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What Can't You Say On China's Social Networks?
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?"
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)
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.
""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.
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An Intern who is with us right now visited China last year for some months. He said:
The way China is portraied as an authoritarian regime is utterly wrong.
For example what lands you in Thailand in jail will make you no trouble in China.
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BTW: do not step on the toes of the local Sheriff, Major, Province-Governor. This will cause you trouble in:
US, Thailand, China, Japan....
All the chinese people can still read this story after all the comments done say "Yeah!!!".
Don't trust any goverment ever.They lied to people.
"China actively oppresses its citizens"
From this interesting read:
Our prison population has increased five-fold in just thirty years. In terms of the global population, we have just 5% of that but fully a quarter of the world’s prisoners.
"China is a racist country where the Han chinese population has more privileges than other races"
Meanwhile in the good US of A:
Although only about 12% of the American population is black, about half of the two-million Americans locked up in prison are black.
In fact, the impact of the War on Drugs has been so racially biased that the United States now has a greater percentage of its black population in prison than South Africa did at the height of Apartheid. "
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.
You're posting anonymously because you are an ignorant coward, and you know it.
"Imperialist and capitalist"? Capitalism - I don't think so, but who actually cares? Imperialism would imply that they went out their armies and established colonies like Europe did not so long ago. I am not convinced either China or USA fits the bill.
"Oppressing"? When is it "oppession of its citizens" and when is it "dealing with troublemakers to protect the vast majority"? I think it is a question of numbers; I can't see that a minority of troublemakers should be allowed to threaten the majority.
"Racist"? China gives more privileges to the 50 ethnic minority groups than to the Han majority; just for one thing, they are excempt from the 1 child per family policy.
"Murders"? You mean in the same sense that "The American Government actively murders some of its citizens"? Or as it is called in normal language, some states execute certain criminals.
You post anonymously because you are a liar and a coward.
...'caus I think I just heard someone say "Sina Weeaboo"!
We-i-Bo! We-i-Bo!
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
The other factor harmonizing online discourse in China, on Slashdot, and around the world is the Wmáo Dng. If you don't think you're being harmonized here, you are truly naive.
As a member of the largest Chinese social networking site, I'd like to share a couple of observations. The first is that I regularly see comments that are critical of the Chinese government and those comments do not mysteriously disappear after being posted. During the recent anniversary of the Tienanmen Square massacre, many photos of the "tank man" and other protesters were posted and not removed. Secondly, my "friends" in the network have never expressed any fear regarding what they can or can't post. It really seems to be a non-issue to them, which was surprising to me when I initially joined. I know that censorship and oppression are very real issues in China and I'm not trying to downplay them but my personal experiences indicate that the problem may be slightly blown out of proportion by certain...interests. Just sayin'.
look, folks: i can sit here, and criticize barack obama and his policies and the democratic party, all i want, here in the usa
i can't threaten his life though
ok, right there, that limitation: what does that mean? does it mean that because there are SOME limits on my freedom of expression, that that is logically equivalent to ANY limit on my expression?
"i can't threaten the president's life. therefore, i live in tyranny, and that limitation is equivalent to ANY limits on my expression, such as a limit on my right to criticize political ideologies"
is that a valid logical statement in your eyes?
no? then why don't you see that all the limits some of you have listed in this thread on your freedom of expression in the west is also NOT equivalent to what china does?
what you are doing, frankly, is showing hamfisted ignorance on your part. you reveal your own crude, uneducated way of looking at the concept of your freedom and your rights
some intellectual charity for you: in every society that ever existed, currently exists, and always will exist, limits will be placed on what you can say or do. because some people say and do things that are CRIMES. now, you may not agree with classifying some behaviors as crimes that currently your society stands against. which is fine. you can say "this behavior XYZ is not criminal, my society is wrong for saying that behavior XYZ is criminal." it is 100% legitimate for you say that
what is NOT legitimate for you to say is "because society places some limits on some behaviors, this is equivalent to society limiting ANY behavior, it's all the same. " no, it is NOT all the same. each behavior is DIFFERENT, and must be evaluated DIFFERENTLY, and some behaviors are PERFECTLY VALID subjects for limitation. do you understand that? please understand there will ALWAYS be some behavior that society classifies as crimes. you need to make peace with that fact, because that fact is never going away
to wit: just because a society classifies some expression as crime does not mean that it is equivalent to another society that classifies SIMPLE POLITICAL EXPRESSION as a crime. THAT'S the problem with china, and it is a valid criticism, a criticism that is NOT nullified, because the usa goes after kiddie porn. really
that's really the truth. please understand that engaging in false equivalencies only makes you look like a fool who doesn't understand what freedom of expression really is, and how it exists in natural philosophical tension with other fundamental freedoms in this world, with or without any government policies in play. grow up, develop a more sophisticated and nuanced way of looking at your world. because some of you right now look like idiots engaged in subject matter you simply do not understand
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Heard an interesting statistic the other day...
