The Internet is a wild and wonderful place with a gung-ho anything-goes vibe that is the very antithesis of the modern corporate world, where political correctness and lawsuits long ago usurped common sense and personal responsibility. It offers interaction and access to information undreamed of a few years ago, and social networking – the latest Internet buzzwords to describe groups of people getting together to put the world to right. What happens, though, when we get anti-social networking, where someone uses the Internet to incite a lynch mob purely because he/she didn’t like something you wrote on your blog or said in a chatroom? Earlier this month, professor of psychology at the department of sociology in the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Zhang Jiehai blogged of his “tremendous anger” at an immoral foreigner. He wrote: “I call upon all Chinese compatriots to get together and kick this immoral foreigner out of China.” While Chinabounder, the immoral foreigner in question, is rather blunt in his blog, he’s not doing anything most sexually active adults aren’t doing or wanting to do. So does he merit a lynch mob? (Courtesy of the EastSouthWestNorth blog you can read more about this here: www.zonaeuropa.com/20060828_1.htm.) Will the Internet community police itself, or is there a necessity for censorship?

On another matter, wasn’t it lovely to see the great and talentless of the local entertainment industry bonding to complain about something meaningful – sadly it wasn’t about the imprisonment of a blind journalist in China, nor was it about pollution, global hunger… nor even about piracy. It was about a flash of bra strap and some back-stage photos. Voyeuristic probably, and out of order if the pictures were of a member of the public, but Gillian Chung of pop duo Twins is not any old joe shmo, she’s a ‘celebrity,’ an actress and singer who has used the media to fuel her ascent to superstardom, riches and the glamorous lifestyle she now enjoys. The hypocrisy of her position and her inane comment about the effect of the pictures on her young fans thus have no need of comment. Gillian, if I may be so informal, without the mass-market magazines and the paparazzi you would probably still be just another office girl. I suspect that as Gillian (massive publicity), Easy Finder (increased sales) and other local media (again increased sales) all benefited from the photos, so expect to see more voyeuristic exposés conveniently timed to coincide with said artist’s new film, album, tour etc. Now if only they could find something worthwhile to complain about, or make better use of the time by learning to sing.

s.d