Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project of the University of California, Berkeley commented that the Web of China has become a wild place when it comes to things that are outside of politics. One is free to access just about anything on the Web.
On paper, the government's Internet regulations forbid the display of any information that damages state security, harms the dignity of the state, promotes pornography and gambling, or "spreads evil cults" and "feudal superstitions." In the real world however, the Web in China has also become a thriving marketplace for everyone, including scam artists and hard-core criminals.
It is ironical that while China's Internet police force is busy deleting phrases like "free speech" and "human rights" from online bulletin boards, the sales of pirated musics and movies and the peddling drugs and sex and other illegal activities in the web are mostly left unchecked. These unchecked freedoms on the Web, analysts say, are perhaps unwittingly ushering in an age of startling social change.
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