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?"

Comments

What Can't You Say On US's Internets?

[cgeys]

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)

Re:What Can't You Say On US's Internets?

[rainmouse]

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.

Re:What Can't You Say On US's Internets?

[Serpents]

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

Re:What Can't You Say On US's Internets?

[LordLucless]

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.

Re:What Can't You Say On US's Internets?

[sqrt(2)]

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

Difference?

[headkase]

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.

Re:Difference?

[richlv]

what if you draw stick figure porn, then say that one of the participants is 17 years old ?

Re:How about...

[Anonymous Coward]

""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.

all the false equivalencies in these comments

[circletimessquare]

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