China Grows Its Own Twitter

Stirfry192 writes "Twitter is banned in China, and the authorities are trying to foster a censored version of the service, but the speed and nature of such services calls into question China's ability to retain control — especially in combustible, highly emotional situations."

Comments

they can use it to track down people who post and

[Joe_Dragon]

they can use it to track down people who post.

Re:hate to post off topic, but is it just me?

[paiute]

Only Post!

Looks like they have some catching up to do.

[sethstorm]

"A lot of the injustices in China aren't necessarily new, but people are just starting to hear about them."

Wait until they hear what really happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Or what their company town's party boss was really doing to the town.

Re:Looks like they have some catching up to do.

[larry bagina]

What happened when you heard about the Kent State shootings?

Re:Looks like they have some catching up to do.

[poity]

I wasn't alive at the time, but I did learn about it in history class here in the US years later. I got to hear everyone who had an opinion condemn the national guard rather than the students. I learned there was the memorial paid by public funds, and the commemorations that happened year after year. Not to mention the greater emphasis on non-lethal means of riot control brought forth as a result of the incident.

Were you trying to equate Kent State to Tiananmen? Because you failed really hard.

Re:Looks like they have some catching up to do.

[Anonymous Coward]

If you think that they don't know, then you are kidding your self. They see the injustice. However, centuries of philosophical teachings (Confucius, the guy really was evil) have made them more accepting of inequality.

I remember, I had been in China for about six months and a friend told me that she wanted to show me something. However, the instruction was that as I went through the gate she was going to tell me to stop. I was to act as if I didn't understand her. At that point she would chase me down (now entering the facility herself). We then wandered around for a while.

What was the top secret facility we entered? It was a school for the party members children. It was the type of showcase school that we see when we look at pictures of Chinese schools. It had air-conditioning, and desks, and chairs. The dormitories were clean and the students had windows. They even appeared to have had modern books. This was nothing like the schools for the peoples children; which were dark, crumbling, plaster buildings with poor equipment and facilities.

The Chinese people are aware of these things. However, they accept that this is the way things are and spend their energy cheating and squabbling with each other under the premise that there is little they can do to bring about meaningful, and positive, structural change. As such all effort goes into improving personal lives, not into improving society as a whole.

Re:Looks like they have some catching up to do.

[DigiShaman]

I believe it. Shanghai isn't that bad, so I'm guessing you visited a more rural area. But, you might be speaking of Shanghai too. I don't know, I honestly haven't been all over that city due to it being so big

During one of my trips deep inside the mainland with my Chinese wife, I needed to use the restroom. It's like one of those stand-alone buildings you often see at a national park. But this one was really bad. It reeked of urine, and everything was covered with white tiles stained brownish yellow. Chinese love tiles in and around their buildings for some reason. Anyways, that as the piss trough running the entire length of one wall. The toilets were just holes in the ground with a length of PVC pipe cut lengthwise to capture the waste. But it get's better. Much better.

In order to use this lovely little restroom, I had to pay a usage fee to a man standing outside the door. I think it was 1 or 2 Yuan. Very little really. I felt paying for that little time of hell was both strange and insulting to me at the same time. My wife assured me that this was normal out here. They weren't trying to milk a foreigner here. In fact, I bet I'm the first one they've ever saw.

Throughout all my ordeal, I wasn't upset. Rather, I felt bad for an entire nation with a deep and rich history all but forgotten amongst the people. Because of the CCP, China was a nation that could have been much more than ever dreamed possible, but never had the chance. Here before me stands a man in his 40s working his glorious soul-sucking job of collecting toiletry money. I can only imagine how the educated class in China must feel. Them hearing about the Cultural Revolution and the epic failure that it was must be gut-wrenching to their national pride.

Re:Looks like they have some catching up to do.

[poity]

Good point, protesting the foregone past does seem pretty silly. But what would you say about a memorial being built? Or perhaps a solemn discussion of what transpired, and the lessons we've learned as a society? Well, in China attempts to do either have been met with censorship and punishment.

What did we do after Kent State here in the US? We mourned, we fought for answers, we reflected, we changed, we put the shameful truth in our history books for all to see. People grow up on the knowledge of this event, and it shapes their world view and moral character. In owning up to our mistakes we become a better nation. You're right that protesting the past is useless, but it seems all the rest that we can do isn't so useless.

So maybe Kent State is not as much a point of similarity that the US shares with China as one that sets it apart.

