Slashdot Mirror
Censorship of Chinese Social Media Is Real, Comprehensive
chicksdaddy writes "Threatpost has a write-up of a study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University that provides the first conclusive evidence that Chinese government censorship extends to social media sites like Sina Weibo, the popular micro blogging Web site that many have likened to a Chinese Twitter. 'The study ... found that censors in China delete around 16 percent of the messages submitted to Sina Weibo ... The study, released in March, concludes that "soft censorship" in China — the removal of controversial subject matter from blogs and Web pages — is at least as popular as hard censorship, like the blocking of offensive sites. The result is suppression of news about events or individuals that are deemed threatening to the ruling Communist party.'"
The story below this article on Slashdot reads Congress refuses to let Bruce Schneier testify. Read between the lines people.
Censorship is - for some - a term that refers to gov't message "deleters" but it should apply also to private operators of social-media, forums, etc.
It feels the SAME to have one's carefully crafted essays unduly removed... whether by gov't or "private" service operators, and there should really be effective laws against each type of what I consider censorship.
In Australia, to have one's essay removed by an invisible, unknown "moderator" eg on WHIRLPOOL.NET.AU drags social communication back to the country's colonial period... whether it "protects" the interests of its sponsors' / donors' companies or friends, there's NO place for such interference to open & free discussion in a modern democracy, IMO.
SlashDot.org has one of the more -sane- systems of effectively "sinking" unpopular & "floating" more popular posts; all posts remain to be read, but only those on levels at or above the level of popularity, that you choose can be viewed. Ie, it's the readers who decide what they'll have access to... NOT the gov't or even the community operators' "moderators".
(Even the Aussie "bargains" site - OzBargain.com.au - does better than WHIRLPOOL... by preserving comments, for those who may wish to read them... the comments are "greyed" but not lost to the curious.)
In my view, SlashDot's - or similar - models should apply to all on-line social-media & community forums.
PSL I find moderators acting like the "neighhood watch" goon, who recently shot-dead a boy of color, who happened to be wearing a "hoodie" as he walked back from a snack shop.
Both deserve to be brought to justice... some for reducing our freedom of speech, & one (in Florida) for killing a person.