After four days of isolation from the web (yes, that is a long time), I open Firefox to find 18 unread mail (15 of which are useless), that Dinara Safina is still the #1 ranked tennis player in the world, and that Facebook and Youtube are blocked. However, I suppose there is no reason why I should be surprised by any of this, least of all the last item. This is China, after all.

What I don’t understand, though, is why Facebook, a popular social networking program, is blocked and its counterpart, MySpace (arguably no longer as popular, but still going strong) is not. As an avid Facebook user, I must protest against such censorship discrimination. To be honest, I would be happier if both sites were banned, rather than just one. Now, instead of feeling frustrated, I’m left feeling both frustrated and confused. Along the same lines, how is that YouTube and Twitter are both blocked, but flickr is not? All three can be used effectively to disseminate information (or create chaos, in the eyes of the Chinese government), and as the adage goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words” (but apparently not 140 characters.)

So I understand you don’t want videos being posted on the internet of soldiers suppressing crowds in Tibet or of the current violence in Xinjiang, but posting pictures is OK?

That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. And let’s face it. As hard as the Chinese government tries to prevent such information from spreading on the Internet, images and video footage will eventually get out sooner or later. It becomes a matter of being embarrassed now, or trying to save face and getting embarrassed later. Either way, it’s more bad PR, but China seems intent on holding to the latter, which only has the potential to generate more confusion and misunderstanding on the international level.

I could go on about this topic, but I think I will stop now and go browse random pictures on flickr for the next couple of hours. I’ll see you tomorrow—that is, if this blog hasn’t been banned by then.