Thank you Captain Obvious (a.k.a.: Zittrain & Palfrey)

The readings on the China study by Jonathan Zittrain and John Palfrey has to go in the “Thank you Captain Obvious” column. Who doesn’t know that China suppresses its citizen’s freedoms, creative outlets and almost all means of their interpersonal communication?

I think it’s so sad that in the 21st Century there are still people (and therefore governments) that believe they have the right, or even the power to regulate free thought. I think an interesting ethical follow-up study for the case study on China would be to look at what sites the general public in countries - like China – are flying under the radar of the regulating government. In other words, what are students and other subsets of the population currently permitted to access that they would probably not be able to in the future?

Another study might include a control group in those repressed countries in which web users are allowed to view the questionable sites and then track their opinions. Do they shift? Is the government regulation really impacting the population’s views?