24
March
2010
|
02:45 AM
America/Los_Angeles

Support Google: Updated: An Open Letter To The Chinese Government

I put together an open letter to the Chinese government. Let me know if you'd like to add anything.


Dear Exalted Chinese Government Officials,

We love your culture, your people, and your history. You are the world's oldest civilization and the crowning glory to our common humanity.

We ask that you relax your Internet censorship rules and we seek to convince you that there is great value in communities that have open Internet access.

You should see what is written about the government here, in this country. There is enormous criticism of its imperialist policies around the world, and its domestic policies, especially its healthcare reform.

There's a massive amount of uncensored, anti-government content on our Internet, and in newspapers, TV, and on the radio. And yet there are no political demonstrations.

All that open criticism of the US government and we don't have a Tank man. Repressing ideas encourages aberrant behaviors.

Please don't be afraid of ideas. The Internet carries lots of ideas, there are so many it's as if they are a large school of fish -- your critics will be distracted by so many fish.

Let us be your little brother, we are unencumbered with the same heavy responsibilities of tradition and history, and we have been able to experiment with the Internet and other ideas. Let us help our big brother navigate through the rocky waters and into the bright future we hold in common -- an open Internet.

Thank you for your attention.

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Please see:

Support Google - block China traffic for a day... | Tom Foremski: IMHO | ZDNet.com