Citizen Journalism Combating Chinese Censorship

teh_commodore writes to tell us that Breitbart has a look at how Citizen Journalism is shining a whole new light on China. "Recognizing the threat of China's growing online community, Chinese President Hu Jintao called in January for the Internet to be 'purified', and the government has since launched a number of online crackdowns. [...] 'One cannot truly say that the Internet in China is becoming more and more free, because at the same time as the development of citizen journalists, the government finds ways of blocking or censoring content,' Pain said."

Comments

Hot Button Words

[Azuma Hazuki]

Whenever I hear people in "dear leader" positions throwing around words like purify, patriotism, freedom, etc, it makes me cringe. This is doublespeak; "purify" means "purge."

Re:Hot Button Words

[beyondkaoru]

aye, brothers. we must rally our men to combat the numerous evils which threaten our home, the (imperium|usa|middle kingdom). there can be no rest until the (heretics and mutants|dissenters|dissenters) have been purged, and we may stand united to praise the (emperor|president|chairman)!

but we must not merely look within to find the enemy; there is, too, the enemy without: these (xenos|muslims|capitalists)... the more i look at them, the more i come to know them, the more i come to hate them. i hate them not because they are different, but because they are not capable of pure, (human|american|maoist) (hatred|patriotism|nationalism).*

in the grim (future|present) of the (41st millenium|21st century), there can be only war**!

*ironically, all three benefit greatly from their enemies without; the adeptus mechanicus researches c'tan tech, the usa benefits from middle-eastern oil, china benefits from trade and manufacture.
**on drugs/terror/whatever in the us. may vary elsewhere.

ok, that was totally offtopic, but fun to type.

China IS getting more free.

[Prysorra]

I admit I'm a hopeless optimist, but look at it this way.

Censorship is a tool used when you're losing control. Scary things are about to happen, and China doesn't anyone to know.

Re:China IS getting more free.

[MightyMartian]

Censorship is a tool used when you're losing control.

That is an incredibly absurd thing to say. Censorship has been practiced in many societies for thousands of years. Censorship is about maintaining control. There have always been ways around censorship, but it works because the vast majority of people either do not know to circumvent it or are too frightened of the consequences to try.

The Chinese Communists have been using censorship since the very beginning, so it's rather silly to state "It's a sign they're losing control", when it is simply the way things are done in China. The difference is now that circumventing that censorship is a good deal easier. It is forcing the Chinese government to be more responsive to the needs of people. It's a pity that these tools hadn't been available during truly tragic periods of recent Chinese history (The Great Leap Forward).

The cycle continues.....

[TheBearBear]

until the government starts spreading fear and terror and death threats.... you know, old commy style, so that even if it is easy to circumvent censorship, people will be so afraid to do so. And then they will have won the cat and mouse game.

Re:Do they....

[mrjb]

Has anybody forgot Tiananmen Square? What square? According to the Ministery of Truth, it never happened.

Re:How Is This News For Nerds??

[mrjb]

There's not really any tech angle here. You've never heard of The Great Firewall of China, I suppose.

Re:Is our media free?

[morgan_greywolf]

No, it's not the same. Let's take into account the advertisers, first.

Let's say you write a fairly Apple- and Linux-centric blog (we'll call it 'athloidot') and your advertisers, who are Microsoft-centric, demand that you start posting nice things about Microsoft products. You, as the editorial staff, can either bend over and grease up, writing some nice stuff about Vista, or, you can tell the advertisers to politely fuck off and go get yourself another set of advertisers.

Now, the bloggers in China cannot tell the Chinese government to politely fuck off, because that would be a crime punishable by imprisonment, torture, or both.

As for whether it will offend anyone -- well, it hasn't seemed to stop Slashdot, now has it?

Re:Do they....

[MightyYar]

You neglect to mention that said republic has a system in place for dealing with such abuses, and while slow, it is apparently succeeding in getting the little island prison closed down.

Sort of an important point that you missed there, since it is a way in which that republic completely differs from China.

That and the abuses of one country do not justify the abuses of another.

Assistance from the West

[NJVil]

Perhaps Google, Yahoo, and other bastions of the Internet will get right on this if they're asked nicely. They've got a proven track record when it comes to assisting oppressive governments.

