From the Optimism Corner: China Will Eventually Open Up
The World Economic Summit in Davos ended with an optimistic parting shot.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee
One of the creators of the Internet, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, said China will eventually relax its relentless censoring because the Web "has a tradition of bit by bit increasing openness."
The Times of London quoted him during a discussion about Google's decision to abandon its China operations:
Sir Tim, who created the http protocol, widely used to exchange documents on the Internet, said "we should do everything we can" to help China if it decides to move in the right direction.
We love optimism, otherwise we would not be in this line of business.
It's hard to escape, however, the fact that China not only possesses the most sophisticated censoring apparatus in history, but also it has embarked on an ambitious campaign to export its censoring ways under its "harmonious" intentions to many other countries.
Chinese censors have no incentive to relinquish their powerful privileges. Only international pressure to do so will open their eyes.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee
One of the creators of the Internet, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, said China will eventually relax its relentless censoring because the Web "has a tradition of bit by bit increasing openness."
The Times of London quoted him during a discussion about Google's decision to abandon its China operations:
"Every time you open it, the genie comes out of the bottle and it’s very difficult to put it [back] in the bottle.”
"The internet has a tradition of bit by bit increasing openness," he said. "It tends not to go backwards ... [but] a government that is used to working with an uninformed citizenry might take a while to move to a position where the citizens are informed.”
"The internet has a tradition of bit by bit increasing openness," he said. "It tends not to go backwards ... [but] a government that is used to working with an uninformed citizenry might take a while to move to a position where the citizens are informed.”
Sir Tim, who created the http protocol, widely used to exchange documents on the Internet, said "we should do everything we can" to help China if it decides to move in the right direction.
We love optimism, otherwise we would not be in this line of business.
It's hard to escape, however, the fact that China not only possesses the most sophisticated censoring apparatus in history, but also it has embarked on an ambitious campaign to export its censoring ways under its "harmonious" intentions to many other countries.
Chinese censors have no incentive to relinquish their powerful privileges. Only international pressure to do so will open their eyes.
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