These last couple of days I have been diving deeper into my research topic, censorship. I have began focusing more and more on government censorship, specifically media and browser censorships. The key suspects in the most guilty of these “crimes” is easily China. China is one of the most oppressive first world governments in today's era. They police social media sites and even news sites vigorously. In fact, China actively censors social media posts that do not fall inline with government views. This includes political issues as well as religious ones like the Dalai Lama. I find it hard to believe a country as oppressive as China can continue being a first world power without daily revolts. According to researcher Gary King, “Contrary to previous understandings, posts with negative, even vitriolic, criticism of the state, its leaders, and its policies are not more likely to be censored. Instead, we show that the censorship program is aimed at curtailing collective action by silencing comments that represent, reinforce, or spur social mobilization, regardless of content.”. Basically the censorship they do for social media sites is mostly aimed at stopping any kind of protest, or revolt/revolution. Besides censoring social posts, they also censor what you can and can't search for on the web. Unless you have a VPN or something similar, citizens of China will not come up with any search for websites that the government deems “dangerous”. For example you cannot use Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube. News is also censored and and only pro Chinese government propaganda is allowed to be printed or posted. This should raise a red flag for any Chinese citizen (as if the last couple of examples weren’t enough), censoring the news gives governments huge control over their citizens and allows them to practically brainwash most of the population, in my opinion. It isn't only China however, the United States and Great Britain’s governments also use censorship, although not to the extremes of China. The United States does not censor their citizens’ opinions, it would go against the first amendment, however they do have laws that restrict graphic content or offensive content. Like with all things there should be a healthy amount of censorship in any government, but there is always a thin line and we should stay aware and make sure not to cross it.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/how-censorship-in-china-allows-government-criticism-but-silences-collective-expression/C7EF4A9C9D59425C2D09D83742C1FE00
6 Comments
5/16/2017 09:42:56 am
Hello Jose, media censorship within the browser is an interesting topic. I will be very excited to read your paper to see all the interesting topics you discuss. As of right now, it looks like you have a lot of good content. Awesome blog post, I enjoyed reading it. Keep on keepin' on! -Cody Patterson
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James Barquera
5/16/2017 11:34:45 am
Hey jose, nice blog. I absolutely agree that China is one of the most oppressive regimes to infringe on privacy. I think it's important that all should have access to privacy rights. Anyways, have a good one.
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Martin Almaraz
5/18/2017 07:00:23 pm
Censorship in China has been going on for such a long time people there may have just gotten used to living like that. Although, I have read that many of those who want to not be censored as much usually can get around it without much issue
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Jose Corteez
5/20/2017 10:33:34 pm
Yes, I agree that people who are ill informed are not bothered too much by what their government tells them.However, if someone were to question them, they could easily do it by gaining access to a VPN.
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Jose Cortez
5/20/2017 10:32:55 pm
Yes, I agree that people who are ill informed are not bothered too much by what their government tells them. However, if someone were to question them, they could easily do it by gaining access to a VPN.
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Jose Sanchez Garcia
5/20/2017 10:50:18 pm
Wow, that is crazy to know that the Chinese government does that to their citizens. Of course, governments have always decided what information should be visible to the people as it might be something that could cause an uprise that the government would not want to have.
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