Why China's internet is getting creepier and creepier

NEW YORK: There has always been a great paradox in China’s internet. Here you have a country that suppresses free speech and censors information using what the rest of the world knows as the ‘information super highway.’

So naturally in China, a great number of the exits are blocked. But there are levels to this stuff. Censorship on China’s internet can move forward, and get more open, or it can move back and close up, cutting off the country from the rest of the world. We know now that the latter is happening right now. China is closing off.

‘XI IS TOTALLY CUTE’ A recent communique from Yang Zhenwu, the head of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) mouthpiece The People’s Daily, says it all.

He believes the CCP is losing ground on the internet, especially through social media, censored though it may be. In other words, the party should be pushing out more propaganda. “To lose speech is to lose power,” he wrote.

This essay coincided with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s visit to China, when he ran through Beijing’s smoggy streets without a face mask. Needless to say, Yang’s essay did not reflect a Silicon Valley open ethos.

Last month Chinese leaders met for their annual legislative session, and they passed new laws to increase censorship of foreign websites in the country