Blogging has become fairly gigantic in the United States, ranking somewhere in between "Saved by the Bell" (now just a cult following) and "Friends" (a much, much larger cult following) in popularity. With the tools available, virtually anyone can start up a blog and post whatever he or she has to say.
But that's not the case in China, where bloggers are now being forced to register, and non-Chinese blog sites are apparently blocked by many ISPs. Additionally, a web-based system will traverse log files and report unregistered sites, which may face criminal sanctions.
This is somewhat expected in China, where the government always has its hand in strict censorship. What is most unfortunate is the fact that the Internet shouldn't be censored in this fashion. It makes sense to keep kids from seeing certain things (the first season of "Saved by the Bell" with Haley Mills), but blocking an entire country from saying what they have to say ... well, that's just not the Internet.
So enjoy your freedom, assuming you are reading this in a free country. If you are, there's bound to be an episode of "Friends" on the tube somewhere.
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