Blog censorship, and the Punks ride again...

This was posted on Slashdot some days ago (thanks Alex), but due to me being slightly distracted, I couldn't ramble about this until now. Seems someone, somewhere at Microsoft has possibly gotten the wrong end of the stick and thought that it was against local / regional laws in China to publish certain words. Newsflash - it's not, and this has resulted in Chinese users publishing blogs with the MSN China service being blocked. All the usual naughty words are there...freedom, democracy and that other piece of outlandish behaviour, human rights.

This was put to the test a few days ago, as there were rumblings that this was some sort of hoax - however, check this out. You can also see how to get around this kind of filtering if so desired, although if you do this and are based in China, you're likely to get a visit from some slap-happy guys in suits with big sticks. And that's nowhere as kinky as it first sounds, believe me.

The good news is, only titles (at present) are being blocked - so you can publish as much "controversial content" as you want in the subject, which makes the whole thing vaguely pointless. Unless...

...it's a test of some kind. And if that's the case, what exactly is being tested? Is it Microsoft simply getting a bit confused (combined with not wanting to offend the Chinese Government), or is this being done by the Chinese using Microsoft technology, or - whisper it - are Microsoft employing this "ban" through their technology alone? Whatever the cause, any of the above answers are rather worrying. China already has one Golden Shield in action, clamping down on all those hippy rebels with their groovy vibes, freedom of speech and far-out attitudes. It doesn't need another.

Unfortunately for this guy, all the cool blog-censor-evading workarounds may be a little too late. Especially as he was promised release within a fortnight (in February!), but is now facing the rest of his life behind bars. Zhang Lin, a regular feature on this site, has posted close to 200 articles online and is now facing the charge of "inciting suberversion of state power" because of - get this - some Punk song lyrics. Yes, far be it from me to subvert any Governments myself, but you'd better look away, because if this doesn't trigger a wave of riots across the globe, I don't know what will:

"The Yellow River should run dry, this society should collapse, this system should be destroyed, this race should become extinct, this country should perish."

Aaaah! Won't someone please think of the children!

As you can see, using that as a valid reason to hurl him into the clink forever is pretty lame, even by the Chinese Government's standards. Zhang Lin has been tormented by them on and off over the past 16 years, but it looks like he may be going down for a long time - especially as they already started locking up lawyers and sacking the guys that train them.

After all, it's a little hard to have someone defend you in court when they're breaking rocks in a desert.