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China Continues to Shut Down Video Sites
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "It's not just YouTube that's blocked in China. After the unrest in Tibet, at least 25 video sharing sites have been shut down and others have been penalized. While the Chinese government is not admitting that violence in Tibet had anything to do with it, they do have a sudden interest in strictly enforcing licensing restrictions that require video sharing websites to register with the government. Among other things, Chinese video sharing sites must promise not to show videos that inspire fear, contain pornography, or endanger national security."
Why?
I haven't seen many Youtube videos that endanger the US's national security...
inspire fear, contain pornography, or endanger national security
... that'd be inspire fear in the government leaders that the people might SEE what they're really doing
... as in, see the government naked and have some of their dirty secrets exposed for all to see
Lets see. inspire fear
or, contain pornography
and finally, endanger national security would be endanger their position of power by inciting unrest
There, that's better.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
In an official press release, Chinese Vice Premiere of Public Communication Kahn d'Eljak stated that "The common decency of the people in their daily lives must not be interrupted by unsavory activists who only wish to destroy the Greatest Republic the world has ever known." The Premiere did not comment on the rec
Haven't they learned from the 1936 and 1980 Olympics? A totalitarian government might promise the IOC that they will be more open and peaceful if they are allowed to host the Olympic Games, but they will not honor it. Perhaps this will be the first Olympic Games where the government hosting the games is massacring people while the athletes compete.
Personally, I think it is time that the Olympics are removed from the control of the IOC. The games in China should also be canceled.
I'm sure that somewhere there's a Girls Gone Wild video that does all three...
Word to your Chinese mother you heard!
Wouldn't carpetbombing China with dirty magazines be more ironic? Fear, pornography, and national endangerment all in one go!
I seem to remember someone claiming that the Abu Gharib photos endangered US National Security...
Run a tor node! Remove the potential for censure of information by oppressive regimes like China, Cuba and _[insert favorite oppressive country here]_ http://tor.eff.org/
I posted the following info on a previous thread a few days ago, but it was long enough after the story had been posted that it got buried. Anyway, because I believe that it's significant, I will again point out that Google would seem to be coalescing to the wishes of governments such as China. Google's automated the process of blocking particular videos in particular countries via new country blocking XML tags ([media :restriction type="country" relationship="deny">CN]") that they've added in YouTube/Google Video. If you're not familiar with Google's latest (Do no evil???) addition to YouTube, see the write-up that YouTomb did on the matter. Anyway, I can think of no other reason that Google would add in such capability, but I've admittedly not devoted much time to pondering it.
It's sad that we are allowing these Violations of Human Rights in China to continue unabated. America has long known of Chinas abuse of power and its Terrible Record on Human Rights; however, money, more than anything else will allow China to continue to sweep its abuses under the rug.
As one of our biggest up & coming trading partners, with billions of US dollars invested in the country, why would we want to do something as silly as Boycotting the 2008 Summer Olypics? Yes, its unfortunate; however, the status quo will remain, and China will continue to violate Human Rights, while the US and China's other trading partners will continue to turn a blind eye to the abuses.
----Free Stumbles for your Website
Your new comment scoring system has too many spaces in it: i.e., ( Score:3 , Funny), instead of the old way (Score:3, Funny), which just looks better without all the extra spaces.
Also, when you click the score link, we get a "Moderation Comment Log." Shouldn't that be a "Comment Moderation Log"?
wait until the black athletes show up and all the chinese start cowering in fear of the "black devils"
this should be an entertaining olympics
You can't take the sky from me...
No to censorship.
Set up a Psiphon node.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psiphon
25 sites are shut down? How am I supposed to watch Ni Hao, Kai-Lan?
Its a good thing we don't have videos on slashdot.
But the majority of you will go to Wal-Mart at some point in the next 3 days and buy goods made from China. So who's winning the war here?
Yeah, my karma sucks....but so do the mods.
China is fighting unarmed(or lightly armed) monks in clear view of the world. While they can censor their own media, everyone else sees China as a bully. The Dali-Lama is actually being given an amplified voice. I sincerely do not believe that China wants the person they're trying to repress be given a bigger soap box, but that is what is happening in reality.
God spoke to me.
With all the black holes springing up in the network, surely the natives suspect something?
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
Unfortunately, IMO, this is a pure speculation without base. The crackdown is not related with Tibet event. After a few minutes search on the Internet, I find the sites mentioned to be cracked down were cracked before March 14th, when the major unrest was break out. Anyone that can read Chinese, please read this link http://www.cnbeta.com/articles/51236.htm, it is an article about the one of major video sharing site being out of service for one day. It was before March 14th, and before you tube is reported to be blocked. The whole thing is about the government wants to gain more control over web and media, as they suddenly realized that web video sharing site is a new kind of popular media that they do not have control, and some silly rules that they made about web video service. So the whole is not related to Tibet unrest event.
