Although information is processed instinctively, people still consciously manipulate its flow for social, economic and political advantages. In many cases, public authority gets to control the information available for general public. Political and cultural powers conflict with each other and lead to confrontation from time to time. In the article
Networked Authoritarianism, the author points out exactly such problem of controlled information in Mainland China. When it comes to sensitive political issues, “people were sentenced for ‘endangering state security’ – the most common charge used in the case of political, religious or ethnic dissent” when they mentioned inappropriate or provocative information in public media (Mackinnon, 2012). To protect the integrity of certain regime or culture, people would intentionally direct the development of information and make it work for the interests of a few. Although such reality contradicts with Brooks’ view of unconscious information management, he does address the correlation between information and certain “political honor and group supremacy” (Brooks, 2011). It is important to recognize that information is not only the product of unconscious evolution and human development, but could also consciously become the victim of state power when liberty and the freedom of culture fail to be justified.
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