Video: Summary of the why media sites are banned in China
In the prosperous world today, the technological world has been rapidly evolving; however some countries with advanced economies and technologies are unwilling to adopt such changes. China, one of the largest growing industrial nations in the world has abruptly blocked the access of Facebook and Twitter. Public networks allow interaction and exchange of information between social groups. Though the government has used significant amount of resources to establish a police workforce called Chinese Communist Party (CCP), their role included taking down social sites that expresses negative thoughts about the Republic of China. A video link shown above illustrates an incident where people used a social media site to run an election poll. Many website owners were upset for having their networks down. Therefore, people were cautious of posting, so that they would not lose more of their communication sites. Then again, where are the freedoms of expression? An author wrote the following, "Chinese government might be more concerned about international criticism than internal tension."1 In my opinion, the government of China appears to be creating a barrier between China and the outside world. Moreover, major corporations, including telecommunications and media companies are state owned. Therefore, China has the capability to ban any public media it pleases. In response to the incident, the Chinese government leader, Ma responded, "China's Constitution protects citizen's freedom of speech and promotes the internet development."2 He revealed his key motivation to forbid such media usage is to stop hackers from violating the personal privacy of users. In contrast, the purpose of the social network is to create one group of diverse culture who shares their thinking. Followers would not be harmed to gain epiphanies from writers and a global network of rapid exchanging information can be established. In fact, Ma seems to be the real hacker because he searches through people's blog and removes them. Ma was simply an egotistical leader who fears criticism. I strongly believe, banning social media does not blind anyone from knowing about the reality.
Social networks have improved extensively to assist people in many aspects of life, but the Chinese government banning Facebook and Twitter is analogous to amputating a human brain because information would not be received. Useful sources are no longer available; therefore making life less convenient, but survivable. China has increase intensively to dominate the industry market, but they are still far behind in the technological world.
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1Bass, Sadie. “China’s Facebook Status: Blocked.” abc news.go.com. abc News, 8 Jun. 2009. Web. 25 Sept. 2011.
"China Censorship." Youtube. Web. 10 Oct. 2011.
Wauters, Robin. “China Blocks Access To Twitter, Facebook After Riots.” The Washington Post. TechCrunch, 7 Jul. 2009. Web. 11 Oct. 2011.
2Xie Jingwei and Zhao Chunzhe. “China strongly opposes US charges on internet freedom.” China Daily.com. China Daily, 22 Jan. 2010. Web. 26 Sept. 2011.