Re:Is our media free?

[MightyYar]

I agree with you, but don't you think that there is a fundamental difference between:

• Being told what you can and cannot say, and
• regulating your own mouth/keyboard/pen for your own social benefit

I mean, in the first case, even if you say, "Damn the consequences, I'm going to write that article!"... the article gets removed and no one can read it. In the second case, the article remains published any you suffer the consequences. To me, there is a huge distinction there.

Not Likely

[twitter]

... someday that power will expose their secrets and then be used organize their fall from power.

How do you organize the memory hole? The problem with censored electronic media is that it eliminates the ability to reference. If your references disappear and organizers are put in jail, there will only be one coherent story.

not that easy to free themselves

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not that easy for an oppressed people to free themselves.

For one thing, you have to hope that a George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, etc. exist simultaneously around the same time. And also that they have the tools need to mount an effective resistance. Not every country is lucky enough to get people like that.

The other MAJOR problem is the lack of weaponry. You see, people seem to be willing to give up all kinds of liberties when the slightest amount of feart is introduced. Now imagine the threat against you if you government is evil .. they murder and rape etc. not just the dissident but also people he/she cares about. So if a dissident is going to mount a resistance he/she has to be aware who else they're "involunteering", because it won't just be the dissident paying the price.

It may be self satifying to place the blame on being oppressed on the oppressed (after all it liberates any feelings of obligation to help) but that doesn't mean it's the truth.

Re:Do they....

[triskaidekaphile]

Change from within would be nice, but there is no way change can come from within unless there is pressure from without.

Nobody could challenge the Roman empire at its height, of course, but nobody from within could have challenged it even after the political system had started rotting. It took an outside force to economically and militarily bring down the government. Change occurred within, but it required forces from without.

The many revolutions against the European powers in the 18th-20th centuries did not occur just because the people revolted. They would never have been able to revolt if they had not developed a middle class due to trade with foreign powers and a belief that they could rule themselves which they learned from seeing other former colonies succeed. Without either of those, independence would never have occurred.

The Soviet Union did not break apart because the people suddenly rallied. The economy had taken a horrible toll during the Cold War and economic reforms led to political reforms. When the reactionaries tried to seize control in order to roll back those reforms, then the people did stand up. But none of it could have happened without the economic pressure from without.

These are simplified, of course, but fair assessments. My point is that "the people" will not spontaneously restructure society. Society will perpetuate itself despite the dissidents. Why? Because society prefers stability over instability. "The people" will never generate instability; only an external actor can do that.

Re:Have any of you even been to China?

[ChrisA90278]

Here in the US if you want to sell hot dogs you need about a hundred government permits. There are forms and taxes and fees just to hire the guy to run the pushcart and there is a business license and health inspectors and so on and so on. the goernment even tells you how long you can keep a hot dog after you heat it and how and where is get rid of the hot dogs you can't sell. Every stage of a hot dog vending in the US is regulated and controled by the government. In China if you want to sell hot dogs all you need is are some hot dogs. If you want to sell a picture of Micky Mouse on a tee shirt all you need is some ink and tee shirts, no need to ask Disney first I think much of China works this way. People just do what they want and if they don't cause any trouble are left alone. I won't argue it this is a good thing or bad. Maybe it's best to give up some freedom so we can eat USDA inspected hot dogs.

But the governments are different. In the US the leaders know and accept that they will leave office one day and they are pretty sure the system of government will continue on. In China the government took power and holds power by force and the goal of the leadership is to remain in office for life.

So in some way the people in China are more free. They can do as they
like as long is that is no threat the government.

Interesting site

[WindBourne]

They are blocking on chinese only. By not blocking english, then they will encourage a number of chinese to learn it or some other language.

Re:Do they....

[Cairnarvon]

"Who I do feel sad for are the people who live there, as many of them did NOT bring this upon themselves, however, it IS up to them to free this country of an evil tyranny."

And how do you propose they do that when the vast majority don't realise the problem is that bad, or that they *could* do something about it?
That's the entire point of censorship: to keep people in the dark about the gravity of their situation. And in almost all of mainland China, it's working perfectly.