Now, about your class back in the 80's. You guys may have glossed through that part, but my AP US History class 10 years ago was assigned a 2 page essay, and let me tell you 2 pages is excruciating for a 10th grader. Times are changing ;)

Re:Looks like they have some catching up to do.

[DigiShaman]

Capitalism is running "completely amuck" in China because Communism has failed (it always will). The CCP eventually came to terms with this reality in the late 70s lead by Deng Xiaoping to implement economic reform. What you're seeing now in China is quite normal for the early stages of capitalism. Call it their Industrial Revolution if you will. But above all, it's important to realize that China is a developing nation and not a developed one like America, Europe and other parts of Asia.

Healthcare in China *is* improving because of economic reform. You simply have to look back in Chinese history of what it was then, and now is today. Don't lose perspective by comparing China to the other already developed nations.

Re:Looks like they have some catching up to do.

[bmo_anon]

>But what would you say about a memorial being built?

Do you know how long it took for a national WWII memorial to be built here in the good ol' US?

It took over 40 years for it to even be proposed. Bill Clinton signed it on the 4'th try.

Memorials are hard, even when they're uncontroversial.

--
BMO

Re:Looks like they have some catching up to do.

[tftp]

What did we do after Kent State here in the US? [...] we changed

Wishful thinking at best. The students were protecting another war being started, this time in Cambodia. How many wars of choice the USA is currently in? Count Libya too.

What changed is simply the policy. Draft was politically unacceptable. However if you hire mercenaries and send them to fight your wars then the society will be enjoying explosions all over "enemy" cities. That's the only change that is obvious. Citizens of Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya may not see it as a sufficient change, especially if they are dead, killed by US bombs. Or perhaps you expect the politicians to suddenly repent? Clinton killed 74 people at Waco in 1993; that's the strangest kind of mourning and changing that I have ever heard of.

Re:Looks like they have some catching up to do.

[DigiShaman]

Oh, I'm sure they were quite confused and looked at you with a puzzled face. Most of them don't get angry like a westerner would. They do get angry however when they've been personally wronged by the government. However, they either don't mind, or simply don't know what else the government does to other Chinese citizens.

I know I'm making a real generalization here, but most Chinese view this current government as just another dynasty only to eventually be replaced by another. They're blind to the concept of freedom. But the very core idea of freedom is infectious among the educated once they learn about it. Make no mistake about it. China will have more freedom. Like a river with a strong current that is freedom, the government can either control its direction (which they're trying to do), or damn it up (restricting freedoms) risking a total breakdown and loss of all control what-so-ever.

Re:they can use it to track down people who post a

[Anonymous Coward]

No, no. The Chinese really know how to make money. They will make it ad-supported and force people to post. Not twitting daily will become a subversive activity.

Seriously, though, according tot TFA it's a Chinese company that is doing this. So this is not an evil masterplan of the Chinese government to track down everyone (governments already monitor Internet usage, if it is not HTTPS they know exactly what you're writting/reading).

whats it called?

[JimboTheProgrammer]

Chitter?

It must be

[sjames]

All that Vlag7a.

Whack-a-mole Beijing style

[kawabago]

Somewhere in China nameless faceless technicians stand at game boards whacking words like freedom, government accountability and corruption so they don't ruin the socialist paradise. Of course a country with no freedom, no government accountability and rampant corruption can't possibly be a paradise for anyone but the corrupt. That is why they need censorship, to perpetuate the lie.

Re:hate to post off topic, but is it just me?

[PopeRatzo]

Could. We. Be. More. Pathetic.

Yes.

Re:hate to post off topic, but is it just me?

[tftp]

And here we are on Slashdot on a Saturday holiday weekend night.

But look at the bright side. Other folks have to deal with their relatives, drunken friends, taking stupid, ugly girls to see movies that any normal man would hate, drinking reused "beer", and eating stuff that kills.

Faithful geeks, on the other hand, don't have to go anywhere; if their friends are drunk it's a problem only in `svn diff`; their girls are the most beautiful and the least demanding (being downloadable.) Food, however, is a problem - neither them nor us eat at most exquisite French restaurants.

But the question in the end of each day is simple: what have you done today to make this world better? If you say that you ate a bunch of hotdogs, no brownie points for that. But if you wrote 10 lines of code that someone, somewhere needs, it's a good thing. At least that's what workaholics say :-)

Re:they can use it to track down people who post a

[malacandrian]

It's just like normal Twitter, but you say what your neighbours are doing.