Foreword, Big Brother, Internet

[pynchonoid]

"[...] the internet, a development that promises
social control on a scale those quaint old
20th-century tyrants with their goofy moustaches could
only dream about."
-Thomas Pynchon, Foreword to _1984_

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3039041.stm>

China internet operator jailed
 
Huang Qi wrote none of the controversial postings
himself 

A Chinese internet operator, Huang Qi, has been
sentenced to five years in prison for subversion after
he allowed articles about China's 1989 pro-democracy
protests to appear on his website. 

Huang was convicted and sentenced 10 days ago at the
end of a trial that began two years ago in Chengdu in
south-western Sichuan province, Chinese legal
officials said. 

Huang was the first person China put on trial for
internet crimes. Since his arrest, several others have
been detained for posting political material online,
according to human rights groups. 

His trial has drawn international attention because it
highlights the struggle by the Chinese authorities to
promote the commercial potential of the internet while
controlling political content. 

Huang was arrested on 3 June 2000, on the eve of the
anniversary of the 1989 army killings of pro-democracy
protesters in Tiananmen Square, shortly after his
website posted an essay calling for the prosecution of
those responsible for the bloody suppression. 

None of the articles on the website were written by Mr
Huang, but were posted by visitors to his site. 

Mr Huang set up the site to publicise information
about missing people, but it attracted postings about
alleged human rights abuses, corruption and political
issues such as the Xinjiang independence movement and
the banned Falun Gong movement. 

Huang's sentencing followed a secret order issued on
28 April by Luo Gan, a member of the party's ruling
Standing Committee in charge of law and order, to
"sternly suppress 'enemy efforts'", the Hong
Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and
Democracy said. 


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