely should.

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    Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
  4. Re:Well by darthdavid · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seems like a bassackwards solution to me. There's plenty of things the government should be taking care of that they're not, and plenty of things that they should be doing, and are, but in an unnecessarily inefficient way. Rather than gunning for more inefficiency so that the government can't do things they shouldn't, which they seem to manage to do just fine anyway, why not elect leaders and enact laws that prevent the abuse from happening in the first place?

    Advocating increased inefficiency as the solution to bad government is like saying that you can't run very well in clown shoes so we can lower the crime rate by making everyone wear clown shoes so they can't get away from the cops. It doesn't really address the root of the problem, barely addresses the symptoms and brings a host of new problems along for the ride.