The Chinese government is backing off of its efforts to crack down on blogging. The country currently has a real-name law in place, requiring bloggers to use their real names. As many bloggers know, the potential for a degree of anonymity is one of the great things about blogging, and a lot of people post stuff on the internet they wouldn't want up there with their own names attached to. The Chinese government is concerned about the Internet because of its potential for facilitating pornography and anti-government ideas.
It's exciting to see evidence of the huge power that bloggers have for changing the world and the way people look at things. Being seen as a threat by a repressive regime is one of the highest forms of flattery, and this news story made me prouder than ever to be a blogger.
I can only hope that corporate America will stand up for free speech in China. Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google have all, to varying degrees, aided the Chinese government in its efforts to crack down on free speech. While I can understand the difficulties that these companies face in dealing with these issues, as American companies, I believe they ought to support one of the most important rights we as Americans have: free speech.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-17-2007 @ 11:51PM
Mary Kalwite said...
I can't even imagine if we had a law like that over here. I write things on my anonymous blog that I wouldn't tell a shrink.
http://www.momzoo.com/NJMom71