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Blocking blogs: The cowardice of China's Net Nanny

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The Nanny crushes terrorists and pornographers, keeping YOU safe!
UPDATE: Massage Milk's disappearance: an April Fool's joke?

Let's start with a quote from Liu Zhengrong, deputy chief of the Internet Affairs Bureau of the State Council Information Office, recently published in the China Daily:

Liu ... also said Chinese people can access the Web freely, except when blocked from "a very few" foreign websites whose contents mostly involve pornography or terrorism.

This morning, three of China's best blogs, obviously written by terrorists and pornographers, were deleted.

Two of the disappeared blogs are Massage Milk and Milk Pig, hosted on Yculblog.com. Both blogs currently display the following message:

Due to unavoidable reasons with which everyone is familiar, this blog is temporarily closed.

Milk Pig was the blog of a young female reporter living in Guangzhou. She usually published short and harmless gossipy posts. She recently wrote about getting into a fight with some other girls in a shopping mall, prompting her to observe that the police were useless.

Massage Milk, familiar to regular Danwei readers, writes acerbic cultural commentary, and has recently been featured in Newsweek and other Western media.

The third blog, hosted on Soho Xiaobao, Qian Lie Xian Yao Fa Yan or Pro State in Flames, was written by a Beijing journalist who came to Danwei's attention when he covered the sacking of The Beijing News a few days before the end of 2005. Pro State in Flames currently displays the following message:

Because of non technical reasons, starting immediately, this blog is temporarily closed. Thanks for your interest.

Thanks Nanny! Thanks Liu Zhengrong! I feel so much safer now that the terrorists and pornographers have had their blogs blocked. I think I'll go and look at some pictures of frogs and rabbits being crushed by a woman in high-heeled shoes to celebrate this victory over the terrorist-pornographic forces.

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