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I am against censorship in china in principle. However: 1) in article 2, it says "pornography, lewd conversations, nudity, graphic images and curse words — as well as unauthorized livestreaming sales and content that violated copyright." I think there is a real need for legal framework for content that are harmful for the society. China's online content laws also protects the society from child pornography, fraud, etc. And in the light of the harm of fake news and disinformation can have on the society, as people can see with covid19, there needs to be boundaries with speech. We could have laws govern internet space as well, just like how laws enacted through a democratic process can govern the physical world. As lives are more and more lived in the internet world, we could have laws to govern that world. Though I think there should be a legal due process, like with any law and law enforcement. If my speech is taken down on the internet, let me review the evidence, and let me appeal in a "court", let an independent judiciary judge if I am guilty or not. 2) censorship in china is instituted by the government, no business person could get away with it, they have to operate in that environment. Do the business person or the technologists want to do it? Absolutely not, its a hassle and more work on their part. But to survive in that business environment, they have to do it. These people just want to found these companies and conduct this line of business to earn money and earn a living. These people have families to feed and expensive mortgage to pay. No one wants to get into politics, ideologies. If you really want that every technologists should promote core ideals of freedom and free expression, even under these censorship, these apps in china are already allowing people to spread ideas and access information much better than before. Even under censorship, chinese people still read stories critical of government policies, corruptions, controversies etc that were impossible before the internet age (I read a large number of posts critical of one child policy and government worker implementation of it a few days ago). And the internet is still helping the society change. I wouldn't say these companies are complicit with censorship, because they won't exist if they didn't comply. Chinese government would shut down everyone of these internet services if they won't comply with the rules. And by being available they are still supporting more information accesses then when they weren't available. In my view, in some way, these people behind these companies are victims of the system as well.


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