China, the ‘Net
POSTED: May 8, 2008
To the editor:
The article “China reports it tied U.S.” (April 25) describes China’s Internet growth as “explosive... despite government efforts to block access to material considered subversive or pornographic.”
It is laughably biased to omit mention of less pervasive, but still quite significant, U.S. actions of this kind. Internet filtering laws for school and library computers — I have complained previously in these columns about the filters; overbreadth — and (relatively unusual) obscenity prosecutions are clearly among U.S. government attempts to restrict access to at least (a) certain class(es) of pornographic material.
The U.S. secret police agencies have also attempted to shut down Web sites they seem to believe are subversive, though with the time-honored pretext of dictators they called news about foreign civil wars and sites advocating that foreign presidents follow their own laws and “terrorist.”
Though I believe that the possible effect on growth the restrictions China has placed on the Internet might have wasn’t adequately explained, to fail to mention similar U.S. restrictions is anything but impartial journalism.
CHEVALIER DANIEL C. BOYER
Houghton
