First it was the lip-synching scandal, then child actors, and of course the digitally faked fireworks at the opening ceremony. Then it was the allegedly faked passports of the Chinese gymnasts at the Olympic games. But now, the Chinese government has definitely gone too far. They’ve blocked iTunes access.
Tourists and Chinese citizens alike woke up last Monday to find the iTunes store closed, or rather access across China to the iTunes Store blocked. So, those who had listened to every tune, or watched every video in their iPod during their sojourn to China and the Olympics, and were looking for new material for their long flight home, were out of luck.
It appears that Beijing halted access to the entire iTunes Store just to block access to one new Tibet-themed album.
In Internet forums, iTunes users complained they had been unable to download music since Monday. That was a day after the Art of Peace Foundation announced the release of ”Songs for Tibet,” with music by Sting, Alanis Morissette, Garbage and others, and a 15-minute talk by the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader.
China has the world’s largest population of Internet users, with 253 million people online, now bolstered by scads of Olympic and other tourists, who are apparently hopping mad about this latest affront to freedom of speech by the Chinese government. Chinese citizens and tourists alike, who’ve been blocked from the iTunes Store, have been pouring out their frustration across the Internet on bulletin boards, the world over.
Apple has no China-based iTunes service. Users must log on to sites for the United States or other markets. Despite that, the company’s iPod music player is incredibly popular in China.
While Beijing encourages Internet use for education and business by their citizens, it regularly blocks access to foreign sites run by dissidents, and human rights and Tibet activists, to the extent possible. Clearly, in my opinion, the Beijing government wants to even control the thoughts of their citizens, something that’s just not possible over the long run.
Hopefully Apple will not cave in to the Chinese government, like so many other greedy companies like Google, and keep the album in the iTunes Store for sale and download.
After many years working in corporate America as a chemical engineer, executive and eventually CFO of a multinational manufacturer, Ned founded a tech consulting company and later restarted NSL Photography, his photography business. Before entering the corporate world, Ned worked as a Public Health Engineer for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. As a well known corporate, travel and wildlife photographer, Ned travels the world writing about travel and photography, as well as running photography workshops, seminars and photowalks. Visit Ned’s Photography Blog and Galleries.
