All hail the WTF headline of the day:
China to ‘clean up’ the internet
It seems the Chinese authorities want to get rid of “unhealthy, vulgar and pornographic content on the internet,” in an operation that “is being co-ordinated by a total of seven government ministries.” Yes, not one or two or even three ministries, but seven. I can imagine a Chinese minister dude setting up the operation:
Minister Dude: So, Mandarin Vermin, let’s clean up the internet. How many websites do we have to go through for this. One hundred? Two hundred?
Mandarin Vermin: Sir, I’m afraid there are many more sites than that. There are millions of them.
Minister Dude: Millions? And do they all have licenses?
Mandarin Vermin: No sir. You see, in other countries, they don’t need permission to express themselves.
Minister Dude: This is shocking. No wonder civilization is under threat. This is unhealthy. This is vulgar. In fact, if one gets down to specifics, its probably even pornographic.
Mandarin Vermin: Like the printouts in your drawer, sir?
Minister Dude: Stop it. Its my job to monitor those. Anyway, we need to clean up the internet, and we need all the help we can get. Organise a few ministries for this. Calculate the number of websites in the world, divide by the number of people in those ministries, and get them to work.
Mandarin Vermin: Sir, its not so simple…
Minister Dude: Don’t argue. Remember Tiananmen?
(Link via email from Neel.)