My Own Private Internet

China seems to have realized that they can’t block unwanted content from the internet. It is a realization that Network Administrators have learned long ago. Unfortunately, Chinese dictators look like they are going to take the path that Network Admins would never be able to take – they are going to create their own internet.

In a move that some speculate to be the initial steps towards a possible breakaway from the global Internet, new versions of top-level domains will be added on separate Chinese root servers, China's Ministry of Information Industry said on Tuesday.

According to the state-run People's Daily, the country is launching ".cn," ".com," and ".net" in Chinese.

The adjustments were made to bring the country's domain names into agreement with an article in a government decree known as the China Internet Domain Names Regulations.

This step towards isolationism is destined to failure, at least in the long term. It is an unfortunate turn of events that will not make Chinese citizens any better off. I guess the plus side is that it will make Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft’s internet presence in China irrelevant.