No Face-Book
I am not happy that Facebook and Twitter are blocked in China at the moment.
I am not a political activist. I am not interested in telling the Chinese government how to run their affairs. Given the widespread availability of non sanctioned reports about the recent race riots in Urumqi what exactly is the point of blocking communication channels used by English speaking civilians trying to keep in touch with family and friends throughout the world?
Let’s think of a workplace parallel. A company boss finds out that an employee has been using Facebook to denigrate the company so the whole service gets blocked even though there was no clear policy telling workers what they could and couldn’t do using the website. We would think this company is mean and and missing an opportunity to make effective use of new social media.
The company could have a transparent policy of what you can and can’t do using various communication tools. They could have made explicit the consequences of individual transgressions. For example, anyone found downloading pornography on the company’s computers or networks could be subject to dismissal.
Why can’t such professionalism be practised by the Chinese Government with respect to the Internet? Shouldn’t Internet users be told when a site is blocked? Shouldn’t a specific transgression be cited and shouldn’t the content providers be given the opportunity to fix an error or appeal when they believe they have been unfairly treated? Better still shouldn’t individuals take responsibility for their own Internet speech rather than the authorities punishing hundreds of millions of users who are quite happy to use the service to exchange news about Michael Jackson? Wouldn’t it be good for China’s reputation at home and abroad to be seen to practising rule of law so companies like Google and their users could operate without wondering if their websites are suddenly going to become inaccessible?
