I do.
China closes 1,600 net cafes Reuters reports that China shutdown 1,600 internet cafes between February and August of this year.
A member of the Culture ministry is quoted "love, gambling, violence and similar problems have adversely affected the healthy development of the Internet in China"
The great firewall is aparently not enough. This implies that filtering alone is not sufficient to "protect" China's citizens from the dangers of an open network.
Of the 1.8 million cafes inspected, 18,000 were ordered to shutdown or make changes. Thats a lot of net cafes. China must be devoting considerable resources to carry out that many inspections.
Will efforts to control content ever reach a point of diminishing returns? Does China really care? Will China continue to pour resources at the problem indefinately?
In China, Curbs Imperil Internet TV The Wall Street Journal reports, "China's continuing zeal for controlling foreign programming could thwart the rollout of new Internet-TV services connecting with the country's 300 million-plus television sets, experts say. Delays in setting up the highly touted Internet-TV services -- which allow phone companies and others to beam movies and TV shows to homes through high-speed Internet links, instead of the usual cable lines -- would be a setback for China's two big landline phone companies, which are now testing them."
"The powerful Chinese government agency that regulates broadcasting, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, shows no sign of loosening its control over foreign TV shows and movies -- content considered essential to luring in paying subscribers to Internet-TV services. The agency, known as Sarft, censors all foreign-made media content and restricts non-Chinese programs to 30% of each TV channel's broadcasts. Logos of foreign broadcasters, like the Discovery Channel, are frequently blocked out onscreen."
How long will this go on before China decides it cannot control what people read on the internet and watch on television?
