In the article below, I found it interesting all the lengths that China has gone to be able to control what it's citizens are saying on these sites. The article reported that sites such as Twitter have been blocked all together and sites such as Facebook are thoroughly filtered and censored.
With all the events taken place in Egypt these controls have gotten even tighter. Despite their efforts an event was planned called the "Jasmine Revolution" calling for protests in 13 different Chinese cities. In order to prevent these protests from actually taking place Chinese officials blocked many posts from being published and went as far as not allowing texts with certain phrases to go through. The article also reported that anything to do with the events that have taken place in Egypt have been blocked from search results in Google.
I think it is interesting how very different social media is being used in various countries. These sites seem like they would be a nightmare to countries like China who seem to be worrying about a possible revolt against the government. Even though so far their censoring has been effective, one must wonder how long it would have to take for an event like the "Jasmine Revolution" to take place. The article said that China houses the most Internet users in the world and I find it amazing that officials are able to censor everything that is being said on all the sites being utilized. With social media only growing bigger and bigger it will be very ineresting how it will effect countries such as this one.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703610604576158290935677316.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Great post Amanda. I too find it interesting how the Government was able to censor all of that content. We take for granted our freedom of speech and how these social networking sites allow us to speak our mind and let the world read it. I read on friends' Facebook pages all of the time about political isssues and their opinions on them. Facebook and Twitter allow us connect with eachother in so many different ways. I hope out country never gets to the point where e are not allowed to speak our opinion and use our resources (social networking) to let our friends read it.
ReplyDeleteIt's crazy how influential social media is in today's society. I mean, people are using it to attempt to overthrow governments...yeah. This absolutely blows my mind that it's that powerful of a tool.
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