Matt Schiavenza From the Dragon to the Apple- A Sinophile in New York

Blase About Censorship

The Great Firewall of China has switched into high gear. First, Twitter went dark, undoubtedly a consequence of the recently tweeted demonstrations in Iran and Beijing's subsequent fears that they could be replicated in Urumqi. Then, Twitter's social networking cousin Facebook got the axe. What are we to do?

In the past I'd have likely written an angry cri de coeur outlining my objections to China's persistent internet censorship. These objections largely have not changed. What censorship of this sort represents is a government in fear of its own people. As long as the population is reminded of its own powerlessness to exact change, it will carry on the nation's business of getting rich. And so it goes.

What has changed is my own reaction. I have a virtual private network, a Firefox plug-in, and the URLs for several web-based proxy services that all overcome the firewall. Using the internet as normal would not have presented much of a problem at all for me.

Yet I find myself too lazy to do so. I still get on Facebook sometiimes, but find that I don't miss it. Ditto Twitter. When blogs I read became firewalled, I cease reading them without much consternation.

Bear in mind that I'm a heavy internet user who regularly- or obsessively, depending on one's point of view- used Facebook and Twitter. Having restricted access hasn't really bothered me much. I've just gotten over it.

Which is why, ultimately, the firewall in a country like China works so well. I used to think that once the Chinese had easy access to virtual private networks, they'd render the firewall moot. Now I'm not certain anyone cares enough to bother. When sites get blocked, the Chinese population seems to shrug its shoulders in unison and moves along.