China employs between 30,000 and 50,000 internet censors

By Aussiegirl

More of the same -- keep your eyes on this from The Australian. We may be next if Hillary Clinton has her way. Here's a quote from a 1998 interview:

“we are all going to have to rethink how we deal with” the Internet because of the handling of White House sex scandal stories on Web sites.

“We are all going to have to rethink how we deal with this, because there are all these competing values … Without any kind of editing function or gatekeeping function, what does it mean to have the right to defend your reputation?” she said.

“I don’t have any clue about what we’re going to do legally, regulatorily, technologically — I don’t have a clue. But I do think we always have to keep competing interests in balance. I’m a big pro-balance person. That’s why I love the founders — checks and balances; accountable power. Anytime an individual or an institution or an invention leaps so far out ahead of that balance and throws a system, whatever it might be — political, economic, technological –out of balance, you’ve got a problem, because then it can lead to the oppression people’s rights, it can lead to the manipulation of information … “

What's frightening about this quote is Hillary Clinton's complete lack of understanding of the concepts she is talking about. Checks and balances in our system have nothing to do with checking and balancing individual freedoms, like the right of free speech, but speak to checking and balancing the power of GOVERNMENT over the rights of the people. That is really scary. Someone should ask her what she thinks of the Chinese policy towards the internet today -- does she approve -- or disapprove?

The Australian: Danny Rosen: Online curbs in China [October 04, 2005]: "CHINA'S decision to impose further restrictions on internet communication illustrates that the country's economic rise is not being paralleled by a greater tolerance towards freedom of speech.

It is a difficult task to curb the free flow of information over the internet. But this has not stopped the Chinese Government from trying to monitor its 100 million internet users, a number second only to the US's 200 million.

Since 1994 the Chinese Government has introduced numerous measures in its desire to maintain centralised news and opinion in the online environment. The police have dedicated an entire department, estimated at 30,000 to 50,000 people, to censoring cyberspace. The BBC reports that 47,000 internet cafes were shut down in 2004, and Amnesty International estimates that more than 60 Chinese are in prison for the peaceful expression of their views over the internet.

On this same topic of China and the internet, read another great article from Time Asia Magazine here.