There is some truth to that, as much as we like to think what a particular country's government should be, ultimately it is up to its people to decide their own fate. While the (perhaps ignorant) individual may not consciously think of how their country should be governed, the mass which makes up the society as a whole does ultimately, whether consciously or not, ended up dictating the type of government that it deems unacceptable (at least in the sense that they would rather live with the government than revoke against it).
You see, the U.S. people got their freedom as their British ancestors who immigrated to North America decided to revoke against its government for paying too much tax (they had the geographical advantage of having an ocean divde), and the French followed similar course of action (their people were desperate). Their people, as a whole, paid its due for the price of freedom and fought through it. However, it should be noted that each culture and nation has its own unique situation. In the case of China, ultimately it'd be up to its citizens to decide.
The real issue is that over the next 5 years, this will get worse, not better. As it does, the leadership will want to hold on to their country (and their position). They KNOW that their citizens are a much bigger threat to them than any other nation. So what will happen? They will take the fight out of the country and go elsewhere. IOW, they will attack another country. It could be taiwain. It could also be a country like Russia (great resources for them) and a fairly easy target if they blitz it. But make no mistake. Chinese leadership will have to do something. And it is very doubtful that they will do a number of attacks on the local citizens. Far better to wipe them up into attacking somebody else. Perhaps allow a sky scraper to be taken out by some other group of people, or even bring it down themselves and blame others.
Chinese video sharing sites must promise not to show videos that inspire fear, contain pornography, or endanger national security."
Just like the US is trying, except that would include videos which attempt to dispel government sanctioned fear (i.e. of terrorism, pornography or drugs), contain pornography, or endanger national (or corporate) security.
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
The Goddess of Democracy is strong. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goddess_of_Democracy
Ah, she flies, hand in hand with the FSM. Noodly appendages never forget.
He is absolutely correct. This is the same effect as the west buying loads of oil from countries like Iran and Venezuela. The money is fed to terrorists. China will do the same. WRT china, the west is feeding this more and more. As long as money is incoming into china, the leadership will continue to send money to Dafar, North Korea, etc, as well as using the profits to crack down on their citizens. While we blame china, the biggest blame belongs with those that keep these leaders in power; The West.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
At the rate things are going now we will only be able to see a censored edition of the Olympics. Specifically only the matches that China wins.
I WILL salute China though, if they can convince their public that the Olympic games are all about tabletennis and goldfarming in WoW.
I live in Hong Kong, a part of China where they haven't banned everything. I don't think that banning video sites is the right thing to do, but the Olympics is where political differences are set aside, to allow athletes to compete for the sake of competition And i think that no government system would allow demonstrators to burn cars, wreck stores and beat up people of other authenticity on the street.
I spend a lot of time in China. The Chinese media is actually portraying the monks as aggressive "counter-revolutionary" types. The language is similar to what you see western press doling out to Al Qaeda. The typical educated Chinese (I happen to be in Beijing) is buying into it because that is what they see and hear from the "news" on a regular basis. The deaths of civilians is being blamed on them too. Apparently, all the dead civilians "burned to death" even though there is gunfire all over the city. The westerners just roll their eyes.
...where someone lumps in the 2002, 1996, or 1984 games into that category, too, not realizing that the mere fact that they can post such a statement falsifies it.
Anything much beyond one pass, and you're inviting the possibility of a successful retribution.
Of course, should you find some way to incapacitate China, how would the business community react?
(Cue pro-China modbombing in
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Yeah, but who'd do it? The US? They're even more afraid of porn than China is.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
We might also consider the difference between lightly armed civilians attempting to fight armies armed with horses and muskets and swords, and these same civilians attempting to fight armies armed with tanks, jets and helicopters and modern mass killing weapons.
When your whole neighborhood can be flattened with one rocket, it's kind of hard to do much. I seem to recall reports of our late unlamented friend Saddam using chemical weapons against rebels. How do you fight against that kind of thing being used against your wives and kids?
He's calling it the "Middle Path". Having autonomy instead of independence (kinda like what Hong Kong has right now) is intended to be a compromise that the Chinese government is supposed to find more agreeable.
I don't know about you, but the Star Wars kid made me pretty insecure...
Not sure why I'm feeding this troll, but to inform anyone that doesn't want to click his link, it's to an article about Hollywood shutting downing P2P sites. Apples and oranges at best, for obvious reasons, I would think.
