In a story that may be of interest to some of my readers and friends in the Internet community (if they aren’t already well aware of it), Cybercast News is reporting that the Chinese government plans a crackdown on blogs this summer.
The Chinese government says a system has been developed to monitor sites in real time, searching each one for a registration number. Those not registered would face penalties, including fines of up to one million yuan (about $121,000).
The ministry said almost 75 percent of all website already have been registered. The regulations were needed, it said, because of sex, violence, superstitions and “other harmful information” available online.
Of course, it’s not like anything like this would happen in the land of the free and the home of the brave… is it?
For your one-stop shop for online freedom of speech, visit Red State’s “Got freedom?” page.
Well, this will show the common man what those on top are REALLY like. But will they care?
Sadly, 300 million middle-class Chinese don’t outrank 1000 million poor Chinese. As long as those billion think they’re being served (which they largely are), they won’t care about the middle class – probably will support the status quo versus the disaffected bloggers should it come to a struggle, which I doubt.
Will bloggers in China have to wear blue patches on their clothes in the shape of laptops?