HW19: Censoring Blogs and Social Networking

In the book Blog! how the newest media revolution is changing politics, buisness, and culture by David Kline and Dan Burstein, the reading Web of Influence by Daniel Drenzer and Henry Farrell, they talk a lot about how blogs are used internationally and how they are being censored in certain countries. They mention that China filters what their citizens read from foreign blogs. Although some readers may agree, I would argue that people should have the option to read the blogs they chose and have the right to respond to those blogs in the form that they feel is right without being worried that they will be forced to face some form of punishment. Even more importantly, restricting access to the internet as Drenzer and Farrell have mentioned, is not the best answer to stopping people from having their own opinions. Either way, the citizens of a country are going to have certain feelings about their democracy and if they are not aloud to express themselves through a blog or some form of the internet they will most likely just find another way to have their voices heard. And if they don't and they keep it bottled inside, it is more or less guarentted that the more pressure and aggravation that builds up they will eventually burst, and end up in trouble anyways. But above all the fact that Drenzer and Farrell mention that people are being punished for expressing themselves in blogs and social networks just boggels my mind. I could not imagine living in a country that I could not voice my opinion on the way things were being run and how I felt about the democratic system in my country. I think it's crazy that these people are letting people control their thoughts and how they talk about their feelings.