Rebecca MacKinnon, December 2: Lately I’ve given a few talks around town titled “Will the Chinese Communist Party Survive the Internet?” My answer – for the short and medium term at least – is “yes.” Western media pundits and many policymakers have a tendency to assume that the Internet will ultimately bring democracy to China.…
Showing all posts tagged internet
Celebrities vs fact-checkers
Michael Anti became famous after his Chinese blog was deleted by Microsoft in 2005. He now contributes regularly to debates revolving around Western multinationals in China and the impact of the internet on the world’s largest country. He speaks here to Ethan Zuckerman, an employee at Harvard’s Berkman Centre for Internet and Society, on the…
The price of reporting
Elite media concerns: Bill Keller, the executive editor of the New York Times, tonight issued a stark warning that the supply of reliable news reporting is dwindling despite the internet-driven worldwide information explosion. Delivering this year’s Hugo Young memorial lecture to an audience at Chatham House in London, Keller said that the gravest danger to…
Vandals seek help
Hands up who wants to pimp out their “independent” blog? Executives at large oil companies often say that the U.S. public — unnerved by high gasoline prices — does not understand or appreciate how expensive it is to keep the nation’s engines running. And now in a first, two big energy companies and the American…
Banning “bad” thoughts
The land of the free? With overwhelming bipartisan support, Rep. Jane Harman’s “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act” passed the House 404-6 late last month and now rests in Sen. Joe Lieberman’s Homeland Security Committee. Swift Senate passage appears certain. Not since the “Patriot Act” of 2001 has any bill so threatened our constitutionally…
Google avoids torture
Google’s YouTube has become an essential tool around the world in displaying unheralded truths. But the group has now removed many videos featuring Egyptian policemen torturing victims. The Egyptian blogsosphere has reacted with outrage. “This is by far the biggest blow to the anti-torture movement in Egypt,” one said.
Looking East
The Chinese online population is soon to eclipse America’s and currently stands at well over 170 million. A new report indicates that the Chinese are far more politically aware than many Americans: The report, “China and the U.S. in a Web 2.0 World,” also reveals that nearly half of all Chinese broadbanders ages 13 to…
Our Mandarin-speaking leader
What do Chinese bloggers think of Australia’s new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd?
Videos about fluffy dogs should stay
This is surely the right decision by YouTube: Video sharing website YouTube is refusing to filter out threatening material, despite calls for more restrictions in the wake of the school shooting in Finland. Pekka-Eric Auvinen, 18, used YouTube to publicise his plans to attack his high school in Tuusula, hours before he killed eight people…
Priorities, people
Americans are regularly accused of living in a ghetto and rarely caring what happens in the outside world. This is a gross exaggeration, of course, but rings true for many. So what about China? Danwei’s founder Jeremy Goldkorn explains: There has been some discussion on several China blogs recently about a statistic that only six…