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China Cracks Down On Mobile Messaging
itwbennett writes China is tightening control over mobile messaging services with new rules that limit their role in spreading news. Under the new regulations, only news agencies and other groups with official approval can publish whatever the government considers political news via public accounts. "All other public accounts that have not been approved cannot release or reprint political news," the regulations said. Users of the instant messaging services will also have to register with their official IDs, and agree to follow relevant laws.
...why they have not banned text service altogether by now. Or phones because people can do conference calls. C'mon, If they really monitor everything, it's easy to root those guys out instead of having the need to restrict it. Slap the "conspiracy to topple the government" and voila! People will stop doing it very soon.
Be very very glad that you were not born in China.
*shudder*
We've always been at war with Eastasia"
As an employee of a large multinational electronics manufacturer, it doesn't look like they're doing anything to crack down on conterfeit parts.
Effectively trying to kill social media.
... because everyone on Facebook has to use their real name and stuff.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
It's OK they have Chinese Whispers :)
all this, soon, in a fear-controlled state near you.
The supreme court is bound to overturn it as a flagrant violation of the 1st amendment.
It has been clear for a long time that governments want to use the internet for mass scale surveillance(usa, lesser extent many others), control(china, russia, middle east), and generally Orwellian things.
It is LONG past time to invent dead-simple to use programs and protocols that are end to end encrypted and take control out of the hands of governments and put it back where it belongs: with the people.
It should not be possible for the NSA to tap all communications, because it should all be strongly encrypted with only the endpoints having the keys. It should not be possible for China to control IMs, because they should look like any other random encrypted data passing over the wires.
The longer we go without making those things reality, the more Orwellian it is going to get. Power hungry people are hungry for power: news at 11.
What the FCC would look like if it were run by the FAA
This would help cut down on the stupidity that "news" outlets in the US spread to the uneducated and or uninformed population
In the magical land of OZ. Messaging is used as an attack surface and vector using AI controlled by NGO agents working for google or such to create perceptions that distort political and geostrategic actions against our adversary states. Such attacks have been used against Syria, Egypt. In fact minus the AI they are used against us by the Russians an are one reason the US population has been polarized although other more serious reasons such as the money influence of the elites and business interests creating reactionary ideological shock troops. Traditionally the Soviet propaganda was aimed at the left wing but I bet if you studied the dynamic today it is being aimed increasingly at the Tea Party and similar. The fifth column is always the advance wave of any conflict development.
Sure, it would be easy to root out the dissenters... but that costs you a productive citizen each time you do it. If you can prevent them from becoming dissenters in the first place, you come up way ahead.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
someday, china will save the west from russia and islam, if only as a side-effect of defending themselves.
Does iMessage run afoul of this?
If the encryption is good (and China doesn't have the pull to get access as the NSA does) then maybe Apple products DO pose a security threat .... to the government.
This would help cut down on the stupidity that "news" outlets in the US spread to the uneducated and or uninformed population
Yes. Freedom of Speech, as conceived in many nations, includes the freedom to speak irresponsibly. These nations may be destroyed by that freedom, which creates an ecosystem of mostly-stupid ideas that it is very, very hard for wiser minds to change. Or they may be saved by it, if nations such as China tighten their grip on information far enough that they overly limit the free flow of innovative ideas and legitimate idea-generating-and-analyzing debate.
There are people on both sides of the political spectrum who should never be allowed to publicly speak to the American public about politics again. Not because we may disagree with them, but because they are obviously wrong, and alarmist, and they are hurting America by their false contributions to the debate. So it is in many free nations.
The current Australian government is refusing to report on current activities and "operational matters" which implement policies that many people dislike.
10 years ago the Australian government brought in censorship laws under the 'war on terror', promising that they would never misuse them. (Aside: Then why pass a law that says they will?) These Chinese regulations will give them ideas: A 'D' (censorship) notice that all broadcast facilities will have to obey.
Before the Internet, Chinese in their villages wondered what was happening in the world. After the Internet, Chinese in their villages looked at their mobile phones and wondered what is happening in the world.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Take a look at what real oppression is. The NSA is still evil, wrong and violating the rights of others, but you are allowed to complain about it publicly and privately all you want. You can even openly advocate seceding from your own nation, spread groundless conspiracy theories, and call your politicians a manifestation of the anti-christ, and the government will virtually ignore you and let your kooky little 90's looking website stating all of the above remain on the web. Doing this on talk radio or on cable news can make you millions of dollars per year.
Do this in China against the Chinese government and you'll be tracked down and be executed or imprisoned.
... is the first act of tyranny."
Rather like our laughable Jewish 'hate speech' laws, and the redefining of the word 'hate' to mean 'anything the Jews don't want you to hear' (like the TRUTH).
Are you sick of being told what you can and can't say? Are you sick of having to bite your tongue at work every time the latest Left wing bullshit comes down the pipe from your boss, or some asshole quisling of a colleague, who thinks they're being 'brave' for spying on everybody else in the workplace, in case we dare to step out of line and disagree with the latest Bolshevik bullshit they're forcing on us?
I am glad Google failed and I hope any future attempts will also fail. "Users of the instant messaging services will also have to register with their official IDs, and agree to follow relevant laws." Corporations and governments want the same thing. Now why could this be?
Are China and the US in a race to see who becomes a full dystopian regime sooner?
As long as China continues to maintain an exponential growth in the standard of living.
People accept that tradeoff: freedom for increased prosperity.
Where it breaks down is in the eventual slowdown of exponential growth, which WILL occur.
At that point, the agreement weakens. Why maintain the line if the old promises no longer apply?
That's when things get dicey, and why the Chinese leadership is so paranoid.
Unfortunately, cracking down will, long run, just fuel the fire.
The chinese communist party is on its last straw of survival, facing stress from:
1. external opposite forces from all other countries in the world.
2. internal pressure from all chinese places e.g. mainland, hong kong, taiwan, xinjiang, macau etc.
3. its own economy no more development from absence of law and moral.
4. its inner problems all surfacing e.g. debt, lack of soft power, no morals whatsoever.