I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.
It's obvious you don't understand the word censor.
A favorite past time of the American citizen is to rip on the minor flaws they find in the system. Stories like these should make us appreciate the free exchange of ideas and information our country has.
You can't access Youtube in Turkey. The last time Turkey blocked it, the DNS just pointed to a page giving the name of the court decision that had resulted in the blocking. This time around they've taken stronger measures so simply using another DNS server isn't good enough.
In any case, Turkey is a democracy and it still blocks Youtube because of videos insulting national heroes. That's what you get from an independent judiciary with laws restricting free speech.
Don't you know all the news covered in CNN, Washington Post, BBC, MSN, Foxnews are manipulated? Check it out yourself at www.anit-cnn.com.. Using pics taken in Nepal and claiming they're taken in Tibet.. hmmm, how objective they are..
The govts of many nations are worse than 1000 tony sopranos.
National security is a secret code for 'govt cronie security of their assets.
Porn should be positive, only it makes politicians look even more ugly.
Id say make a new rule, the govt parliament must be naked at all times, so ugly old fat shits arent voted in.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
That being said, China is fskced. I've met some native Chinese who came here to go to school, and the propaganda they carry with them is unreal. "One China" anybody? That freaky film, "Hero" canonizing a butcher pretty much sums that one up. And I've met people who have lived here for over a decade who still hunch up and look frightened when you ask them what they think of the Chinese government. Like abuse victims. I guess the truncheons haven't fully come out yet in the U.S., and real information is still being controlled through ridicule rather than simply being locked down.
I've heard the U.S. described as the largest social experiment on the planet; the objective being to see if it is possible to fully control people without the use of force. Kind of like a beef farmer letting their cattle think they're living happy, free lives when in fact almost every thought and decision is dictated.
-FL
The swedes, duh.
I think another reason that is also pleasing the government a lot is that this will keep all these students away from the camera of international journalist.
You know, with all these habits that we students worldwide have of protesting and organising processions and strikes, it's good side effect that the campus will be closed, just in case if some Chinese students decided to overcome their fears and copy us trying some of the silly stuff that the foreign colleagues are doing.
It would be specially embarrassing since they won't be able to handle potential students protest the usual way (it's not very encouraged to send tank against students in front of cameras).
Except that if the government had said "Students aren't allowed to express publicly their political opinion" the whole western world would be complaining about attacks to their freedom of speech. Whereas "China announce it will happily lend its Colleges' gyms so athlete can win, saddly this means that the duration of the students summer break will have to be extended" suddenly sounds a lot more benevolent. The government hit two birds with single stone : They both do us a favor giving a place to our athlete and managed do discretely shut the Chinese students up.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
And afterwards they bomb us with their stinky tofu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinky_tofu? Better not...
The question turns to whether Western civilization would remain profitable (and humane) if China disappeared.
"When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
This one's certainly blocked since it belongs to exiled Tibetans' domain which has for years been under heavy attacks by the CCP's electronic warfare corps.
Since the biggest problem with China is that the masses simply don't know anything else other than the "information" managed by the Party's Ministry of Propaganda, it is imperative that the West begins to pay more attention to the right of the Chinese people to access news sources outside their regime's control. It'd be a start if the US and the EU would not just approve of but actually promote the creation of peer-to-peer filesharing and streaming sites. Strangely, most of the current p2p streaming sites seem to operate from China and Taiwan, but they're strictly centered around "harmless" stuff like sports, entertainment and local dramas without a whiff of anything resembling social or political content.
Should invading one's peaceful neighbours be opposed, or rewarded with trade deals?
We could just carpet bomb them with all the cheap crap they've sold us over the years. They'd surrender quick.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
Cheney sez "SO"? in TV when told 2/3rd of US citizens oppose the illegal invasion and continuing occupation of Iraq. Isn't Cheney supposed to follow the "Will of the people"?
Oh yeah, I forget, this is American style "democracy" in action.
Pot-->kettle-->back
fuck karma, I like saying the truth better
... and specific knowledge begets its own increase.
.net -"blogger/log/cache"' and see the different in result count. and look at what sites are pointing to those hacked in pages.
I find it interesting that it appears that most of the sites that point to pages that were installed on my site without my knowledge (just under 2500 pages), are Chinese in origin.
google "threeseas.net" then google 'threeseas
It seems the Chinese people are bored and have taken up internet hacking for censorship as a hobby. And hey, even their government is doing it.
What are the effects such hacking has thru AUTOMATED crawlers and AUTOMATED analysis of search engines like google?
