China’s central government is notorious for its policy of censorship across media outlets. Recent issues have arisen between regulators and large firms such as Google, whose operational policies violated certain domestic censorship regulations. Apple has also come under fire from the central government. After 2 weeks of bashing by the government, the company finally issued an apology for its disregard of Chinese consumers. However, the story amid online social media networks is quite different. Chinese bloggers and social media posters are applauding Apple’s recent attack on government policy. The young middle class is becoming increasingly restless with the Chinese government. In recent years it has even come fashionable to be anti-establishment. “Twitter, Facebook, and iPads are the blue jeans of modern China and that is one reason the party has completely blocked the first two and may be planning an assault on the third”. Is this contempt for censorship a product of globalization? Or is it simply the uprising of young, educated individuals seeking change?
See my comment on the earlier censorship post…