Big Brother in China...

From here:

China’s virtual cops pinpoint web dissent By Mure Dickie
Published: February 17 2006 19:19 | Last updated: February 17 2006 19:19

With their big blue blinking eyes and their quirky personal websites, there is no denying the cuteness of the cartoon cops at the front line of China’s battle for control of the internet.

But the role played by Jingjing and Chacha, the animated online icons recently introduced by police in the southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen, is entirely serious.

The cartoon couple patrol the city’s news and discussion websites to scare off anyone who might be tempted to use online anonymity to break China’s laws, says Chen Minli, director of the Shenzhen City Public Security Bureau’s Internet Surveillance Centre.

“Now internet users know the police are watching them,” Ms Chen says in an interview at the Bureau’s gleaming new 28-storey building in central Shenzhen.

A kinder, gentler form of tyrrany. Now ain't that cute?

What I can't understand, is that there are those in our own country who would move us closer and closer to that day when we'll be seeing the equivalent of Jingjing and Chacha on our own comptuer screens.

We already have thought crimes on the books.

Jingjing and Chacha can't be far behind.


(Filed under first amendment assaults, world affairs)