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 blogging
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…
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…
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?
The Islamists speak
We regularly now read Iranian bloggers to gain an insight into the more moderate voices within the country. But conservative and Islamist voices are also growing in strength. Hamid Tehrani, an Iranian blogger now living in the Diaspora, has published a fascinating report into these relatively unknown forces: Iranian Islamist blogs probably provide one of…
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…
Murdoch knows a few things about bias
Fox News thinks blogs are biased (pot kettle black delusion of the day):
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…