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What Can't You Say On China's Social Networks?

Posted by timothy on from the don't-even-go-there-nu-pengyou dept.

An anonymous reader writes "China's 450 million Internet users have taken to social networks in a big way. But these social networking sites, founded on the promise of free expression, have an uneasy existence under an authoritarian regime that punishes certain kinds of expression. This article from IEEE Spectrum tells the story of Sina Weibo, the white-hot social networking phenomenon that has taken over China in the past few years. Citizens have used the microblogging service to protest and rebel — but the Chinese government is getting more sophisticated in its handling of these online grumblings. Side note: an English-language version of Sina Weibo is reportedly on the way. Wonder if it will take off in the US?"

8 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. What Can't You Say On US's Internets? by cgeys · · Score: 5, Insightful

    United States's 200 million Internet users have taken to internets in a big way. But these internets, founded on the promise of free expression, have an uneasy existence under an authoritarian regime that punishes certain kinds of expression. This comment tells the story of the series of tubes, the hot social networking phenomenon that has taken over the world in the past few years. Citizens have used the internets to protest, to rebel and to share knowledge — but the US government is getting more sophisticated in its handling of these online grumblings.

    Not allowed is, for example:
    - Online gambling
    - "Obscene" or violent porn, even if only acted
    - Ordering cheaper medical drugs from other countries
    - Ordering pot or drugs
    - Sharing knowledge if it's copyrighted
    - Sharing entertainment if it's copyrighted
    - Revealing wrongdoing within US government (Wikileaks)
    - Posting knowledge of how to make bombs or certain other technical information
    - Implementing your application or website in a certain way if it's software patented
    - Anything else that hurts the business of Big Money Intangible Industries (Pharma, RIAA, MPAA, BSA)

    1. Re:What Can't You Say On US's Internets? by rainmouse · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you put up a blog post saying "I'm fed up with communism, let's move to something else! Oh yeah, and the Politburo should just up and die!", men in a black Volga will visit you sooner than you can say "Who's that knocking on the door so late at night?".

      And that is exactly why you should fight the removal of every little freedom, unless of course you want to finally end up like that. Playing the ''its much worse elsewhere so its OK for them to screw us over a little bit more each day'' card wont fly unless you are fine with the idea that people in the West are already arrested and jailed for the transfer of information.

    2. Re:What Can't You Say On US's Internets? by Serpents · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Oh please, there's no such thing as a 'slippery slope'. Not since the Constitution of the US. and the Declaration of Independence established your right to rebel should your government lose track of its objectives.

      So why don't I see anyone rebel when the TSA get more and more rights? When FBI can search people's homes and tap their phones without a warrant? When they introduce something like "precrime prolonged detention"? It does not matter what rights you have if you're too stupid/lazy/indifferent/scared to use them. There are no protesters in the streets, no one throws bricks at the cops and every time the government comes up with such bright ideas I hear the crowd repeat after them : "You don't have to be afraid of anything as long as you don't break the law". Boiling frogs

    3. Re:What Can't You Say On US's Internets? by LordLucless · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, because dirt foreign drugs are all going to be poisoned, am I right? It should only be the big corporations allowed to exploit free trade to save money, not good little consumers. Besides, based on your wikipedia link, buying Tylenol in Chicago should be outlawed, not Korea.

      --
      Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
    4. Re:What Can't You Say On US's Internets? by sqrt(2) · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No. MAKING a bomb should be illegal. Information, no matter what it is, should never be illegal.

      --
      If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
  2. Difference? by headkase · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In China they arrest you for content, in the USA they just ignore you. You have equal effect in both but more freedom to mouth off in one.

    --
    Shh.
  3. How about... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    How about..

    "China is more imperialist and capitalist than the US has ever been"
    "China actively oppresses its citizens"
    "China is a racist country where the Han chinese population has more privileges than other races"
    "China actively murders some of its populations, notably in Tibet and Mongolia"

    and this is just a start!

    Posting anonymously because, frankly, I'm a hypocritye and I'd like to see the oppression with my own eyes some day.

    1. Re:How about... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ""China is a racist country where the Han chinese population has more privileges than other races"

      In a country where over 90% of the population is Han, it's just not realistic to assume other races would/should have more privileges, which in some ways, they do, like they can have more than one baby, it's easier for them to go to universities....

      Look at USA, where non-whites make up a more prominent part of the population, if you ask the blacks and asians, they can tell you stories of how they were mistreated/discriminated in their daily lives too, and the whites are not even the native people of America.