Internet access and China, a tortured relationship at the best of times.
Showing all posts tagged internet
China clamps down on press freedom
I was interviewed yesterday on the Australian current affairs program, The Wire, about China’s policy of internet censorship during the Olympics, my forthcoming book, The Blogging Revolution and the tendency of Western media to demonise the Communist state: With eight days to go before the start of the Beijing Olympics, controversy continues to plague this…
Capitalism does not equal freedom
Will communications technology (mainly, the internet and mobile devices) combined with capitalism inevitably make everybody in the world more free? (Hint: no.)
Real freedom bites
Are you feeling that sweet Olympic spirit yet? The Chinese authorities confirmed today that the 20,000 foreign journalists covering the Olympic Games will not have unrestricted access to the Internet during their stay. Kevin Gosper, the head of the IOC’s press commission, admitted today: “I also now understand that some IOC officials negotiated with the…
The time to read quality
Chris Hedges, Democracy Now!, July 29: The average reader of the paper copy of the New York Times spends forty-five minutes reading the paper. The average viewer of the New York Times website spends about seven minutes. The internet is not designed for a literate society. We are moving into a post-literate society, a society…
Confusion through the Beijing smog
My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: Western critics of Beijing should be careful what they wish for during the Games, writes Antony Loewenstein Amnesty International’s latest report on China’s human rights record makes for depressing reading. “We’ve seen a deterioration in human rights because of…
A brave new world
Internet censorship is utterly normal in “repressive” regimes the world over. But welcome to the new reality in the “free” West: Internet service provider Embarq eavesdropped on the web surfing habits of 26,000 customers in Kansas without notifying them personally, as part of its test of new, controversial advertising technology that profiles users. What next?…
Onward Zionist soldier
It’s good to see that online Zionists are spending their time so fruitfully: A group calling itself the Jewish Internet Defense Force (JIDF) hacked into a Facebook group called,… “Israel” is not a country!… … Delist it from Facebook as a country!” early Sunday morning, erasing thousands of members’ names from the site. The JIDF was…
How not to help the Chinese, part 9
My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: Sport isn’t the only thing on the minds of multinationals in Beijing, writes Antony Loewenstein Human rights issues? What human rights issues? With only a few weeks until the start of the Beijing Games, this seems to be the…