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China Censors 60,000 Porn Sites, 5,000 Arrested
lothos writes with news that China has arrested thousands more people and shuttered 60,000 websites in an ongoing anti-pornography crackdown.
"Wang Chen, director of the Information Office of the State Council, said at a news conference that some 350 million pieces of pornographic and indecent internet content were eliminated, according to the Xinhua report. The government launched a special campaign a year ago to rid the internet of pornographic and vulgar content, Xinhua reported. Overall, the campaign included 2,197 criminal cases involving 4,965 people who violated Chinese law by disseminating pornography via the internet or mobile phones, the news agency said. Of those, 58 people received prison sentences exceeding five years."
Welcome to America, where Congressmen can fight for and pass laws discriminating against gays, while they bang boys in their offices, suck cock in airport bathrooms and so on.
All politicians think they are gods above the law while the people are mere inconveniences for them to rule over. The only difference in China is that at least they are honest about being totalitarian.
You would think that a country intent on controlling it's population growth would encourage fapping.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
Net Neutrality? Or Fairness Doctrine? Nah. The FCC has been doing this since the 1950s, before those buzzwords even existed. In the same fashion they censor radio and television, they will soon be doing the same thing China is doing: censoring the "filthy nudie pics" from the web.
Of course they should not be able to do. CATV and internet are PRIVATE domains so the FCC should keep their hands off. But they won't. Our US and EU politicians are no different than Chinese politicians - they all have avarice and ambition - love of money & love of power. They'll censor the porn off the net and justify it as "protecting the children".
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
So censoring sexually explicit works of authorship is a right-wing plank in the United States, but it's left-wing in red China. Doesn't that destroy the meaning of "left wing" and "right wing"?
Yes, and I think the point is, they are equally ridiculous, not equally intelligent.
Carl Sagan quotes get you an automatic +5 on all posts.
Neal Stephenson, in his novel the Diamond Age, goes on at length about the Chinese' hysterical fear of anarchy. It may not be porn as such the Chinese rulers fear, just like it isn't opium or heroin that frightens them, but rather the inability to contain the consequences of potential runaway overindulgence. It might be a case of choosing the devil you know (the consequences of overbearingness) versus the devil you don't know (anarchy). Tien an menh square was an illustration of this.
I'm not sure that they care about porn so much as care about controlling 'their' citizens. Power needs to be used to be appreciated; without exercising power and control over others, how can one know one has it? It's like music - unless it's being played, it doesn't exist. So they crack down on this and that.
Sex and sexuality is one area where people are the most wilfull - acting for their own (er) ends; of their own volition. It seems like the perfect area to (er) crack down on for an organisation of people looking to exercise control over others and subject them to their will; keep them in line.
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
I find it odd that the ChiCom government should CARE about porn.
Any insights on that one?
Let the citizens fap in peace and they won't rebel, while profiteering from said fappage could enrich the oligarchy.
I find it odd that the U.S. government should CARE about certain drugs.
Any insights on that one?
Let the citizens get stoned/ripped/trashed/high in peace and they won't rebel, while profiteering from said legalization and taxation of said controlled substances could enrich the oligarchy.
I think both questions have the same answer.
How can this be rated insightful. The fellow argued from a few isolated cases to damn every congress-critter. Most congress-critters are fine, upstanding people; their biggest problem is putting up with the American people; the American people believe the worst while refusing to take any responsibility for the state of the country.
I find it odd that the ChiCom government should CARE about porn.
Any insights on that one?
Obviously, in China the rich and powerful can get as much pussy as they want. Denying the same to the working classes/masses is useful, as a frustrated sexual libido (in China, there is a lack of women, at the moment) can be focused very easily. It is how you control these masses, by promising them a bright future ("more (than 0) pussy") or channeling the rage against Japan, capitalist imperialism etc. whatever is convenient.
Same thing in Islamist societies: the rich and powerful can have multiple wives, necessarily removing them from the pool for the general populace, who then believes in 72 virgins in another dimension, and all they have to do, is be exceptionally good Muslims (blow oneself up).
These are methods to obscure the reality of the situation, to deflect the anger from those who really deserve it.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
It doesn't matter what country the story is about. You will always have 1/2 dozen + insightful posts that pretty much sum up as "America is worse."
Mention another country as worse and you will be appropriately rated troll or off-topic.
It's funny. You have some picture of the Chinese government as an evil mastermind, calculating every move to his advantage. It's a lot simpler than that. The laws largely reflect the attitudes of the population. A lot of Chinese people (just as a lot of Americans) feel that porn is morally bankrupt and want to see it go away. In America, various guarantees of liberties like the Bill of Rights prevent lawmakers from simply banning whatever the majority doesn't like. But in China, these safeguards don't exist.