Internet in China gets even less fun

Filed under: Internet

Internet in China gets even less fun

by Peter White Apr 24th 2007

Have you ever looked at something, maybe paint drying or an episode of 'According to Jim', and thought to yourself: "There is no way that could be any less entertaining than it is right now"? Turns out the Chinese government thinks they've found a way. Chinese President Hu Jintao has launched a campaign to change the already over-restricted internet in China into a glorified Communist Party advertisement. The internet is huge in China, and growing faster by the year. In 2006, internet users rose by 26 million, to 137 million or so. Kind of a big market. And companies like Google and Yahoo are doing there best to break into it, even if it involves censoring themselves to appease the government.

This campaign comes on the heels of another announcement by the government, citing the internet as the main culprit for youth crime in the country. The youth are to blame again this time, as the President feels that the kids are being undereducated in the ways of Marxism, and that the internet is a great place to fix that. So basically, before too long the only thing you'll be able to access on the internet from China is Marxism and pro-socialist literature. Strange, suddenly 'According to Jim' doesn't seem that bad...

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Yuki said 11:52PM on 4-24-2007

Hmm, I am confused.
So what happened? I don't know if my English is that bad or what.
But I am really confused lol. So it is saying the internet in China is over-restricted. Now it gets even more over-restricted, but hmm how?

ArmanJava said 11:53PM on 4-24-2007

How does the author of the above post go from saying: "the President feels that the kids are being undereducated in the ways of Marxism, and that the internet is a great place to fix that" right into assuming that: "So basically, before too long the only thing you'll be able to access on the internet from China is Marxism and pro-socialist literature." without any further information or substantiated claims...?? cmon man... this isn't the bush administration.

Mysterius said 4:06AM on 4-25-2007

@ArmanJava: No, China isn't the Bush administration; it's much, much worse.

In any case, Peter White's post obviously had some sarcasm in it. Unfortunately, it seems like there are lots of people on the Internet that don't get sarcasm...

notnamed said 8:41PM on 4-25-2007

Or, perhaps more accurately, some people do not know how to convey sarcasm on the Internet. Not to be overly-critical of an otherwise great news source, but the transition in the same paragraph from the passing on of news to sarcastic editorializing was rather abrupt, and I didn't "get it" either (until enlightened by the comments, of course).

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