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DerrickT, via Flickr (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license)
Where did China's Web-policing technology come from? Did someone create a monster? |
It seems impossible to discuss the Internet in China without also mentioning online censorship. A Nov. 29 Guardian blog entry,
The Great Firewall of China, reports on a
debate at the London School of Economics in which journalism professor and China expert
Hugo de Burgh clashed with
Julien Pain of
Reporters San Frontieres (RSF).
According to the Guardian, de Burgh said it's important not to overstate curbs on free speech in China -- which are often a legacy of confused laws and perpetrated by local officials.
At the tail end of the Guardian post, one remark was new for me: "One member of the audience said that the technology to police the Web was originally developed to monitor dissident opinion in the U.S. and wondered whether the Internet was a 'Frankenstein's monster.'"
I must have missed that part of the history of Chinese online censorship. Anybody have a clue? Please comment below.
For more observations on this debate, see my blog China Herald.
