China Says Terrorism, Fake News Impel Greater Global Internet Curbs (reuters.com)

China's ambitions to tighten up regulation of the Internet have found a second wind in old fears -- terrorism and fake news. Chinese officials and business leaders speaking at the third World Internet Conference held in Wuzhen last week called for more rigid cyber governance, pointing to the ability of militants to organize online and the spread of false news items during the recent U.S. election as signs cyberspace had become dangerous and unwieldy. From a report on Reuters: Ren Xianling, the vice minister of China's top internet authority, said on Thursday that the process was akin to "installing brakes on a car before driving on the road." Ren, number two at the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), recommended using identification systems for netizens who post fake news and rumors, so they could "reward and punish" them. The comments come as U.S. social networks Facebook and Twitter face a backlash over their role in the spread of false and malicious information generated by users, which some say helped sway the U.S. presidential election in favor of Republican candidate Donald Trump.

Comments

Thanks Obama!

[CajunArson]

Obama shows once again how he is a global citizen by complaining about Fake News just like China.

Thank you Obama, if only you could save us from Trump.

Of course they would

[rickb928]

China has no freedom of speech recognized in their constitution. They guarantee no one their right to speak out.

So yes, they would indeed be willing to manage the Internet in a way that would permit governing bodies to deny access and remove content.

In their country, I have nothing much to say about it.

In my country, however, I expect the government to protect and defend my rights, speech being among them.

Re:Of course they would

[s.petry]

In China, fake news is anything that criticizes the government.

That happens to be the same type of fake news people are complaining about in the US today.

Censors love this story

[maroberts]

It seems like a wonderful way to export only real news approved by the despotic government of your choice.

Can you say doubleplusgood?

Re:China using the same censorship as liberals

[Anonymous Coward]

The current Fake News hysteria in the US is a reaction to Hillary loosing the election. They will put up any excuse so they can blame instead of taking responsibly for running a campaign that lost.

Education and Critical Thinking

[Quince alPillan]

Or, we could educate people on how to determine what a credible source is and teach people critical thinking skills.

Most of the "fake news" articles were blog posts, reddit threads, and sites that popped up to pander to fears for advertising dollars. Stuff that was easy to spot as being fake.

Yeah, sometimes I would see the "fake" sites come up with a real story a couple days before everyone else did, but generally the real sites were better researched and less blatantly biased than the "fake" article.

21st-century "Stabbed in the back"

[knorthern knight]

Nearly a hundred years ago, an Austrian corporal rose to power in Germany by blaming Germany's loss in WW1 on being "stabbed in the back" by Jews. Let's just say that did not end well.

The Democrats' elite tilted the playing field to ensure Hillary Clinton a victory in the primaries. Given her scandals and political baggage, she was the absolute worst possible candidate they could've picked. Any no-name Democrat representative/senator/governor would've walked all over Trump. But no, they insisted on Hillary, and ran a lousy campaign to boot.

Now the Democrats' establishment is refusing to take the blame, and is going after social media, and the web in general. If you think Chinese web censorship is bad, wait until the next Democrat president in the US.