Internet Censorship in China: More Than Just Filter - Protocols and Infrastructure
Apropos the latest news of China's retreat on mandatory registration for their "real-name" blog system, Tim Wu makes several excellent points for a more nuanced analysis of internet censorship in China.
Wu asks that we not only look at censorship as blocking words (i.e. democracy and freedom), but we need to look at how they block the actual tools that create not only content, but tools that promote the kind of digital networking among netizens that would translate to real social action 0 which is exactly what scares the Chinese government. Wu then points to how we should examine how China is remapping the physical infrastructure and protocols of the internet.
I totally agree with Wu on this - and I think one of his most salient, but underreported points, is how China is handling Internet protocols (as internet protocols are not a sexy angle, so rarely do journalists cover this point on censorship in China).
On the other hand, we need to also take into consideration other motivations that work hand-in-hand with censorship - like concerns over the imperialism of US protocols and codecs. Just last year, China's Ministry of Information urged Chinese companies to develop their own home-grown codecs. This can be seen as a move in the direction to have more control in surveillancing digital information, or it can be seen in the direction of fighting US companies' patent monopolies. The government wants to censor, while the private companies want to shell out less money to US companies for IP rights . I think these two forces are working together and when examining censorship, we need to look at this from several points of view. Censorship is not a black and white struggle that's usually portrayed by journalists (not Wu). Wu provides a great starting point by urging people to see that for the all the freedoms the WWW may seem to hold, it greatly depends on the politics of your point of access. With "countries like China pushing hard to divide global network into a system of Balkanized national networks," the most extreme acts of censorship - like protocol jigging - are taking place with little attention or protest.
and here's another great article from Legal Affairs. -tricia
From China Digital Times - China to Back down from "Real Name" Blog Rules - Reuters: From Reuters: China is to back down from a plan to require bloggers to use their real names when they register Web logs, following an outcry over the proposal from the Internet industry, official media reported on Tuesday. Instead, the government would promote a 'self-discipline code' that would encourage, but not mandate, bloggers to register under their own names, the report said, citing draft guidelines published by the Internet Society of China.
"The ISC, with the backing of the Ministry of Information Industry, is trying to rally industry players to sign up to the self-discipline code for the promotion of a less rigorous real-name system," state-run Xinhua news agency reported." Full Text
(photo from Danwei.)
Technorati Tags: blogger, china, ip, patent, protest, protocol, registration, royalty, scary , surveillance, tim wu, tools