China Doesn't Want People Talking About Egyptian Uprising Online
from the let's-just-leave-that-alone... dept
Whatever you think of how much impact social media has had on recent political uprisings and protests around the globe, it appears that many governments are worried about the impact. We've already seen how Egypt shut down the internet to try to slow down communication among protesters. And there's at least some sense of dominoes falling, with Egypt following Tunisia, and a few protests starting to show up in a few other countries around the Middle East.It looks like China has decided not to risk being the next domino by having the various microblogging/social network sites in that country block any mention of Egypt. I do wonder how effective that move actually is. Once people realize it, won't that just make them wonder why, and make them more likely to seek out info on Egypt?
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Filed Under: china, egypt, protests, social media, uprising
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Streisand effect not applicable?
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Re: Re: Why not Egipt? Or Ejypt?
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A really good question
This should really test their tails...
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Re: A really good question
consider the 'wisdom' of ur 'awesome' government and dont ask around"
china shouldn't show their guns, when people dont care
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I'm just kidding. That wold be illegal.
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Consider, for example, how difficult it is to prosecute drug lords and leaders of organized crime. Since law enforcement has been so careful to flag any mention of illegal activity through suspected communications, criminals simply avoid those terms entirely. Catching someone red-handed in this manner is typically a monumental task.
In contrast, look at how the U.S. at least feigns tolerance to anti-government groups within the country. Very little if any of their communications involve complex, obtuse euphemisms that make it impossible to take action. Often, these groups end up logging reams of publicly available incriminating evidence...were they to ever *actually* do anything stupid. But if they ever began to suspect their communications were being constantly flagged, you bet your fake eyelashes that those communications would start looking reeeal boring to the average viewer.
I would not be surprised if China's conduct over the years has spawned an entire underground pseudolanguage of unflaggable, unmonitorable communications.
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