Mao hates my blog

No sooner was this blog up, and gleefully advertised to my little world, than I began receiving messages from friends in China. They couldn’t see a thing. My blog doesn’t exist in China. Turns out mine's not the only one. About a half-dozen e-mails into the mystery, a friend in Shanghai solved it with the casual observation: “Too bad the Central Government blocks Blogspot.” So, “blogger” is one of the many Chinese words for “verboten.” Given I've got more than a couple friends in China, maybe I should have chosen a smaller blog domain: one that flies beneath the radar of Chinese censors. I'll have to figure out if it warrants moving. In the meantime, great kizmet alighted in the form of this Slate article from yesterday: The Filtered Future. China's bid to divide the Internet. http://www.slate.com/id/2122270/ The Chinese state accomplishes much more by filtering not just Web content, but the tools that allow the Internet to function: search engines, chat rooms, blogs, and even e-mail. The idea is to make filtering a basic fact of the Web. And filtering a tool like a search engine has the benefit of subtlety, because to most people searches will feel free even when they're not. How many of us can tell when something goes missing in a Google result? For now, I’ll just keep lobbing my blog pieces into China by e-mail. It’s a hassle, but as subversiveness goes, it’s low-rent.