Whack-A-Mole

Web censorship is such a drag. Information, like tech, wants to be free, something governments like China's (and ours to a far lesser extent) try, with varying levels of success, to muzzle as the flow of data coursing through the net is rapidly changing how the world conducts business whether governments, of any stripe, like it or not. Seen above is the network topology used by China's government to curtail the influx of data coming in from "nefarious" sites like Google, Facebook, Wikipedia and Blogger, among significant others, because of the inherent fear the government has about the power of unfettered access to information that could possibly compromise the absolute control the communist party has over the Chinese nation.

It’s widely known that the Chinese government has long exerted tight control over Internet access on the mainland, deploying an extensive apparatus to regulate what its citizens can read and publish on the web. The Chinese authorities employed more than 2 million people in 2013 to monitor web activity on blogs and social media sites like the wildly popular social media site Weibo, and blocks access to topics it deems sensitive, like the Free Tibet movement, for instance, and democratic activism.

But ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Chinese authorities are cracking down even further on news outlets and search engines, blocking access to websites including Google and the Wall Street Journal. Wednesday marks 25 years since the Chinese army killed hundreds, perhaps thousands of students and protestors in Beijing, and the tightening of media control that followed. It’s part of the Chinese government’s concerted effort to limit information about the incipient pro-democratic movement that ended in bloodshed.

When looking at all of this, one gets the notion of Whack-A-Mole, the nonsensical game where one whacks one mole after another, never achieving true success given that additional moles randomly pop up at rates impossible to be completely neutralized in the allotted time required for one to ever win , thus forever defying the whacker of final victory, something akin to the issue of Gmail and the millions of Chinese who use it to communicate in and out of country.

Though there is no solid evidence that China blocked Gmail, or indications of why it might have, the fact is that China faces a dilemma in dealing with Western information giants. The free flow of information and the potential for quick popular mobilization through social networks are anathema to the authoritarian state, and China has gone to great lengths to control what comes in.

But as a rapidly developing economic powerhouse, China also needs the instant communications, quick research and management tools of the technology giants. Gmail is especially popular with Chinese doing business with Western companies, and many publicly complained about the interruption. The technology companies, for their part, salivate at the vast and rich Chinese market but bridle at the control and censorship China demands as the price for participating.

Whack-A-Mole participant in action, 

courtesy UrbanAnomie, Calgary's Least Trusted New Source. :)