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China's Parallel Online Universe

Posted by Soulskill on from the why-fight-the-media-when-you-can-fight-the-social dept.

An anonymous reader writes "China is increasingly operating an online parallel universe where social media clones 'mimic the functions of the most popular, internationally recognized social media applications, such as Facebook and Twitter. The replicas, however, come with a major catch: they systematically comply with the Chinese Communist Party’s strict censorship requirements.' They are satisfying the growing demand of hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens for social media tools, reducing incentives for them to circumvent the 'Great Firewall,' Freedom House warns. Testing by researchers found that a search for the names of seven prominent Chinese lawyers, activists, and journalists on Sina Weibo returned no results, only an Orwellian notice that 'According to related laws and policy, some of the results are not shown here.'"

7 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. Comment Censored by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 1 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the removal(s) at ChillingEffects.org.

    1. Re:Comment Censored by Chicken_Kickers · · Score: 5, Interesting

      We Malays have a saying: Kutu diseberang laut nampak, gajah dibawah hidung tak nampak, meaning you can see a flea across the ocean but you can't see the elephant under your nose. Look after your own freedoms first before preaching about it to others. The rest of the world wishes your freedom fighters a good fight. You are at the front line of Internet freedom. Any laws passed by your government will sooner or later, willingly or unwillingly, be enacted in my country too. Your fight is for all mankind. Good luck America and God bless.

    2. Re:Comment Censored by iter8 · · Score: 5, Informative

      This. Mod parent up.

      Corporations can and do abuse the legal system to censor free speech, but it is not strictly censorship as it is not the policy of the government, and if it is a found to be a SLAPP there are severe penalties in a lot of courts.

      "Censorship is the suppression of speech or other public communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the general body of people as determined by a government, media outlet, or other controlling body." wikipedia. It's not just the government, anyone who has control over the means of communication can be a censor.

  2. But it's not wrong when corporations do it! Right? by mykos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In America, censorship is only bad if the gubbmint is doing it. Really, we're no different from China. We're just trading one master for another.

  3. You'd be surprised by mykos · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A lot of people like their government-imposed veils, and they really, truly believe the propaganda deep down. Even in the U.S., after the Wikileaks stories broke, a lot of people agreed with the state line, saying "Some things need to be kept secret and the government needs to have its secrets for our own protection". One or two good mouthpieces and the talking points will get out.

  4. Re:But it's not wrong when corporations do it! Rig by skegg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I sincerely hope that was a troll and not a genuine opinion.

    >> Corporations don't owe us anything

    Fine: I own a restaurant and I don't want to serve black people. Or hispanics.
    Your comments were regarding censorship, so another example would be Google censoring everything about blacks, or Jews, or Tibet, ...

    That's bullshit !!!

    Corporations don't exist in a vacuum. They use public facilities paid for by all of society (roads, police, fire departments, etc). There should always be limits to what they can and can't do. In Australia we have anti-discrimination laws that enumerate the categories against which private companies can not discriminate. I dare say many countries would have similar legislation.

    Regarding switching ... ironically the opposite is true:
    you CAN'T always switch services (sometimes they're monopolies) however we CAN switch governments. At worst every few years; more often if we the people get riled up.

  5. Re:And How Is It Better Outside of China? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I live in a democratic nation (not the US). I'm educated (aerospace engineering), have free access to Facebook etc, US news and media, and products by US companies, and I believe that the US is a poisonous country to the world and itself. I didn't need regime propaganda to figure this out. If you were charged with looking after 1/5 of the world's population, I'm sure it would be a bit different to looking after a couple of children at home. Discipline is essential. By comparison, the US government is looking after less than 5% of the world's population (and it is by no means a model government). What works in the US can not be assumed to work everywhere, especially in China where cultural and religious differences are immense. The outside world may view censorship by the Chinese government as bad, but Chinese people may not. They may well see it as protection from US propaganda. Remember that in other countries we see the US military traipsing all over the world dropping bombs and enforcing regime change and promoting its version of "freedom" (which appears to be one of "you are free to do what you want as long as its in US interests"). I very much doubt the OP has any idea of how the Chinese political system really works, since he can't even spell "climb" correctly. The rest of the world doesn't want to be like America. To many people in other countries you are merely tolerated as ignorant, obnoxious bullies. And you wonder why you face a terrorism threat. Wake up America and smell the shit accumulating in your own back yard.