Censorship. Are you yourself online?
I got to reading an article last week in my June 23rd issue of Business Week about China’s war against online content. The long and short of the article covers the highly visible topic of censorship to China’s bloggers and consumers. But what drew my interest is the business behind filtering China’s populace from speaking openly on the Web.
The article speaks of firms within China who pay monitors to scour forums, blogs and Web sites for negative publicity on its clients. They then, in turn, attempt to mitigate a fire storm of opinion by either squashing the issue before it spreads, or engaging the content owner to help solve the issue in question. The Web has long been the portal to free-speech for the western world, so how do you feel about your government censoring what you post or allowing businesses to monitor what you post about them or their customers?
The debate rages worldwide on censoring content available to users. China has been the focus of late, namely due to the spotlight shun upon it for the Olympics. But the problem exists globally. Many muslim countries ban sites they deem as ‘morally harmful’ (Source). The topic of net-neutrality is, for example, routinely being discussed by our presidential candidates and are cornerstones to many platforms in US politics. Freedom of censorship ensures your opinion is protected from slander or prosecution, and that you have access to an outlet to share original content. Censorship has broader definitions, though, including ones’ choice to use the Web as their sounding board, where by saying things he or she would not say in public.
I have long supported the general moral stance that I will only blog (or tweet, etc.) content online that I would just as easily share face-to-face. Blogging, for instance, is used by countless contributors as a venue for sharing views or musings they would otherwise not say in person. I have no grief with this practice, but do those doing so fully understand the risk?
We’ve all heard of the Dooce effect? So apply named for the popular blogger who was fired from her job for blogging about her co-workers. Censorship is most commonly applied to the blogger of today by their employer or institution. Here at our office, we are prohibited from accessing sites such as YouTube, Craigslist or even gaming sites. But do you bloggers who use social networking as your outlet to share your most honest feelings accept the risk that you could easily be ‘outed’ in real life? I once had a co-worker who maintained a secret blog to chastise his marriage and relationship with his wife. Last I heard, he is still married with child.
Censoring your content is by all means the right of the owner. Means exist within most social media tools and sites to restrict who can view your content. But this begs the question, what good is sharing content if you censor your own viewers? As China and other countries and entities continue to block access to user-submitted content, the same number will fight for their right to access the same.
Content generators, just remember your right to a free and open Web is what you make of it. Choose wisely. But know that I will never post something here I would not say to you if I took you out to dinner. Not because I am afraid of the risks, nor because I am an honest individual (lord knows!). It is because I stand behind the principle that despite the openness the Web has given me, I choose not to exploit this venue for the sake of disparagement.
Tags: Censorship, InternetNuke the Fridge
Time Magazine listed UrbanDictionary.com as one of its 50 top sites of 2008 (source). This site is chock full of sayings and phrases that you may hear uttered around your kid sisters’ high school these days. When we were young, the ‘cool’ new words were spread through day to day use. New words and fads spread quickly, but only by word of mouth and many were regionalized. Today the Web has the power to spread things infinitely faster, across borders, cultures and languages. This has expanded from just words, sayings, or gestures to content and videos. There even is a word for such trends: a meme.
I was reading this morning on Kottke’s blog about a saying that has spread far and wide in just a few short weeks, one that I had not heard of called nuke the fridge:
Not so long ago, on May 24th, IMDB message board participant beachedblonde coined a new phrase: nuke the fridge. Here’s the definition from the Urban Dictionary…it’s roughly equivalent to jumping the shark:
A colloquialism used to delineate the precise moment at which a cinematic franchise has crossed over from remote plausibility to self parodying absurdity, usually indicating a low point in the series from which it is unlikely to recover. A reference to one of the opening scenes of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, in which the titular hero manages to avoid death by nuclear explosion by hiding inside a kitchen refrigerator.
There are already 16,000 results for variations of this term in Google. There are Facebook pages, t-shirts, and even a Website already set-up to expose this meme. (via Kottke). Internet meme’s are running rampant on the Web. Wikipedia and other sites have now cataloged most of these viral trends for constant enjoyment. Some of my favorite meme’s of recent memory include: The RickRoll, the Dramatic Chipmunk, Leeroy Jenkins, Tay Zonday, and who can forget All Your Base Are Belong To Us.
For that small period of time where each person with a cable modem and email shares that video, or that Website, an entrepreneur is born. Just look at iJustine, the video blogger turned Web celebrity. Her 300-page iPhone Bill video catapulted her to virtual stardom.
So, with the internet able to spread these like wildfire, do you tire of them quickly?
Tags: Memes
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