The FIRE-Wall of China

Soon I will be spending a month travelling through China, and a friend reminded me that there is a Facebook ban within Mainland China which is pretty much everywhere in China and where I will be going. How could I have forgotten? My first reaction was shock and then sheer laughter at the fact that I was so overwhelmed with disbelief at this sudden realisation.

“How will I keep in touch with people?” was my first question which is still lingering long after my friend had answered this for me – email. *Involuntary whole body shudder.* I had come to depend so much on the convenience of Facebook that I no longer knew what the pre-Facebook day and age was like. Email (long pause) – Really?

My research into why China’s government had banned such a popular social networking site took me back in time to July 5th 2009 of the fatal riots in the western region of the Xinjiang province in China. Facebook had been unceremoniously used to stir up ethnic wars and organised violence while YouTube provided video footage of the incident. Kathryn Foley writes in an article:

“Because of the pandemonium and outrageous behaviour of the citizens, China's central government has increased its great firewall and put a block on all access to foreign web services. They had already prohibited the use of YouTube and every Google service such as Gmail, Google Apps and Google Talk (all modes of communication) weeks ago.”

What this leaves me to question is whether or not this type of strict censorship is effective in eliminating ethnic tensions and organised riots. I understand China has had a very long and complicated history of political tension which continues to this day. But in stacking up their list of web server lockdowns, I can’t help but wonder, is this detrimental to their country’s already unstable image?

The question of fairness also comes into play. Does the Chinese government have the right to block major websites and censor online traffic? Well, it may not be just but they certainly have the power to carry out what they wish. This move has potentially alienated the rest of the world as it does not make China seem like a very pleasant place to live or visit.

Of course, it is arguable that it was the right thing to do by blocking Facebook as the potential and result of social hysteria caused the death of over 140 people. Though, Facebook and its millions of previous users of Mainland China are also victims in this situation. Despite Facebook’s strong online community of over 500 million users, China is a massive population to be dropped after the lockdown.

Also, what about the innocent users who just used the web server to keep in touch with their friends and people overseas? Even though people have quickly jumped on board to other social networking sites, they had still lost their freedom to participate in a social medium which has transcended ethnic boundaries and is considered an integral part of the 21st century.

And at the end of the day and at the end of my blog, will banning these web servers really solve China’s problems? Is the medium really the message? As coined by Marshall McLuhan in his 1964 book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, which states that the medium embeds itself in the message and influences how the message is to be perceived. I don't believe Facebook is at fault here; its services were vandalised by people who simply did not know better.

Only time can tell what China plans to do next, though I’m not hopeful they will re-establish Facebook any time soon or before my travels.