"English Banned in Chinese Writing"

For those who wonder whether governments can successfully regulate every part of the internet, just look at China. My friend Victor Mair, who teaches at Penn, has this post at Language Log. Presumably part of the reason for the ban is also to restrict discussions between Chinese and those who live outside of China. Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised if that is actually the real reason for the regulations.

Back in April, I wrote a blog entitled "A Ban on Roman Letter Acronyms?" In it, I discussed the proposal by the Chinese chairman of the International Federation of Translators, Huang Youyi, to purify Chinese of English expressions. At the time, no one (outside of Chinese rulership circles) ever thought that it would really happen. It seemed too preposterous and unworkable. No matter how much the language censors and purity zealots detested the look of English words and Roman letters in Chinese writing, they'd never be able to enforce such a ban.

Lo and behold, the news coming out of China the last few days is that the government has gotten serious and is really clamping down on the use of English words and expressions, Roman letter acronyms, and other contaminating elements, all in the interest of maintaining the purity of the mother tongue. The decree outlawing English has come forth from the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), China's regulator of news, print media, and internet publications. . . .

Few Support New Proposed Internet Tax

No tax of any sort on people earning less than $250,000 per year? I guess it must be true that only the very rich use the internet. From Rasmussen Reports:

The Obama administration recently released its proposed plan for government regulation of the Internet that includes federal taxes on digital goods and services.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 20% of Americans favor the federal government taxing goods and services on the Internet. Sixty-one percent (61%) oppose such taxes. Another 19% are undecided.
Sixty-four percent (64%) of those who use the Internet every day or nearly every day oppose such taxes, while 22% of that group think they’re a good idea.
The administration’s regulatory efforts ran into trouble last week, however, when a U.S. federal appeals court rejected a Federal Communications Commission move to impose “net neutrality” rules on Internet providers which would force them to treat all Web traffic equally. But some Internet providers have been attempting to slow the traffic of major downloaders, arguing that they slow Internet service for other customers.
Fifty-three percent (53%) of adults do not believe the FCC should regulate the Internet the way it does radio and television. . . .

Massive amount of porn hidden in children's clips at Youtube

This is pretty disgusting.

Video-sharing website YouTube has removed hundreds of pornographic videos which were uploaded in what is believed to be a planned attack.

The material was uploaded under names of famous teenage celebrities such as Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers.

Many started with footage of children's videos before groups of adults

performing graphic sex acts appeared on screen.

YouTube owner Google said it was aware and addressing the problem. . . .

It is also disappointing that 40 percent of the email to the BBC viewed this as just a fun joke.

US lets totalitarian countries have more control of the internet

This looks bad for freedom of the internet. If China controls the domain names that are in Chinese and if they can limit access in China to those domain names, the Chinese can remove the domain name for anyone who puts up information that they don't approve. Possibly I am missing something, but this seems pretty serious.

After complaints about American dominance of the internet and growing disquiet in some parts of the world, Washington has said it will relinquish some control over the way the network is run and allow foreign governments more of a say in the future of the system.

Icann – the official body that ultimately controls the development of the internet thanks to its oversight of web addresses such as .com, .net and .org – said today that it was ending its agreement with the US government.

The deal, part of a contract negotiated with the US department of commerce, effectively pushes California-based Icann towards a new status as an international body with greater representation from companies and governments around the globe.

Icann had previously been operating under the auspices of the American government, which had control of the net thanks to its initial role in developing the underlying technologies used for connecting computers together.

But the fresh focus will give other countries a more prominent role in determining what takes place online, and even the way in which it happens – opening the door for a virtual United Nations, where many officials gather to discuss potential changes to the internet. . . .