China, a country known to control their citizens’ internet, has just allowed some leniency for bloggers to blog about the earthquake. Great, freedom when there’s crisis and none when there isn’t. Maybe they do care…
Almost nonstop, the uncensored opinions of Chinese citizens are popping up online, sent by text and instant message across a country shaken by its worst earthquake in three decades.
“Why were most of those killed in the earthquake children?” one post asked Thursday on FanFou, a microblogging site.
“How many donations will really reach the disaster area? This is doubtful,” read another.
China is now home to the world’s largest number of Internet and mobile phone users, and their hunger for quake news is forcing the government to let information flow in ways it hasn’t before.
A fast-moving network of text messages, instant messages and blogs has been a powerful source of firsthand accounts of the disaster, as well as pleas for help and even passionate criticism of rescue efforts.
“I don’t want to use the word transparent, but it’s less censored, an almost free flow of discussion,” said Xiao Qiang, a journalism professor at the University of California, Berkeley,
