IOC Confident 2022 Beijing Olympics Will Have Free Internet

The IOC is "confident China will guarantee uncensored internet" when it hosts the 2022 Winter Games, a senior IOC official said on Wednesday, though China has "given no details about how its pledge will work," according to Michael Martina of REUTERS. China "keeps a tight rein on the internet." Popular foreign social media sites like Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook as well as Google's main search engine and Gmail service "are all inaccessible in China without specialized software" to vault what is known as the "Great Firewall." IOC VP Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. said, "It's guaranteed in the bid. All the experience that we've had with Beijing is that they've always delivered on their word. We are confident that will be the case" (REUTERS, 10/12).