China is exporting it's internet censorship programs to other countries.

File photo. Reuters. 

China has begun exporting it's internet firewall censorship programs. Reuters. According to Freedom House, China's firewall programs are an emerging threat to internet freedom globally. China has already exported their program to Vietnam, Tanzania, and Uganda. China's tech companies have sent technology and equipment to 38 countries and provided AI support for 18 different law enforcement agencies. 

My Comment:

This isn't surprising to me. The internet is a huge threat to any authoritarian regime and China has been fairly effective in controlling it. From their perspective censorship allows all the economic benefits of the internet but without any of the risk. Since China has huge problems with disgruntled citizens and unruly minorities it is no surprise that they want to control what is said on the internet. 

China also realizes that they can make quite a bit of money exporting that technology to others. Any third rate dictator or communist dictatorship would pounce on a chance to censor the internet. They are likely willing to pay huge money to gain access to this kind of censorship. 

Don't expect American tech companies to do anything to stop China either. Google, who used to have a company logo saying "don't be evil" is helping China with their censored search engine. Though the tech companies could do a lot to prevent China from censoring the internet, they wouldn't dare. They all know that China is a major market and pure greed prevents them from doing so. 

And it's not like our tech companies are against censorship either. Twitter, Google, Facebook and Apple have all censored conservatives and other people they don't like. Indeed, I don't think there is that much difference from the Chinese censored internet and our supposedly free one. The only thing that differentiates them is the fact that in America you aren't likely to be thrown in jail for saying something people don't like... yet. I think it's sad but true but the days of a free and uncensored internet are likely over.