China Internet Use Soars

by Taylor Flatt on January 14th, 2009 at 8:54 pm EDT - 307 views

While China imposes strict regulations on their internet and in some cases jailing writers and web developers, they continue moving up the ladder. Ever since 2001 when it began catching the attention of the internet world, they have been under the Global Watch.

China has now reached almost 300 million internet users in 2008 and has doubled since 2006. Unlike the US, 90% of Chinese users are using broadband to access the internet.

With over 560 million mobile subscribers, BDA (Chinese Marketing and Researching Firm) still stated the e-commerce and content is the better quality in the US. This isn’t surprising since a lot of businesses and entrepreneurs begin in the US and China is still relatively new to the “market”.

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Baidu Sorry for Pornography

by Taylor Flatt on January 6th, 2009 at 10:57 pm EDT - 432 views

Earlier this week, China announced that it was taking action against the main search websites including Google and Baidu. Baidu has apologized for the published pornography on their website. They have announced they are taking measures to prevent such things from happening in the future while attempting to rid themselves of it in the present.

However, Google has yet to release an official statement on the matter. But has been reporting saying they are attempting to clean up their act by removing obscene content from their site.

I believe that China has the right attitude in matter, although, I do believe it is wrong to remove such things. The whole theory behind engines such as Google and Baidu is for indexing websites where you can find relevant information on the topic you are searching for. I am not saying these things should be advertised openly, however, they should not be excluded from such searches with the attempt of finding such a site.

These sites shouldn’t back down because a country doesn’t like their content. What happens when they or any other country doesn’t like having pictures or information on hurricanes displayed because it kills many people every year? Although not very practical, it is however theoretically possible since these sites are backing down quite readily.

Source: AP   
Image courtesy of noticastech 

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China Restricts Internet Further

by Taylor Flatt on January 5th, 2009 at 8:27 pm EDT - 344 views

China, since last month, has gone another step further and has begun accusing sites like Google for displaying morally controversial items such as pornography and vulgar content. China departments claim they alert Google of their overabundant links to said sites, but have reported Google has implemented no countermeasures. China now threatens, “For those Web sites that repeatedly ignore warnings, we will publicize a few, punish a few and even close down a few”.

China is justifying their action by eluding that the populous is calling for action, “The vulgar trend has deeply harmed the mental and physical health of the young generation. Many parents are calling out: ‘Save our children’. They want the government to take drastic action.”

This looks like this trend will only continue on a downward spiral. With BBC being blocked along with NYTimes website, this will only get worse as the censorship issue is clouded by the cry of “help” by the people. Although there are bad things on the internet, it is like life; you cannot censor everything out and expect to live in a clean just world. Censorship is a long debated argument that has been and always will be a central issue. If China persists on their course of cutting the internet down, where will it stop?

Source: FT, UPI
Image courtesy of gallery.hd

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Pirates Sentenced to 1-6 Years

by Taylor Flatt on December 31st, 2008 at 6:10 pm EDT - 272 views

Earlier this week, the Chinese counterfeiting gang that stole 2 billion dollars worth of Microsoft phony software was sentenced to 1 1/2 years to 6 1/2 years which is quite tough considering earlier Chinese court cases. The software was found in 36 different countries and multiple languages which isnt suprising considering the speed that things fly on the web.

Although, Microsoft and the RIAA along with governments, are cracking down on these “pirates” they will never see the end of the road. Not only are there millions of pirates, but most do it because of one simple fact. That fact is the price of software and games today. You used to be able to go out and buy a $39 game, but now it is $59-69 and same goes to software which is hiking up the ladder. This is game will continue to go on for years to come and will only end in hard feelings and trillions of dollars spent trying to quell this uprising. Something more drastic needs to be done if they think they will make any head way into stopping this.

Source: AP

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China Blocks NYTimes Website

by Taylor Flatt on December 21st, 2008 at 10:36 am EDT - 232 views

The Chinese government has begun blocking access to the NYTimes website this weekend. Although no real explanation has been made, they have released a statement concerning the matter, “Concerning your particular question, we’re not really familiar with the details,” said a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing. “Web site maintenance is not within the job purview of the Foreign Ministry.” While the government is refusing the answer these questions, they seem to be going back to the ways they were before the Olympics.

With their restrictions and vague statements, what more are we to expect from a government that is looking to surpress the media from their countrymen? Although the website is not blocked throughout the whole country, it is however, blocked in places like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

I will stay with this story and alert you of any updates that might come of this from the Chinese government concerning the matter. Hopefully they will release the ban of the website and allow their people once more to view one of the biggest media sites in the world.

Source: NYTimes

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