China, Google - Censorware Is About Control
In the context of China banning the Google search engine, Edward W. Felten's Freedom To Tinker blog kindly mentions my anticensorware work exposing how censorware is impelled to ban caches, anonymizers, translation sites , etc. No matter how many times I say this, it's still relevant: Censorware is about control. It is not a "filter". It is about controlling what people are permitted to read. The best public-relations move the censorware companies ever achieved, was to get their product called a "filter". Because that focuses attention on a mental model of bad, harmful, dangerous material, and a claim to be "filtering" it out. That is a very different view, in contrast, to focusing on a need to control people, and how the blinder-box must be constructed so that the subject can never escape from the control.
By Seth Finkelstein |
posted in censorware
|
on September 06, 2002 12:26 AM
(Infothought permalink)