The combined prison population for ALL crimes in 27 EU nations (including the UK) is 600,000 out of a population of 500M
The prison population for DRUG crime alone in the US is 500,000 out of a population of 300M
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
"Imperialist and capitalist"? Capitalism - I don't think so, but who actually cares? Imperialism would imply that they went out their armies and established colonies like Europe did not so long ago. I am not convinced either China or USA fits the bill.
Well USA in present day - no I don't think it's imperialist currently. Historically that's a different matter - spreading out "from coast to coast", Philippines, Hawaii, Puerto Rico - yes that was imperialism.
For China - well the expansion in Tibet falls into that category, and in present day China makes territorial claims to many of it's neighbors - against India (Arunachal Pradesh), against Taiwan (particularly it's right to exist) and pretty much everybody in the South China sea (Natuna Islands, Malampaya and Camago, Scarborough Shoal, Spratly Islands, Paracel Islands, Gulf of Thailand and Singapore Strait). Also against Japan (Senkaku islands).
It's certainly an expansionist agenda - you can argue whether that on it's own constitutes imperialism or not.
examples of slippery slopes:
"if gay marriage is legalized, people will marry goats, children, corpses, etc. therefore, gay marriage should be illegal"
"you can't smoke marijuana because marijuana is a gateway drug where the user inevitably slips into cocaine, heroin, meth, etc. therefore, marijuana should be illegal"
"premarital sex is wrong because it inevitably leads to orgies, pornography, sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, etc. therefore, premarital sex should be outlawed"
etc.
slippery slope is a form of appeal to emotion. it's based on fear and hysteria, not logic. that you give an inch, and inevitably, a yard will be taken. no, that's bullshit
for the idea of the slippery slope to work, you have to assume that we aren't dealing with thinking human beings who can tell the difference between various topics, you have to assume that our laws are some sort of living force that if you release a seed of a concept into the wild it inevitably grows into a dark powerful entity we have no control over and it overwhelms all sense of reason until dystopia arrives. this is ridiculous. this is absurd. it's also the essence of the slippery slope argument
i can tell the difference between homosexuality and pedophilia. i can tell the difference between marijuana and methamphetamine
and i can tell the difference between political expression and revolution. so can the average chinese citizen. why can't you?
all arguments that depend upon the idea of a slippery slope fail
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
If you are not convinced that USA is imperialist, then you don't know your history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company
http://www.businessinsider.com/wikileaks-haiti-minimum-wage-the-nation-2011-6
LOL ;-P
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Slipper slop may not be logical but is real, unfortunately. We are dealing with human beings and not math. You may find people using pot have indeed higher probability to use meth as well. Or you could say slippery slop is indeed logical because human nature will tend to abuse one's own power or continuously going a step further than already taken, just like gravity will inevitably pull the cars down on a slippery slop. I don't like, probably nobody like, the rules made to guard against slippery slop but the slop is real in many social/economic area.
the slippery slope is not real. it really isn't. it's a fear, a hysteria, on your part, not on the part of reality
for example: you should stop commenting here on slashdot. because some hackers also comment on slashdot. therefore, since some commentors on slashdot are also hackers, then you have an association that proves that compared to the general population, commenting on slashdot gives you a higher probabilty that you will hack a computer system. ergo: commenting on slashdot is an unstoppable slide to hacking computer systems
what i just wrote is absurdity. it is also the same absurdity that you wrote about meth and marijuana above. to believe this absurdity is to announce that you are a hysterical twit. stop being a hysterical twit: understand why anyone who tries to sell you on the idea of the slippery slope is an abusive demagogue or a fear-addled moron. really
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it