You Can't Read this Blog from China

Censorship in China means that much of what we take for granted is not available to internet users there. For example, since this blog is hosted by Blogger, which is owned by Google, if you are in China right now, you won't be able to read it.

Here is a chart that shows which Google owned services are blocked in China. Click on it to make it bigger.



This brings me to some wisdom gleaned this morning at breakfast, while reading The Stranger's Last Days piece about the R-71 controversy of whether names on a signed petition should be protected political speech or public documents.

Justice Antonin Scalia: "You can't run a democracy this way, with everybody being afraid of having his political positions known... The fact is that running a democracy takes a certain amount of civic courage, and the First Amendment does not protect you from criticism or even nasty phone calls when you exercise your political rights to legislate or to take part in the legislative process."

Scalia's statement rings true. Democracy relies on public debate and we should not be afraid to express our political views publicly. Civic engagement is our right and privilege. Relating back to all of the discussions about Facebook and privacy on the Internet, we should not forget about the benefits of publishing publicly. Sometimes it seems that we get overly protective of our content, acting as our own censors, worrying about ways to block people from seeing it. So I guess, the question to ask is what of our content could really serve as a contribution to the public sphere?