I recently read two articles Adding More Bricks to the Great Firewall of China and China Toughens Its Restrictions on Use of the Internet, from the New York Times, that covered China’s growing restrictions on the use of Internet. I was glad that Pariser mentioned this issue in his book, The Filter Bubble and criticized the Chinese government for openly removing a lot certain searches and blocking many leading services, just so as to control the flow of information and manipulate the content that reaches its citizens.

The Chinese government recently strengthened its Firewall, however the daily newspaper Global Times, which is affiliated with the Communist party labeled it as an upgrade; an upgrade that ‘blocks online searches of politically sensitive terms, smothers embarrassing news events, blocks online messages from dissidents and simply deletes any micro-blog posts that it dislikes.’ Pariser mentions similar incidents in his book with the Chinese Internet Police (seriously, one of a kind) vowed to maintain order in all online behavior, stating that the ‘Internet is not a place beyond law’, which is completely understandable in the case of hackers and online hoaxing. Just because you are anonymous online does not mean you have the right to do illegal things, however, since when is wanting to know more about the history of your country a crime? I am still baffled at the Chinese government wanting to stay on top of all these firewall issues and investing millions of dollars in trying to catch users online, while turning a completely blind eye at the growing problems regarding poverty, education and health in its remote areas.