10/5/11 blog

The article discussed the role of the internet in China. The Chinese go online to protect their rights because they have no way of publicly expressing their opinions in the public than the internet. The internet is great for these people because no one can regulate what you say on the internet, once you put it online, it is out there for the rest of the world to see, whereas the state regulates what is publicly televised and who is allowed to speak in public. The people who are online also can use their online community to discuss what is going on in the public. The internet helps these people express what is happening and public opinion to the rest of the world, working around what the Chinese media presents to the public. The chinese government seems to be trying to pass laws that prevent what can be said on the internet and eliminate any protesting, but their is such little control as to what regulators actually record and submit to the government, it is possible to work around these laws and still be heard, the internet is simply to broad to be completely regulated. Violators are incarcerated and some people have even died in prison for speaking out. These kinds of consequences seem to not scare people off but they seem to make the people speak more against the government and not trust the government more than they already did. This may be because the people feel like the government wants them to have no say in their government.