View From a Height

And You Thought the FEC Was Bad

China is requiring all websites - including blogs - to register with the government, and will use Net Crawler technology to search the web for unregistered sites. This will move blogs offshore, where the Government-sponsored filters can monitor incoming traffic as they currently do US news sites.

They've also installed surveillance cameras and begun requiring visitors to Shanghai Internet cafes to register using their official identity cards — all in an effort to keep tabs on who's seeing and saying what online.

Right. So much for that Comments section you've been keeping spam-free.

Talk about a "chilling effect." Just because a censor can't be comprehensive doesn't mean it can't be effective.

Inasmuch as business and public policy frequently intersect - especially in a "mature fascist state," as Michael Ledeen likes to call China - this is going to make honest business blogging and even honest business discussion much more difficult to carry on. I can't believe that eventually this isn't going to catch up with them.

My favorite paragraph is this:

"The Internet has profited many people but it also has brought many problems, such as sex, violence and feudal superstitions and other harmful information that has seriously poisoned people's spirits," the MII Web site said in explaining the rules, which were quietly introduced in March.

Maybe the Fraters Guys have been imbibing "seriously poisoned spirits," and I can certainly understand China wanting to defend themselves against that sort of thing. But what on earth are "feudal superstitions?" Christianity? I don't want to be disrespectful here of anyone's reigion, but what do these guys think the I Ching is?