State Enemy No. 1: Media on the Internet

 China has hit their bright-red censor button...again. The victim this time: the New York Times (NYT) website and any searches for the U.S. newspaper on Chinese social networking sites. One would assume some awful event prompted the government to crack down on the information flow, like when environmental abuses were uncovered. But it wasn't. The article was actually about the wealth of the Chinese Premier and his family. (Al-Jazeera: "China Blocks NY Times Website")

Apparently, the Premier has maintained a "good-ol-boy" image, claiming to be one to fight the rampant abuses within the government, so the article was an embarrassment to both him and the communist party. Historically, China has censored media that did not support the Party line and image (like their Soviet predecessors), so it is no surprise that this article would be enough reason to shut down the website of one of the most recognizable names in journalism. However, after our discussion of Sangeet Kumar's "Google Earth and the Nation-State", I saw how the incident illustrated the issues of sovereignty in the new media age.

Kumar wrote that networks, such as news media, "decenters sovereignty", and this challenge happens because the information is "disembodied from its material medium" (Global Media and Communication 6 (2010): 157-158). There is a threat in what we cannot see or touch, so the Internet is a scary place for information to be published and accessed instantaneously around the world. Yet, as the Internet has a "borderless architecture", states can't implement laws the way they once did, which makes them vulnerable (ibid., 158-159). According to Kumar, this is why the Internet has become a battleground for many states, and his example of Google vs. India shows the new power nation states must face in non-state actors with an online presence.

One could assume this new environment would be particularly alarming for a state like China. It is a state that has controlled information within its borders with an iron fist, but would also like to be part of the modern economic and political regime. To do that, China has to have all the modern information technologies, which includes the Internet, and thus be connected to the resultant networks. So how will China balance keeping its sovereignty against these "non-state actors" while simultaneously allowing access to the global information networks it must be connected to in order to be a major international player?

Apparently shutting down specific websites as threats emerge is China's current plan. However, because they are connected to the global information network, the world can take note of every time the Party inhibits the built-in free-flow of the Internet. Can states like China, North Korea, and others that censor information continue to fight the Internet piecemeal? Or will the Internet win in the end because of its disembodied nature? As more and more incidents of China blocking, shutting down, and censoring websites become global knowledge, the Chinese government will have to decide if they want to be part of the global networks, or if they want to maintain their historical control (or sovereignty) over information.