User-generated content (UGC) may be the best example of freedom of speech there is. This may be the reason why social network Plurk was recently banned in China. Plurk is a micro-blogging website that works a lot like Twitter. Users sign in and post short updates with a maximum of 140 characters. The website never really caught on in North America as it did in other parts of the world.  Asian countries Indonesia, Taiwan and the Philippines make up the top three countries for user concentration.

In North America and most other places in the world websites like Veoh, Bebo, Twitter, and Flickr are very common and no one outside the advertising community cares when a user logs on to the websites. However, sites like these are considered a threat by the Chinese government because they allow for the free flow of information and ideas.

Analysts are wondering what it was about this particular service that raised the ire of the Chinese communist
government. The recent ban has many wondering if this is a trend that will continue into the future and what
this means for the many other social networks that are active inside China.

The censorship of the Chinese government has taken many forms but has always been ready to move in whenever new technology was introduced. The government has effectively censored newspapers, television and radio for years. It’s not surprising that they would want to tighten their grip on the most free and liberal of all these mediums.