China: web policing

I'm having problems deciding where I stand on web censorship - big in the news today with the Yahoo! lawsuit announcement. And this follows the recent 'trouble' Google got into too.

Should a country's Government determine what information its citizens have access to? Or should there be Universal free access and free speech? When I'm in China, I find it really frustrating when I can't access certain content. Stupid things are frozen out such as the England cricket match report on bbc.co.uk

Generally, I stand for free speech, but Yahoo!'s argument is a strong and compelling one: "When we do business in a country, we have to adhere to the local laws of that country". Hard to argue against. Will be interesting to see how the law suit pans out.

What is silly, however, is the announcement today by China's 'Internet Surveillance Centre'. Sounds a creepy organisation - and it probably is. They've announced the use of cartoon-like police avatars which warn Chinese Internet users just before they're about to undertake something risky or about to see some kind of unsavoury or 'illicit' content (as defined by the Chinese Govt).

According to China Daily, the male and female officers "will appear either on motorcycles, in a car or on foot, at the bottom of users' computer screens to remind them of internet security". An official from Beijing municipal public security bureau explained: "They will be on the watch for websites that incite secession, promote superstition, gambling and fraud."

Quite how the pair will enforce the law is not clear, but we know that "users could click on the pop-up icons to link to an internet surveillance centre where infractions could be reported".

Yikes - and you'll get a knock on the door a few hours later where you'll be asked to explain why you were looking at such content in the first place no doubt.

I can't wait to see this in action and intend to spend most of the forthcoming weekend seeking out illicit Chinese content for research purposes you understand. But I'd better be careful, that excuse did not do Pete Townshend much good!

M