Blogwatch: Jan. 23, 2006

Snooping isn’t so secret anymore in China: officials in the city of Shenzhen announced last week that two cartoon cops would soon start to appear on local Web browsers as a reminder that the police are patrolling cyberspace too. Such candor, however, did not play well with Netizens. PONDBLOG said, “China is trying to make Internet censorship palatable by putting cute faces on its online thought police.” JACKARANDA derided the “Great Firewall of China,” deeming the cybercops proof that “the Net can be developed and strangled all at once.” But a cautious FREECASHSPACE questioned the upside of “life in a lawless frontier, cyber or otherwise.”