RBG and the Madman's attack on a Free Internet

First, I mourn the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was an amazing woman and changed society in so many ways. When my mother was married in the 1950s, women in the US could not open bank accounts in their own names. Women were treated like children. But RBG, even before she was a justice, fought against this and made life so much better. May she continue to live on in our thoughts and prayers.

Second, I wish to draw attention to the actions of the madman, who banned the apps WeChat and Tiktok in the US. This is done to make him look "tough" against China. But the reality is that he is doing the same as China, and justifying a censored internet, not the open platform as it was designed and imagined by Americans and many others decades ago. If you are interested in learning more about the Chinese internet, and WeChat, see the chapter that we published about this.

Here is the link

Ju, Bei, Sandel, Todd L., & Fitzgerald, Richard (2019). Understanding Chinese internet and social media: The innovative and creative affordances of technology, language and culture. In Marcel Burger (Ed.) Se Mettre en Scène en Ligne: La communication digitale, vol 2. [Presenting oneself online: Digital communication] (pp. 161-177). Cahiers de l’Institut de linguistique et des sciences du langage, No. 59. Lausanne, Switzerland: UNIL, University of Lausanne.