I'm disappointed that another day has passed in India with no apparent Indian press coverage of their ongoing blog censorship, e.g. search "blogs" at any of the Hindustan Times, the Times of India, The Hindu or the Khaleej Times.
On the other hand, a trackback to yesterday's post from Letters from China led me to this post quoting the Guardian quoting an unnamed Chinese official (in February 2006):
Even with an estimated 30,000 internet police, he said it was difficult to monitor bulletin boards. "The technology hasn't reached a level that will allow us to control them. And we must also consider the trend of democratisation, which cannot be stopped," he said. "China is very big. If you want to control such a large country, mere politics is not enough. You must control minds. You need to win the battle for ideas."
As I've commented in the past, the Internet is as significant in its long term benefit for humanity as were the advent of speech, writing and the printing press in their epochs. Each has allowed a greater number of people to connect with other people across distance and time. The sharing that results is natural, enormously beneficial and unstoppable.
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