From Chinese Press

Internet management does not equal thought control

(peopledaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-05-10 16:35

The Internet is really a good thing. Using the Internet, people can find meanings of new words through online dictionaries and figure out many things through search engines. People can record their lives and contact each other through social networking sites, such as blogs and microblogs, and can also get help from fellow Internet users when they are in trouble.

However, is the Internet a "utopia" where everyone upholds morality? Ma Yun, a staunch supporter of "Being Digital," whose company Alibaba just cleaned out more than 1,000 suppliers under suspicion of fraud from its trading platform, will say no. Yan Deli will agree because someone opened a blog with her name to spread false rumors that she was infected with HIV and exposed the mobile numbers of 279 so-called "sexual contacts," causing a great disturbance. So, too, would Li Jun, an Internet hacker, because his virus affected millions of computers and also put him in prison.

When the Internet was first developed, a group of intellectual elites had dreamed of establishing a free Internet kingdom based on the moral self-discipline of human beings. However, they failed. This is not surprising. There are real lives living in the real world behind each piece of information and each address.

The number of Internet users has reached nearly 2.1 billion worldwide by the end of 2010, and if coupled with nearly 5.3 billion mobile phone users, almost all of the world's population is connected somehow.

From personal privacy to national security and from e-commerce to intellectual property rights, all lawful acts, legitimate interests and reasonable demands will be affected and damaged once there is a management leak, which might cause chaos or even disasters.

It has become a consensus worldwide that government should play the role of the Internet "administrator" and set examples in Internet governance because it possesses the most management resources and management tools. The United States has more than 130 Internet regulations, ranking first worldwide, and other countries, such as Britain, Japan and Australia, also have legally empowered investigative authorities to monitor Internet information when necessary. Many governments definitely forbid behaviors ranging from posting one's weight on the Internet to hacker attacks.

Some suppose that managing the Internet means restraining the thoughts of Internet users, curbing the freedom of speech and repressing the flow of information. This is untrue. The government management of the Internet mainly aims to monitor harmful information, crack down on cyber crimes, maintain order in the cyber world as well as fill the network gap, lift information use efficiency and bring more people the convenience of the Internet.