There has been a concerted effort by china, in concertwith russia and a couple of other countries, to reduce protections for speech. I would say that a lot of this is mainly about shoring up the fire wall and giving the census more powers over the chinese insinat. But the effect it has is undermining protections. Maybe not so much in democratic countries, where we would hope that our own governments would give those protections to us anyway but certainly in countries that are semi democratic or authoritarian.
Once little more than a pornography filter, China’s ‘Great Firewall’ has evolved into the most sophisticated system of online censorship in the world. As the Chinese internet grows and online businesses thrive, speech is controlled, dissent quashed, and attempts to organise outside the official Communist Party are quickly stamped out. But the effects of the Great Firewall are not confined to China itself. In this week's episode James Griffiths tells Carl Miller about his years of investigation into the Great Firewall and the politicians, tech leaders, dissidents and hackers whose lives revolve around it. To pre-order the new version of James's book book click here: https://amzn.to/3xVi6qK For FREE access to our live recording with Jude Law on Wednesday 18 click here and enter promo code 'PODCAST' at the checkout: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/jude-law-how-i-found-my-voice-registration-166901469789
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