January 19, 2008

Is Jack Balkin more subversive than Eugene Volokh? Am I?

Yale lawprof Jack Balkin is in China, checking out which lawprof blogs are blocked:
I was able to reach Volokh Conspiracy, SCOTUSBlog, How Appealing, Election Law, Instapundit, Mirror of Justice, Concurring Opinions, Becker-Posner, PrawfsBlawg, Feminist Law Professors, Business Associations Blog, Lessig Blog, and Black Prof. I was not able to reach Balkinization, Althouse, U Chicago, Leiter Law School and The Conglomerate.

There is almost no reason to believe that, from the standpoint of the Chinese government, Balkinization is more subversive than Volokh Conspiracy or Becker Posner, or a number of other blogs on this list. It is likely that, as with most Internet filtering schemes, the results are some combination of overblocking technology, arbitrary decisionmaking, and simple luck of the draw.
I can think of plenty of reasons why the Althouse blog is more subversive!

10 comments:

Meade said...

Sinovorticephobea

Ron said...

The squirrel blogging alone has them all in a tizzy...

Tully said...

Congratulations!

I blame Simon, and the vortexing.

Mr. Forward said...

Top 10 reasons Althouse banned in China

10: Broke the Wooden Rice Bowl

9: Added Comments section to Chairman's blog

8: Men's shorts made in China

7: Drew pictures in "Little Red Book"

6: Chinese don't eat Egg Salad

5: 2008 Olympic medals rumoured to be Bronze, Silver, Green and Gold.

4: Unpaid Queuing Tickets

3:""Carelessness. I lost my one true love. I started drinking. The first thing I know, I'm in a card game. Then I'm in a crap game. I wake up in a pool hall. Then this big Mexican lady drags me off the table, takes me to Philadelphia. She leaves me alone in her house, and it burns down. I wind up in Phoenix. I get a job as a Chinaman."

2: Beer Famine

1: Refused to blog "Chinese Idol"

Revenant said...

They fear the bandwidth implications of 1.2 billion Chinese people getting drawn into the vortex. It could easily cripple their network backbone.

rhhardin said...

Competition from the Althouse Laundry.

George M. Spencer said...

Just yesterday I received another in a series of internet Zogby polls...

Many of the questions had to to with whether or not the US govt. should restrict US tech. companies from doing business with China because of this issue.

Here is one of the questions I was asked....

"Some people argue that the United States should stop selling technology or providing technology-based services in China in an effort to influence their policies on political freedoms. Others claim that the best way to influence Chinese policies is to engage in China and that it's naïve to think a ban on sales from U.S. companies would have a major impact.

Statement A: The United States should stop selling technology or providing technology-based services in China in an effort to influence their policies on political freedoms.

Statement B: The best way to influence Chinese policy is to engage in China. It is naïve to think a ban on sales from U.S. companies would have a major impact.

Statement A
Statement B
Not sure"

After telling Zogby that I was a divorced Hispanic Catholic man in Florida (which I am not), I also answered this question incorrectly....

"Do you consider yourself to be mostly a resident of: your city or town, America, or the planet Earth?

My city or town
America
The planet Earth
Not sure/refused"

Shane said...

Blogger/Blogspot's IP is banned from most places in China. So people like you and Balkin, whose blogs are hosted on Blogger-owned servers, will be blocked in China regardless of content. Volokh, Becker/Posner, and others who host their blogs on their own servers will at least get a chance to get evaluated on content. Which is unlikely because the Chinese censors don't have enough manpower to review most English-language sites.

Brad V said...

While in Beijing this past summer, I noticed that my blogspot blog was blocked in some internet cafes in the city, but not in others.

At first, I found I could post through the blogger.com dashboard but not see the actual blog. Later, at a different location, I was able to see everything. The same applied to a number of other news sites.

The creepiest thing, though, was having to register one's nationality when signing up for time at the internet cafe just off Tiananmen Square in the old railway station.

sonicfrog said...

I must be banned everywhere. That would explain why I have no readers :-)