China's censorship can never defeat the internet

The Guardian contributor "Ai Weiwei" reports:  Chairman Mao used to say: "As communists we gain control with the power of the gun and maintain control with the power of the pen." You can see propaganda and the control of ideology as an authoritarian society's most important task. Before the internet, all people could do was watch TV or read the People's Daily. They would carefully read between the lines to see what had happened. Now it is very different. The papers try to talk about things, but even before they appear, everyone has talked about it on the internet.

Openness and transparency are the only way to limit these dark powers. Chinese citizens have never had the right to really express their opinions. In the west people think it's a right they're born with. Here it's a right given by the government, and one that's not really practiced. At the very beginning, nobody – even in the west – could predict the internet would have so much to do with freedom of speech and that social media would develop in the way it has. They just understood it was a more efficient, fast and powerful means of communication.

But since we got the net and could write blogs – and now microblogs – people have started to share ideas, and a new sense of freedom has arisen. People are learning how to exercise their own rights. It is a unique, treasured moment. People have started to feel the breeze. The internet is a wild land with its own games, languages and gestures through which we are starting to share common feelings.

But the government cannot give up control. It blocks major internet platforms – such as Twitter and Facebook – because it is afraid of free discussion. And it deletes information. The government computer has one button: delete.

But censorship by itself doesn't work. They can put a black hood on you, take you to a secret place and interrogate you, trying to stop what you're doing. They threaten people, your family, saying: "Your children won't find jobs."

But without censorship, I think it would be much less interesting. Trying to find possibilities through the difficulties can make life more interesting. Censorship is saying: "I'm the one who says the last sentence. Whatever you say, the conclusion is mine." But the internet is like a tree that is growing. The people will always have the last word – even if someone has a very weak, quiet voice. Such power will collapse because of a whisper.

China may seem quite successful in its controls, but it has only raised the water level. It's like building a dam. It still hasn't come to the moment that it will collapse. That makes a lot of other states admire its technology and methods. But in the long run, its leaders must understand it's not possible for them to control the internet unless they shut it off – and they can't live with the consequences of that. The internet is uncontrollable. And if the internet is uncontrollable, freedom will win. It's as simple as that.

آی وی وی"  در مقاله ای‌ در روزنامه گاردین می‌نویسد: پیش از اینترنت تنها راه مردم برای دریافت اطلاعات تلویزیون و روزنامه‌ها بودند ولی‌ امروز شرایط  تغییر کرده و حتا قبل از آن که آنها فرصت صحبت کردن درباره خبری را پیدا کنند، مردم در اینترنت دربارهٔ آن صحبت میکنند. در چین آزادی بیان توسط حکومت آن کشور به افراد خاص داده میشود در صورتی که  درغرب، مردم بر این باورند که این حقیقت با آنها به دنیا می‌آید. غربیها هرگز پیشبینی‌ نمی‌کردند که در آینده اینترنت چنین نقش مهمی‌ را در آزادی بین ایفا کند. با بوجود آمدن وبلاگ و میکرو وبلاگ‌ها مردم در حال یاد گیری بیان نظرات و عقاید خود هستند چرا که اینترنت تبدیل به یک سرزمین آزاد با قوانین خود برای به اشتراک گذاشتن احساسات معمول شده است. ولی‌ دولتمردان چین دست از کنترل اینترنت بر نداشته و وبسایت‌هایی‌ مانند فیسبوک و توییتر را فیلتر کرده اند چرا که از آزادی بین ترس دارند. آنها حتی دست به تهدید خانواده‌ها دربارهٔ آیندهٔ شغلی فرزندانشان میزنند. به هرحال من تصور می‌کنم که اینترنت بدون فیلتر هیجان کمتری برای استفاده دارد. با وجود تمام سانسور‌ها مردم حرف آخر را میزنند  چرا که اینترنت مانند یک درخت رشد کرده است. گرچه ممکن است چین در کنترل اینترنت موفق بنظر بیاید ولی‌ این صد فیلتر در نهایت خواهد شکست و دولتمردان متوجه خواهند شد که اینترنت غیر قابل کنترل است و آزادی پیروز خواهد شد