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Will the
Internet change China, or will China change the
Internet?
Events
in Beijing, where the Olympic Games are getting under
way, leave little doubt it’s the latter. More
interesting, though, is that many Asian governments may
be following China’s lead. It could be an ominous sign
for Asia’s economic outlook.
Reporters Without Borders calls China the “world
champion” of cyberspace censorship. Journalists in
Beijing were reminded of that when they couldn’t access
web sites such as Amnesty International. The
International Olympic Committee (IOC) pressured China to
allow access to blocked sites. Yet, Reuters reported
that the IOC had agreed to let China block them in the
first place.
China’s
attempts to filter what its 1.3 billion people read or
view may serve as a model of sorts for the region.
“Internet filtering has been on the rise in Asia for the
past five years,” says John Palfrey, executive director
of Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet &
Society. “It matters because it highlights the tension
between the desire to grow the economy with the desire
to control political speech.”
A free
press is a key ingredient for economies to thrive over
time. It reduces corruption, makes governments more
efficient and holds corporate executives accountable.
Things don’t always turn out that way, as investors in
the US are learning. Greater access to information tends
to be better than the alternative in Asia.
Internet
filtering
Governments’ hearts are in the right place when they try
to limit children’s access to pornography or sites
deemed to aid terrorists and fraudsters. It’s a slippery
slope, though, and a little censorship tends to pave the
way for broader efforts. Here, Asia is a risk,
particularly on the political front.
“Internet filtering is an attempt to make the Internet
function much as traditional media have, yet, where the
state can serve as a gatekeeper over what is said and by
whom,” Palfrey says.
There’s
this Silicon-Valley-inspired view that the combination
of the Internet, rapid broadband speeds and capitalism
will facilitate a freer world. In theory, that may be
true. The Internet does make governments more responsive
to public opinion. It’s harder today than it was 10
years ago to silence critics or keep scandals out of the
headlines.
China’s pros
Here,
it’s worth noting the good news about China. Asia’s No.
2 economy boasts 253 million Internet users, the largest
number in the world. The Internet has informed more
Chinese at least a bit about the darker chapters of the
nation’s past, like the Cultural Revolution.
The
Internet also is offering a way for over-the-top
nationalist rhetoric with no room for debate to be
articulated. Yet, “netizens” in China are helping to
highlight corruption and abuses of power. The phenomenon
has taken some government officials by shock, and that’s
a good thing.
Over
time, though, advances in filtering also enable
governments to skew people’s view of the world as never
before. The negatives outweigh the positives.
Whether
free markets and communications are inevitable forces
for good “depends on specifically how they are deployed,
by and with whom and how transparently and openly that
deployment happens,” says Rebecca MacKinnon, a media
professor at the University of Hong Kong and a widely
read blogger.
Its cons
It’s
troubling that companies such as Google Inc. and Yahoo!
Inc. seem all too willing to help politicians control
information. MacKinnon says such efforts are helping to
institutionalize and legitimize the integration of
censorship into global information technology.
When
people think of censorship in Asia, nations such as
China, Myanmar, North Korea and Vietnam may leap to mind
first. India, Indonesia and Thailand aren’t above
blocking web sites or certain content from time to time.
South Korea, one of the most wired nations, is working
up new Internet-content rules that are raising concerns
about transparency and democracy. Japan is making
similar noises.
Might
Malaysian authorities, embarrassed by a variety of sex,
murder and corruption scandals buzzing around
cyberspace, try a hand at censorship? Now that jihad has
found India, might officials in New Delhi try to rein in
the Internet?
China’s model seems to be gaining some currency in Asia. The
strategy is to harness the Internet’s business potential
while minimizing its role in free speech. China is
serving as a massive testing ground for methods of
filtering content, and Asian neighbors are taking note.
Question
of when
It
doesn’t mean web users won’t eventually win this battle.
“Despite the growth in Internet filtering in Asia, the
long-term prospects for censorship on the web are not
great,” Palfrey says. “Citizens in Asia, among other
parts of the world like the Middle East, have often
demonstrated their ingenuity when it comes to evading
censorship online.”
The
question is how long it takes for Asia to realize the
evils of censorship. Two years? Five years? Ten years?
Longer? In the meantime, governments and executives
won’t be held accountable to a level that investors
demand.
The
upshot will be slower Asian growth, weaker markets and a
wider gap between rich and poor. It may just be a few
mouse clicks away. |
