China’s Tighter Control of Networks
Networks come in many different forms; when one thinks of networks, he or she would either think of the relationships and connections made between people. Another huge network is the Internet, a provider of unlimited information in today’s society. To a certain extent, networks are controlled. In a social network, the nodes are the people involved, and whether or not there would be an edge between these “nodes” is determined by the interactions of these people. Meanwhile, the Internet is also a controlled network, where nodes are represented by the websites and the edges are created to link one to a website if he or she either types a web address or click on a link. In addition, the networks of the Internet is always being regulated. However, what happens if networks become controlled too much?
On September 21, 2014, a news article came out in the International Business section of the New York Times, discussing the effect of China’s increasing control of the Internet. Recently, the relationship between China and Google has been steadily deteriorating since China is blocking the use of Google and the many services that Google provides. Many other websites and services have been blocked as well, including but not limited to Twitter and Facebook. This move made by China affects various networks. The largest network, of course, is the Internet, and as a result of blocking Google, the access to unlimited information that the Internet brings is very limited. Usually, when one Google searches for something, the words and phrases would bring up specific web pages; it is as if the searches are nodes connected to these websites with an “edge”. However, instead of Google, China uses a different search engine, called Baidu, where certain words in both Chinese and English are banned from searching and the results are only webpages in Chinese since the Chinese are the main users. With this control, China has taken away the nodes, the search engine words, and the various edges that would link users to different websites fora variety of results, and therefore creates a much smaller and limited network online.
On the other hand, the networks that are affected by this move are not only technological networks. Of course, the relationship between Google and the Chinese government is becoming worsening as Google tries to avoid the Chinese government’s censorship policies by encrypting users’ searches/results and China now blocking all of Google’s websites instead of the 90 second delays that it has used in the past for banned searches. The article talks about how business networks have been affected with this move, especially the international businesses that depend on Google’s many services such as G-mail and Google Drive. The frustration has lead to businesses deciding to transfer employees to different countries where Internet is much less controlled. The Chinese government blocking Google can also be tied into China’s political issues and international relationships. The fact that Xi JinPing, the Communist Party leader and President of China, has the top position in Internet security, is a clear sign of how much of a political move this is. According to the article, while one of the reasons for this censorship is because of worry about domestic terrorism, another reason is China’s increasing nationalism, mainly against Japan and the United States. In addition, China’s control over the Internet networks at Hong Kong highlight the recent clashing relationship that the Chinese Communist Party and Hong Kong have, with Hong Kong increasingly frustrated with the interference of the Chinese government and their attempt at control. Internet users are also unhappy with China’s censorship through the Internet, trying to find virtual private networks, or V.P.N. in order to avoid China’s Internet filters, and in response the Chinese government is cracking down on these as well.
One of the properties of a network discussed in class is the Structural Balance Theory, and one of the examples discussed to be a balanced network is one where all of the relationships are positive and they all have one common negative relationship. In this case, these relationships are developed from the opinions on the control of the Internet in China. Based on this article, it seems that the only one that supports control over Internet is the Chinese government, and that is the node that this common negative edge connects to. If the Chinese government continues this route of censorship, the relationships between the government and businesses (especially international ones and Google), other countries, and even its own people, the users of the Internet, will only become more negative.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/business/international/china-clamps-down-on-web-pinching-companies-like-google.html?rref=homepage&module=Ribbon&version=origin®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Home%20Page&pgtype=article
More than one country supports Internet censorship and might support China (or show sympathy) in the cause. Not everyone has a liberal mind as we do.
For instance, Soviet nations, Cuba, North Korea, and some Islamic countries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Islamic_societies
There are also contentions among free countries, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_be_forgotten
In short, the world is simply too complicated to be constructed as a network in which China v. everything else.
E.g. what do people exposed to scandals on the Internet say?
http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/8/6121039/reddit-user-celeb-leaks-privacy
But still, these are great examples of the intensifying situation in Beijing’s censorship.
I realize that my blog post may have come across as rather simplistic, and I just wanted to clarify that of course I don’t think that Internet censorship is as simple as it is presented. I suppose I should also add that the article seemed to focus on certain aspects of the effects of China’s censorship, which lead to my rather loose analogy to a network involving China. The main thing I wanted to highlight in this blog post is how networks is related to the world issues that we currently hear about today.