Censorship makes revolutionaries out of ordinary people.

True, pornographers are hardly ordinary people. We tend to have a voluptuous interest in sexual expression, one that exceeds the confines of our bedrooms. But we, pornographers, are simple folk. We are triggered by our basest instincts, the desire for pleasure in its most immediate form. We are no different from a pastry chef or a sommelier. We are enthusiastic about our pleasure, and wish to make sharing it our means of livelihood.

Sexual repression in society complicates things a lot, doesn’t it? Add guilt to the equation and pornography becomes the irresistible forbidden fruit that brings a naughty charge up an otherwise normal expression of humanity. Censorship and criminalization takes it even further: sex becomes politicized. Pornographers become revolutionaries.

Take a look at what’s going on in China. I wonder what will happen there this coming year.

China arrests 5,000 for internet pornography offences

China arrested more than 5,000 people in 2009 in a drive to purge the internet of pornography and other “harmful information”.

The ministry of public security said 5,394 people had been arrested and that over 9,000 websites had been deleted for having pornographic content. The ministry did not say how many people had subsequently been put on trial.

The authorities released the figures with a warning that its policing of the internet would intensify in 2010 in order to preserve “state security”.

China maintains strict censorship of the internet in order to make sure that unhealthy content, including criticism of the Communist Party, does not reach a wide audience.

Websites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are all blocked and Google has received a public warning for not censoring itself more thoroughly.

With over 350 million internet users, the government worries that any small cracks in its authority could quickly spiral out of control. In the first six months of 2009, an average of 221,000 Chinese a day started using the internet for the first time, or 153 new users a minute. Read more…