Reuters reported that Google is 99.9% certain to close its operations in China. This follows the company’s long struggle against censorship by the Chinese government, the most recent of which were the “attacks” on Google and other companies which allegedly originated in China. I find this ironic because just last week I read a news article from BBC saying that a survey conducted on 27,000 adults across 26 countries in the world revealed that almost 4 out of 5 people believe that internet access is a fundamental human right. Well, obviously, people in the Chinese government don’t agree.
This gives rise to my question -- is it enough that people have access to the internet?
What about the content or the information which is available to them? I believe the basis for this view of internet access as a right, is the individual’s right to information which almost every state in the world recognizes. Therefore, it is not so much that people should be able to use to the internet. What is more important is to ensure that people have access to the great wealth of information that is supposedly available on the web. So when this information is severely limited, the right of the people is prejudiced.
I concede that it is the right and duty of the government to regulate the content of the sites that are available to its people, for the sake of public interest. For instance, I have no problem with it blocking sites that are purported to be vehicles for pedophiles and human traffickers. But it is altogether another issue to ban the proliferation of information which is “offensive” to the ruling party and its political interests.
So I wonder what will come after Google’s impending pull out from China. Will other search engine operators follow suit soon? But I have a feeling Microsoft and other competitors of Google will take advantage of this opportunity to grab a bigger slice of the Chinese cyber market. In this case, it could be a “hurrah” for the businesses but a “boo” for the Chinese people.
Blog 14
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