As we learned in the last post, China says that the United States' accusations of Internet censorship are baseless. Perhaps, China just needs a little lesson in what censorship actually is. We've put together a handy little guide so that government regulators of all nations, but mostly China, know when they've crossed that dirty little line over to censorship.
- If you block access to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube during political riots - that's censorship.
- If you repeatedly block search engines until they comply with your ever-changing regulations - that's censorship.
- If said regulations involve content restrictions - that's censorship.
- If you hire "Internet police" who erase comments - that's censorship.
- If you jail cyber-dissidents - that's censorship.
- If you require computers sold in your country to be shipped with software that prevents youth's minds from being poisoned by the Internet - that's censorship.
- If you require portals to be down for "maintenance" on the anniversary of pro-democracy protests in your country - that's censorship.
- If you block sites related to the Dalai Lama - that's censorship.
- If you punish people who post photos and talk about collapsed schools - that's censorship.
- If you block sites hosted by the Taiwan government or sites related to the Taiwanese independence movement - that's censorship.
Got any other tips for China on the subject of censorship? Have at it in the comments below. Just don't expect them to be available for viewing by Chinese citizens.