Watch as google finds more and more of these pages "not found" on my site (as I have removed them and redirected all hits to those pages) and google finds redirection.... to eventually reduce my legitimate listing in their search results.
Imagine that, Chinese site hacking reducing search results of sites in other countries for the citizens of other countries.
Google and other search engine companies have things they really need to deal with regarding such indirect manipulation of their automated systems.
Until they get a better handle on it, there are far bigger and wider scope issues regarding Chinese censorship then what the article is about.
Not everybody, quiet a few of us are fed up with the one sided media, same thing happend in Albania with the poor "Albanians".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSQnK5FcKas
I think violence against a minority ethnic group is pretty deplorable, and we have seen some of the worst in Tibet by Tibetans against other ethnic groups (and or religions) who make up 6-8% of the population of the TAR.
If that project could ever get some network performance (speed) it could really help in places like China.
This is very true. Only TOO true in fact, if you remember what happened on Tian'anmen square 1989:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989
Um, ah, are you calling the Dalai Lama a lier then? Be cause he says it himself *repeatedly*.
Despite what the Chinese have done to *his* country: the rape, murder, and willful and blatant destruction of the institutions most precious to Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama does not see independence from China as possible because he recognizes a hard case when he sees it.
The Chinese constitution guarantees some sort of autonomy, and within autonomy there is no reason why the Tibetan people can not move forward and have some sort of normal existence. The Dalai Lama sees that as a win-win situation. Tibetans get to live unoppressed, and the Han Chinese can still say to themselves proudly "Look, Tibet is ours!".
So the Dalai Lama is more concerned with the livelihood of his people than reptilian territoriality. China has placed such a pathetically small value on human life, that I'm sure they struggle with that concept. Sad really.
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
Why stop pornography? Masturbation releives tension. Tension that might otherwise be harnessed in a revolution.
Bread and circus my friends. Bread and circus. Hasn't steered the leaders in the US wrong yet.
Damn, I wanted to mod the parent up, but I HAD to respond to this.
You just do. You do because you have to. You do because you want Freedom that bad that no price is too high. When you would give everything for Freedom, you can have Freedom.
Against smart infantry, Tanks are easy. They taught us a dozen different way in the Marines. Missiles are tougher, but so what. You just inflict more personal painful damage to them. It is next to impossible for the Insurgents to loose a war they really want. (There's my excuse for the few that did.) Hell, Look how much damage the Iraqi's are inflicting on the finest fighting force on the Earth today. The only way to win that war will be to either kill everyone, or to hold on until enough generations will have gone by for everyone to have forgotten.
And if the US and Iraq were the same country? (ie. a civil war) The US would be loosing, because the political leaders would be dieing, and the supply lines are short enough that they can be "shared".
When the People Really Want It. They will do whatever they have to. They will suffer any cost to have Freedom. And not a second before, and that's why the US is loosing in Iraq.
And that's why the US is loosing to itself. The people forgot what Freedom is all about, and they'd rather have Brittany and Paris and 'Who wants to make a million/tell the truth/survivor whatever the fuck is polluting their minds today.'
When the People really want Freedom, They'll have it. No matter what the cost.
Until then, they'll have whatever they're allowed...
Your Moon, Your Mission, Get involved! http://www.openluna.org
Free has two definitions. Censor has one. Weed is not information, bits that can be duplicated. This is the same argument as theft vs copyright infringement. I take your weed, you no longer have it. I copy your video, you still have your copy and now I have mine. It seems you are the one with the logically flawed argument.
So, since the mods find you so "informative" Mr. "It isn't censored," let's see you produce the missing 15 seconds of that internet video clip. Can't do it? Why not? "It's not teh censereed!!!" Come on buddy, where is it? What, you can't find it? Oh and if you could it would be illegal for you to post it? Why? Because you would need a license to do so. Wow, just like in China!
Only the privileged are allowed access to the information. Just because there is a legal way for a privileged few to obtain the information doesn't mean it isn't censorship. Should your right to read be based on your ability to pay or your rank in the Chinese government? Is there really any difference? Can information that is not gratis truly be libre?
Which part of my post wasn't true, and if so, could you cite your references? One day when you visit the temples you may recognize how stupid you are.
Anything much beyond one pass, and you're inviting the possibility of a successful retribution.
Of course, should you find some way to incapacitate China, how would the business community react? Well, it'll end up being our next destination (China) the way we're headed in terms of conflict. With the record China is getting, it might be a good idea to know friend from foe. That includes the business community, who's enabled some of the more recent chapters (including Google and cisco, enablers of the censorship). Should our nation need to take action on a large scale, we must be able to do it - and not have the business community block us.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
The real question is, where are all the videos that should be streaming out of Tibet? CNN isn't broadcasting them, and neither is any other news outlet. Granted, it's a poor nation, so there's not too many people with technology, and they're scared shitless (as I would be) but does the Chinese government really exercise THAT much control over people's cell phones, video recorders, and cameras?
