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Originally Posted by KenWittlief
The US government cannot censor our media, because that would require every broadcast be reviewed by a government representative before the broadcast happens, and any objectionable material is removed. That is what happens in China.
In the US the FCC has regulations and imposes fines for content and expressions that are considered lewd and vulgar, but they do not censor the content, they have the authority to impose fines and penalties after the fact.
H. Stearn has proven that, if you are willing to pay the fines you can say whatever you want. In his case he has made more money by being obscene and paying the fines. He has never spent a day in prison for saying (*@# or @(#&$&# or even for saying {(&&*!+=;>~%*@+! on the radio.
But what China is doing with Wikipedia is not about obscenity or vulgarity, it is about controlling what anyone is allow to say or read regarding any aspect of the Chinese government.
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You've provided myriad examples of why censorship in China is more hurtful to its population than the censorship that takes place in the United States, but what I haven't yet seen is any explanation as to makes it different.
Your assertion is that China censors every word uttered on its television stations, over its airwaves and written in its print and that because the United States fines for the use of some words, arrests people for the use of others and prohibits us from speaking about some smaller amount of topics makes us different; that it makes us free.
The United States gives implicit support to censorship, both by its domestic actions to curb certain forms of speech and by its inaction in China. Dollars, not democracy, are the guiding principles of our foreign policy there. Wikipedia's actions are therefore meaningless, really, because it remains the act of an organization that makes no revenue. When McDonald's, Nike and The Gap refuse to do business with China because of its policies of oppressing its population, then maybe there'd be something worth talking about.