MCLC: Brin underestimated Chinese censorship

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: martin winter (dujuan99 at gmail.com)
Subject: Brin underestimated Chinese censorship
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Source: The Register (4/16/12):
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/16/china_brin_censorship/

Google's Brin admits he under-estimated Chinese censorship
They've managed to put genie back in the bottle
By Phil Muncaster

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has admitted he was wrong to question
China¹s long-term ability to restrict the free flow of information online,
as the Communist Party¹s crack down on internet rumours following
suggestions of a failed coup continues.

Speaking to The Guardian, the billionaire said he didn¹t believe five
years ago that a country like China could effectively restrict internet
freedoms for long, but added that he has now been proven wrong.

"I am more worried than I have been in the past. It's scary," he
reportedly said.

"I thought there was no way to put the genie back in the bottle, but now
it seems in certain areas the genie has been put back in the bottle."

While Google still has a presence in China and has been adding to its team
of engineers in the country, it has remained critical of the government¹s
hardline stance on web censorship ever since its high profile decision to
relocate its search business to Hong Kong in early 2010.

As if to validate Brin¹s words, Hu Jintao¹s government has continued with
a vengeance its unprecedented online crack down designed to quell any
potential social disorder, or even worse, political protest, ahead of the
Party¹s leadership handover next year.

State Internet Information Office figures released at the tail end of last
week revealed that some 210,000 posts have now been removed from the
country¹s popular weibos, or microblogs such as Sina Weibo, and 42 sites
shut down as part of efforts to stamp out online "rumours" which spread
last month of a failed coup.

The rumours centred around deposed Politburo member Bo Xilai as well as
his wife¹s alleged complicity in the murder of British businessman Neil
Heywood.

However, Chinese artist and political activist Ai Weiwei, who is under
24-hour surveillance at his Beijing home, was more optimistic of the
future for the country's netizens.

Writing in The Guardian, he argued that the internet is fundamentally
"uncontrollable" and likened China's web censorship to building a dam
without any way to release the water pressure.

"It still hasn't come to the moment that it will collapse. That makes a
lot of other states admire its technology and methods," he added.

"But in the long run, its leaders must understand it's not possible for
them to control the internet unless they shut it off ­ and they can't live
with the consequences of that."