I mean, there should be SOME indications as to what is going on there. If the Chinese government has that much control in this age of ubiquitous technology, that is truly scary.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
These unarmed(?) Monks(?) know many ways to kill people. They can choose to burn you, stone you or cut flesh from your bottom ( no joke). I know some people in this forum think each word Chinese news agency( or government) says is lie and every video they show are fake. Here is one from Australia news. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9LuMLSpgcE
With AK-47's and RPG's. These two weapons enable you to destroy any infantry force you outnumber. They are the great equalizers of modern war. Read Guerrilla Warfare for more details. Also, propaganda is really important. General strikes, sabotage, and demonstrations are other good techniques. It is going to be bloody, long, and your nation will be in ruins at the end. But it is possible to fight against a totalitarian regime. The Vietnam war and the war in Afghanistan are both good examples of this.
Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further development.-- Frontinus, 1st cent. AD
I am always reading news of sites 'blocked' in China and the massive effects of the "Great Firewall" And do you know what? They are almost always untrue.
I am 45 minutes from central Beijing here right now. Youtube is business as usual - and if there was an outage, I didn't notice it. The media is full of news and footage on Tibet and the worst that normally happens is that a page has to be reloaded with a proxy on a very few (and ever-changing)roster of sites - FLICKR was unlocked a while back and the BBC is also available.
It may be that some zealous Chinese ISP's are locally censoring sites the government here really does not care about - or the government is censoring Chines language sites only. I don't know for sure but the on net here - information flows...
The Gospel according to lolcat
Why don't I hear the regular chanting? Otherwise I'd be able to chant along:
Free Tibet from the medieval religion-state mind control!
Free Tibet from religious zealots!
Free Tibet from ethnic terrorists!
Free Tibet from hatred education spread by the exiles!
Free Tibet from the cultural/religious hypocrites who, after over-consuming the world's material and their own culture and religion, trying to block Tibet from development and entering the new century!
Come on! I roll my eyes every time I bumped into someone telling me how peaceful Dalai Lama was. I happened to just saw a photo on yahoo showing the Tibetan-in-exile school in India displaying bloody human bodies to kids look to me less than 10 years old. No wonder the hatred displayed by those Tibetan demonstrators. I don't ever think there's any mass killing of Tibetan people ever happen in their lives. And what hatred has been planted into their minds, with the money you donated, supposedly to promote peace. Sigh...
What purpose does it serve to let your propaganda override ours? Does it calm down the ongoing ethnic conflicts? Does it make the western media slightly less biased towards China? Does it fuel less ammunitions to attacks on China?
It only harms the western media's profit. And that's why they're shouting out so loudly. If the things cool down, die out, and when the paying subscribers interest turn to something else, 5 bucks I bet your media can't be bothered to follow up unless it's useful for making some other points. And what truth got to do with it when all you care is to make the point?
I request the entire world's media to put a blanket freeze on all Olympic events that take place in China this year...let the Chinese government know that it can work both ways.
The monks were unarmed. When the riot police beat them down, non-monk Tibetans took to the streets leaving a trail of destruction. The looters made it very obvious they weren't you're atypical looters - they took the merchandise out from the stores and burned it in the middle of the street. Normally, looters do smash and grabs so they can have a new TV in their living room. Instead, this was straight up dissent, freshly served with lighter fluid and new electronics.
To the above poster that suggested a massacre took place - 18 people have died in protests in Tibet. (Last I read... ) As unfortunate as that is, when you have a large number of people in the streets protesting, and you're faced with an aggressive police, someone will die. Now, not all those people are ethnic Tibetans, as there is video coverage of Tibetan mobs kicking the shit out of ethnic Chinese.
Plus the Chinese government is not Communist at all - they're simply bourgeoisie technocrats now with roots in the old Communist party. To my understanding, the Chinese don't even have socialized health care - what the fuck is that?!? There's no Communism in China, it's pure capitalism. Just to stop insulting the grave of Mao (not like any Communist there cares anyway), they should just disband the Communist government and reinstate multiparty liberal democratic elections.
Come on youth rebellion...
Yes,
What was the old joke about, drop $20.00 bills and bags of cocaine on them and they'll all kill themselves in the streets, fighting over the last bag of coke or $20.00 bill.
Porn may work the same way due to gov't restrictions and the lack there of..
lol
Cthulhu Saves -- in case He's hungry later.