China Pressures Social Media

There is a good article today in the Wall Street Journal that shows the difference between China and the rest of the world in social media.  China expects its social media platforms to enforce government censorship rules, which are vague and broad at the same time.  They have fined some of the biggest to make the point that social media platforms are not doing a good job of policing their sites.

Imagine, if you will, we pass laws in the other countries with social media that insist Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (among others) must enforce censorship of their sites to remove content that pertains to religions not approved by the government, any criticism of the central government, any suggestion that another approach to government might be better, any hint of sexual content, links to banned websites, and a whole host of other content related issues.  Even such innocuous things as a candle or a chair on the beach have to be removed.  Let’s make it more complicated by forcing each social media platform to develop its own lists of banned thoughts.  Be careful.  If the list is not long enough there will be fines.  If the list is too long, there is no penalty.

So, my post are reviewed by Google without any explanation of what cannot be said.  Some will be removed and I will not know which those are until after that is done.  After a warning or two, I may be taken off Blogger.  Facebook filters my rants about my favorite political issues.  Twitter squelches my brief criticism of the government’s handling of health care.  This is Big Brother come to life.

The Chinese like to think it is harmony.  Big Brother is a benevolent censor who keeps bad thoughts from people’s brains producing harmony and peace.  That isn’t how I remember the story, and it isn’t how any of us want to live.

Perhaps the best thing we could do for the world is to undo the censorship in China.  Find ways around it and put money into solutions that allow unmonitored communications.  Who would think such an idea would be of concern to any country?