I can’t imagine life before YouTube -- the video-sharing site that in many ways revolutionised the way we saw the world. But those in China might soon have to say goodbye to the quirky website that attracts millions of users worldwide. The powers that be in China have decided that they will no longer tolerate the “broadcast of degenerate thinking” on the Internet. Henceforth, all video-sharing sites must have government approval before they can be accessed by Chinese surfers.
Fine, most of the videos posted are guilty of mindlessness and banality. But then, that’s entertainment. I do not go to YouTube to listen to philosophers talk about existentialism. And I certainly don’t go to the site for reference on my dissertation. Instead, I go there for the mindlessness, which is more thought provoking than comments in newspapers and inane debates on television.
But in China, which is reported to have more that 150 million internet users, it’s time to end the banality.
And in India? In India, we’ll wait till someone does a spoof on Shivaji or Gandhi… many, many months later some politician with his or her own agenda will take up cudgels for us and fight for the country’s cultural rights. Sites like YouTube will be banned. Those who care will not have the power to do much except write about it. How’s that for optimism?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment