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China Erases New Internet Rumors, Shuts Down Sites
itwbennett writes "Chinese officials said Thursday that 210,000 online posts and 42 websites have been taken down since mid-March in a government crackdown on rumors. In addition, 6 people were detained for allegedly fabricating rumors saying that military vehicles were in Beijing and that the city was in trouble."
They are blocking free speech by users. Surely there must be some "twinge" in their brains that says, "This is wrong to take down people's posts."
I find it a bit disturbing that EU and US leaders are saying China is a good model to follow.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
Say, have you heard? Hu Jintao came out as a closet furry today! Shhh, don't tell anyone!
Oh yeah, and for some reason we have tanks rolling toward a bunch of hippies in Tiananmen square or something like that. Whatever.
This is how the world ends, now with a bang, but a BITE!
And China will keep silent until a wave of undead spills over their borders.
Why would a government, even a repressive one, crack down on rumors for no reason? Is unfounded rumors (not actual dissent, mind, but weird stuff like this) spreading and causing actual trouble a problem in China?
Emotions! In your brain!
The dirty evil Chinese commie bastards
The rumors may not be true, but there is a shakeup in the ruling class. Some has leaked out in official releases around the sacking of Bo and his wife, but the people in power are reacting to unexpected events. Some are falling out of favor and some are trying to consolidate power. All in an environment where the loser and their families don't just retire to a quiet life in the country. It is unlikely the government will change, or there will be a popular uprising, but something is happening in the halls of power.
It was really 43 websites. But you didn't hear that from me....
... Beijing Police arrested a man believed to have shouted "Fire!" in the crowded downtown theatre where dozens of movie viewers were injured in the mad stampede to evacuate. Fortunately there were no deaths. Fire officials found no evidence there had been any fire, smoke, or any risk of a fire. A theatre official said the theatre is a modern one built to the utmost safety standards.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Chinese officials are probably mortified by the possibility that some day, Chinese citizens may band together/organize over the internet, and decide to have a spontaneous uprising or two of their own against the ruling authorities, just like happened in the Arab world. Seen through this prism, unwanted spreading of rumors with any potential political implications or "viral properties" may be seen as an "early sign" of people bonding/moving together online in spontaneous ways the authorities frown upon. There is another possibility to consider as well. To this days we don't know how much of the online-component of the "Arab Spring" was genuinely Arab youths, and how much was potentially "fake social media accounts" created by forces outside the Arab world, and utilized to spur the Arab revolutions on, ensuring that they happen (who knows whether Mohammed1331 is a real person, or a fake account created somewhere in the West?). China may be worried of something similar being done in China and may see "unchecked rumor spreading" on its microblogs as a potential source of spontaneous, viral bonding, intended to cheerlead an eventual uprising...?
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
What seems even odder to me is that they are publicizing their crackdown.
Shouldn't they remove their own site for spreading scandalous rumors that they are cracking down on rumors?
I wish China would moderate Youtube comments.
You're the first person to take a story about China's egregious behavior, and turn it around on the US.
In the first 10 posts on the story, no less. Bravo, sir. Bravo. *golf clap*
"Many forms of Government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." - Winston Churchill (1874-1965), Speech in the House of Commons, November 11, 1947
Take out the words China and Bejing in the summary and re-read it.
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
There were rumors of a possible coup by a faction of PLA officers who allegedly supported Bo Xilai, a former Politburo candidate who was sacked on allegations of corruption and murder. No real evidence, but the central government was already uneasy because such a high profile scandal has introduced significant uncertainty to their succession planning. Therefore, the Chinese government did not appreciate such rumors and speculation spreading like wildfire on the Internet.
It's interesting how much more important the Chinese think rumors are. It's as though they want definitive information in circulation (where definitive herein means accepted/state sponsored). As though the population seeks rumors and gives them more importance.
That differs from how the US handles rumors by creating other news that may contradict, obscure and drown out rumors. Americans have been desensitized to "sensationalist" type journalism whereas in China they seem to still react to it.
The Chinese want a clear message or signal where as the US is more then happy to jam a message or signal. Both seem like good ways to control the populations by media but certainly culturally oriented to each country.
Personally, I would rather have not been desensitized as much. I certainly dislike state control more than desensitization though.
"Beatings will continue until morale improves"
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Can we equate the bomb threats in University of Pittsburgh as freedom of speech as there has not been actual bomb explosion? What would happen if a person or persons responsible for those threats are to be apprehended?
The Chinese government does not engage in censorship and detainment of people saying it engages in censorship and detainment. Nor does it deny that it does so. To say otherwise is a complete fiction!
