Tuesday, February 21, 2006

"Chinese Internet management in line with world norms"

The following was left on the bbs.chinadaily.com.cn message board. I happen to know "magic," the author, is a mid-tier editor for the China Daily's website:
No double standards in Internet management, pls.

Quite a few American press publications are keeping blaming China’s normal Internet administration, which, as a matter of fact, is in close tandem with worldwide norms of web management. It is not un-usual for websites to delete illegal, distorting, harmful information, and this has been proved to be a commonplace practice for websites the world over. So it is for China.

It is known to many that some leading and very influential U.S. websites, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Yahoo, and AOL, all have installed explicit stipulations when it comes to posting messages in the public-debating Internet forums.

Take The New York Times website for an instance, its forum rules read: "We reserve the right to delete, move or edit messages that we deem abusive, defamatory, obscene, in violation of copyright or trademark laws or otherwise unacceptable. We reserve the right to remove the posting privileges of users who violate these standards of Forum behavior at any time."

Websites in the United States clearly stipulate that Internet users cannot violate American laws nor infringe on other people's legitimate rights and intellectual property rights while posting messages. Internet users are not allowed to engage in business activities through posting messages.

As a country with very advanced Internet development, the U.S. has comparatively matured experiences. Many methods China are now practicing are actually learned from the U.S. We will continue to adopt successful, useful and beneficial Internet management practices from around the world. It is unfair and smacks of double standards when criticizing China for deleting illegal and harmful messages while it is legal for U.S. websites to do so.
Sadly, I don't think "magic" is being disingenuous ... he really believes the United States practices "Internet management" similar to China. Strange, indeed. Take a look at the thread in question, including my response, here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bless his heart. He does live in a very closed environment, doesn't he?

P.S. please go to my blog today and get the addys for the different gov't. officials listed there. Then write to beg them to do something concerning the sale to Dubai Ports World of the security contract for 7 of the ports in the United States. This is a very serious issue which directly affects those of us that live in the Bay Area here.

Anonymous said...

I believe this shows a basis mind-set difference between East and West.

I am alarmed that we are becoming so economically dependent on China.

Tyson said...

saur, i'm not really sure i'm educated enough on the dubai deal. from what i've heard, there are arguments both for and against ... admittedly, the "for" arguments are much more indirect.

judy, i agree that mindsets are one factor, but have met quite a few chinese who would disagree with the china daily editor. (not suprisingly, those chinese have decided to make this country their home.)