In “Network
Authoritarianism,” Rebecca MacKinnon discusses the way censorship was developed
in China. Censorship is a very important role in China’s internet security and its
people. The author begins to address the situation with a true story. A woman
worked in a spa and salon and was asked by a Communist party official to engage
in something she did not fancy. Despite the force, she manage to release herself
by accidentally killing him with a knife. Afterward, she was sent to the mental
hospital for the wrong reasons. The news of the woman rapidly spread online and
several of citizens were unhappy with the unjust treatment. Because of the
worries of a riot conspiracy, they dropped the charges. After I read this
passage, it made me realize how severe and important the information flow and
censorship was in China.
I think that the Internet
is such a powerful and effective tool to reach out. Information has the
opportunity to flourish among the society because people communicate their
needs to everyone best this way if not in person. Because of that, I think the
Chinese officials decided that there are just things like events that the
citizens cannot be exposed to and be aware of because of the fear of rebellion.
This was the only way that they could remain with their power. With censorship,
the citizens were unable to know about what the government officials do such as
unjust arrests.
There
are so many webpages that accompanies the Internet in China. MacKinnon mentions
that with those webpages, officials monitor conversations on these so they do not
violate internet algorithms. To filter the system, the government officials
came up with something called “firewall.” It was very effective in filtering
out certain materials. However, I do agree with it. If the citizens find out
about it later, would it not make them rage even more? From this, I had a clear
understanding that privacy rights were not given to them because they are so concerned
with people voicing out their opinions.
Google
pulling their business out of China was also a great thing. I don’t think that
google should offer their services there because google likes to provide all
the information that there is about the world on their database. If China did
not allow the majority of the things that Google had, Google would not receive
any revenue. There were just too many rules in the Internet usage and what is
and what isn’t allowed. This is where the people who knew how to decode the censorship
decoded it- so they could to see more. It’s because they know that not everything
on the internet is everything available. Overall, I agree with Mackinnon when
she says, “Unless and until a critical mass of Chinese Internet users decided
that the status quo is unacceptable and demand access to alternatives beyond
their gilded cage, and unless Chinese
entrepreneurs and CEO’s… the Internet’s pervasive use in China will actually prolong the Communist Party’s rule
rather than hasten its demise.”
Reading MacKinnon’s article
helped me self-reflect to see how lucky I am here. Although there may be websites
that we as citizens may be restricted from seeing, I know that we can at least use
Google the way it’s suppose to be used and that there is no information that is
hidden from the outside world. We are luckier here in a sense, that everything
is available if we look for it. Yet, I wonder what kinds of things are we restricted
from viewing in the states here because I know that the internet cannot possibly
just let us see everything. This article also made me think about the
discussions we had about the Chinese exchange students in LIS 301. We mentioned
that Chinese Exchange students come over to study and when we show them how
much was available to us on the Internet, it surprised them. For me, this left
me quite speechless. 
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