Congress appears to be getting in on the fight over censorship in China. Which you would think would be a good thing. Kinda like voting in favor of defensless children and puppies that don’t require your personal maintenance. I mean. In theory those are always good things.
Unfortunately in practice we tend to get statements like this one on what the Congressman from New Jersey is going to propose. Let me tear out the two relevant sentences:
“.. requiring companies to locate their e-mail servers outside of companies or markets deemed repressive by the Department of State; establishing a basic code of conduct for companies operating in such areas; setting export controls on “certain technologies” to countries restricting free speech ..”
So basically you’re going to stop censorship by regulating where people in the US can put their mail servers and what gets exported? Stop me if I’m wrong here, but that seems like it’s censuring the market to me. Which of course is the opposite of ensuring a free flow of information and market structure.
It boldly proposes that the government will watch over what you do a little closer. In your own best interest, of course. Now it might be a stretch, but I don’t see many people saying that they’re going to go and locate their mail servers in a corrupt country run by unstable despots… it just doesn’t make sense. So why the need to inform people where they can’t put their servers?
And what on earth do these two moves have to do with censorship in China?
Tech companies brace for showdown over China | CNET News.com
