Image via WikipediaHackers residing China have done a very cowardly act of attempting to break off a website calling for an online petition, which is currently signed by nearly 100,000 people, urging for Beijing to release the arrested honest artist Ai Weiwei, complaint the website operators on Wednesday. The website organizing this petition, Change.org, which is based an activist network in the U.S., out spoke eventually on Wednesday crying that their website has constantly being attempted now and then to bring it down since Monday. The operators of the website claim that the hindrance is being originated from China, claiming to be so-called denial-of-service attacks.
Many leaders and figureheads of all key museums worldwide have done their part in organizing and signing the petition which seeks an immediate release of Ai. Ai is highly praised Chinese artist who was arrested while he was going to catch a flight on the 3rd of April, from Beijing to Hong Kong. Given the key role this petition has formed, since the attacks on the website, Ben Rattray, the founder, spoke out openly challenging that the staff of his website has been immensely successful so far to counter all these attacks. He also declared that this large number of people singing the petition is a living proof that the site is being well-guarded, allowing more and more people to sign.
Rattray addressed very thoughtfully to the originators of the attacks, "I think the attempt to suppress both free speech and organized dissent around the detention of Ai Weiwei will backfire and already has," He said tht "It is actually increasing the awareness and the appetite of people around the world who care about human rights and freedom of speech and organizing to be more likely to take action."
Initially this petition for freeing Ai was originated by the New York's Guggenheim Museum, after which it got very quick signings by the official representatives of rest of the leading museums of the world. Some of the major museums included New York's Museum of Modern Art, London's Tate Modern, the Musee National d'Art Moderne in Paris and the Art Institute of Chicago.
The petition on the website reads very carefully that "We members of the international arts community express our concern for Ai's freedom and disappointment in China's reluctance to live up to its promise to nurture creativity and independent thought the keys to 'soft power' and cultural influence." This has lead to a huge number of 94,400 people signing the petition, which is only the count till 1930 GMT Wednesday, as more and more people keep signing.
Chinese authorities generally tolerated Ai but recently launched their biggest clampdown on dissent in years amid a wave of pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East.
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