The only reason you think, free speech is so important, is that media promotes it for its own selfish purposes such as advertisement revenue and access to politicians. There are plenty of things that have far greater effect on everyone's life, and they are perceived as insignificant because media doesn't run a continuous propaganda campaign for them.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
Rah Rah, USA #1!!!!
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
I found this article to be reasonable, except perhaps for the (tongue-in-cheek?) "Can we tolerate fake of inferior products with the aim of promoting the free market?" But does that mean I think a government should be taking down blog posts? No. I think the way to combat this is to embrace their logic. If social stability is of such importance, then argue, as the post does in the final paragraph:
And what kind of social stability is promoted by fear of reprisals for having opinions?
China will become a western style democracy or it will collapse. Their current system of government is grossly inefficient and does not scale.
There are many more options than that.
Just because we have witnessed a few options, that does not mean those are the only options.
China will never be like the US.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
The Glorious People's Republic reported today that reports of a shutdown of internet rumors were just a subversive rumor started by the people who had had their rumor reports censored.
A vague rumor of "Military vehicles in Beijing" is a bit much. At least one web site is pairing that rumor with a stock shot of Chinese tanks on parade. The crackdown was a dumb move that gave the rumor credibility.
There is something big going on, though. China is about to have a major change in leadership, but China doesn't have an reliable way to pick its national leaders. There's a power struggle within the Party each time this happens. It's only happened three times since Mao, and the first two produced the Great Leap Forward disaster and the Cultural Revolution. The third, in 1992, went smoothly. Governments all over the world are watching this closely. Nobody knows who will be running China a year from now.
This year, seven of the nine Standing Committee members are retiring. One of the anointed successors, Bo Xilai, has been arrested on murder charges. This has thrown the succession process into confusion. The South China Morning Post (out of Hong Kong) says this was a "liberal coup". This followed rumors of a coup last month, a coup which didn't happen. (In general, coups that are predicted don't happen - they require surprise.)
The Chinese government is desperately trying to prevent public involvement in the succession process. China does not have real elections. So "public involvement" means riots or civil wars. Historically, those have changed governments. So the Party is trying to keep the lid on.
Creating rumors, spreading rumors, and listening to rumors are treason, Citizen. Please report such rumors to Your Friend the Computer immediately! Thank you for your cooperation.
Stay Alert! Trust no one! Keep your laser handy!
"The Greens lynched a hacker in Chicago. Last month, but I think the body's still hanging from the old Water Tower."
Why does China bother even announcing it? Seems that if China was truly evil, it would just silently delete the posts, block the sites, maybe break some activist knee-caps. Must be that their elite and mainstream population is on board with censorship and the government is letting them know that something's being done about it. If the censorship was wildly unpopular there, any announcement would defeat the purpose of quelling protest.
Actually, the whole crackdown is much bigger than what the international media understands. I have been working in China for the last year and this is what I have come to understand from locals and news media in china (censored) and Taiwan (uncle sores but maybe biased).
1. China is quite concerned about the upcoming transfer of power. The country is uneasy about the next few years, as they want to lower the incredulous income gap between rich and poor, lower food costs, reduce the amount of poor in rural areas, increase internal consumption to reduce reliance on exports, squash Tibetan drives of independence through human self immolations, squash Urgher unrest that is driven by independence as well, reduce the obvious hypocritical corruption and luxuries of the members of government and their families, calm their economy to avoid a hard landing and achieve a "soft landing", reduce inflation, control surging food prices (CPI), reduce wild speculative real estate, control wild stock market full of fake financials, etc etc.
2. Bo Xi Lai as mentioned is/was a very powerful member of the communist party that is leading a growing counter faction that does not believe the current progress in China is good and wants to change directions towards more Maoist (communist) doctrines. This has pissed off the ruling party and they have publicly burned him to send a warning to other officials. They have used media outlets to burn him really bad.
3. Lots of people know this, but I agree that most of the public probably will just think he is a bad politician.
4. The government shut off commenting in China's twitter (Weibo) to control some of the rumors regarding Bo Xi Lai.
5. The government is still trying to figure out how to control social media, it is turning out to be a double edged sword as any controls seem to backlash. It is not as simple as traditional media
Of course they will fail, after all it only took them 30 years to go from a 3rd world country where millions died of starvation to a first world nation. Their government system is unable to work and do whats best without democracy. /sarcasm
The argument that free speech can be suppressed, for example, shouting 'fire in a movie theatre', fails because:
1. It's shouting not speech, you have the right to speak, but you don't have the right to force the other person to listen.
2. They don't stampede. They wait for confirmation evidence, this is a known problem in aircraft evacutation, where people will go for their bags instead of trying to get out, and only panic when they actually see the fire approaching.
3. They didn't tell a lie, there is military in Beijing, they have stationed soldiers there.