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Quality of users will decide Internet's future

Global Times, March 24, 2011

The role the Internet plays in China has captured great attention from the Western media in recent years. But they rarely noticed that many scholars in China, especially those solemn experts of great academic attainments, paid less and less attention to the online comments.

A celebrated scholar recently told me that he even did not bother to take a look at the comments on his online articles.

This was not because he did not attach weight to readers' feedback to his own essays.

Most of the follow-up comments were irresponsible emotional outbursts, and even verbal attacks.

Online posts containing vicious attacks, slipshod complaints, curses and rumors have already triggered a storm online.

Not long ago, after Japan was torn by the earthquake and tsunami, there were several curses, even coarse invective in certain posts.

Some have said that this is the online freedom of speech. But this is not freedom of speech at all. It blasphemes against online freedom.

Too many such complaints would affect real and responsible freedom of speech. Who will be willing to air true and responsible views in an atmosphere tainted by such "garbage"? Who will regard a forum that allows foul words as a space for free speech?

Others contributed coarse online posts to the impeded public opinion channels.

Some Westerners supported this idea and often quoted or highlighted these views in their own articles.

Nevertheless, they rarely thought that the consequence of curses and unreasonable emotional outbursts will wreck and hinder rather than promote the spreading of public opinion.

Actually, it is misleading to say that the public opinion channels are not easily available.

A tiny minority of the Internet users who post messages online don't represent real public opinion, especially in China with its huge agricultural population.

People can be anonymous when airing their opinions online.

No one knows their real identity and they can post messages under pseudonyms. But there should be a baseline of ethics at the bottom of one's heart, just like one should stop the car when the traffic light turns red.

It's not right to run the red light just because there are no cameras or cops at the crossroad.

I often logged on to some overseas mainstream media websites, including those in the developing countries. There might be quite a number of comments following the articles, especially those from famous experts.

There were different opinions, even criticism against the authors, but most of the commentators can obey basic moral principles. Coarse curses and attacks rarely appeared there.

China's Internet has developed by leaps and bounds. But the quality of Internet users still needs to be greatly elevated.

Online anonymity has undoubtedly opened the way for the spreading of vulgar words. Allowing the minority to air their opinions randomly online will seriously taint China's online speech platform.

No one denies that the application of new Internet technologies, including blog and microblogs, will boost China's development.

It's the net users' quality and the cleanness of the online speech environment that will have the final say on the further development of new Internet technologies.