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YouTube Suspends Account of Popular Chinese Dissident (freebeacon.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the watch-later dept.

schwit1 brings news about an exiled Chinese billionaire with 500,000 followers on YouTube. The Washington Free Beacon reports:YouTube has suspended the video account of popular Chinese dissident Guo Wengui amid a mounting pressure from the Beijing government to silence one of its critics. According to a person familiar with the action, YouTube issued what the company calls a 'strike' against Guo, who since the beginning of the year has created an online sensation by posting lengthy videos in which he reveals details of corruption by senior Chinese officials. The suspension involves a 90-day block on any new live-stream postings of videos and was the result of a complaint made against a recent Guo video for alleged harassment. The identity of the person or institution who issued the complaint could not be learned... Other videos by Guo posted prior to the suspension remain accessible.
The suspension coincides with this week's once-every-five-years congress of the Chinese Communist party to reveal which top officials will serve President Xi Jinping, according to Financial Times, adding that "China's choreographed politics is not designed for public participation or questioning."

18 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Well... by BlueStrat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...I, for one, welcome our Chinese internet overlords.

    Strat

    --
    Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    1. Re:Well... by Stephen+Battleware · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I seriously might to have to re-evalutate how much YouTube watching I do.

      This is the problem with (de facto) monopolies, the few alternatives were long left out to dry and don't have the content.

      I hope Slashdot tracks the developments. Perhaps YouTube will reverse this darksided decision.

    2. Re:Well... by BlueStrat · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The dudeâ(TM)s a billionaire. Heâ(TM)s obviously not exactly suffering due to the persecution from the repressive Chinese government - sounds like heâ(TM)s more of a gadfly than a dissident.

      So if you're not poor and/or personally oppressed (maybe you were lucky enough/smart enough to escape?), then you have no right to oppose corruption/oppression occurring in your own birth-country?

      Can you break down the qualifiers for these various social classes and their respective rights/responsibilities/entitlements, please? We need a handy guide so we don't overstep our class privilege and speak out of turn, and thus possibly disrespect our class betters.

      TIA

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    3. Re:Well... by mentholsmooth · · Score: 2

      And this is typically where freedom dies and the authoritarian wins, my friend. If you aren't going to raise your voice for someone because you don't agree with his lifestyle, nobody is going to be left when they come to silence you.

  2. GOOGLE == EVIL by Tulsa_Time · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You knew it was only a matter of time.

    --
    5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian Roulette & 6 out of 7 Dwarfs are not Happy
    1. Re:GOOGLE == EVIL by bobstreo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Didn't take long from Do No Evil to Anything for a Buck. I blame the MBA mentality that is in charge now.

    2. Re:GOOGLE == EVIL by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 5, Insightful

      After reading the article, it's not just Google, but Facebook that's shutting him down as well. He claims he was never even contacted about this. Christ, how much influence over these tech giants does the Chinese government have? Obviously, this sort of subservience is the price you pay for access to the Chinese market.

      Where the hell are the social liberals running these companies when they blindly obey orders from the Chinese government? Fucking hypocrites, all of them.

      Using a Chinese security official who currently heads the international police organization Interpol, China succeeded in issuing an Interpol "red notice," or an international arrest warrant for alleged corruption.

      Ah, wonderful. The head of Interpol is a Chinese security officer? I didn't know that. I sort of wish I hadn't learned that. What the hell...

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    3. Re:GOOGLE == EVIL by 0123456 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "Where the hell are the social liberals running these companies when they blindly obey orders from the Chinese government?"

      'Social liberals' love the Chinese government, because they all dream of being dictators. Look at Turdeau, for example, talking about how he admires Chinese dictatorship.

    4. Re:GOOGLE == EVIL by careysub · · Score: 4, Funny

      There was a transcription error. The actual motto was "Do Know Evil".

      --
      Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
    5. Re:GOOGLE == EVIL by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 2

      *facepalm* I'm not disagreeing with your premise, but it's completely irrelevant to this story. No one is arguing that the Chinese government doesn't have sovereignty within China's borders.

      You do at least know Guo Wengui is the "popular Chinese dissident" being discussed, right? This would be a non-story if China suppressed a Chinese dissident inside China - because that's what they do. It IS a story because the Chinese government seems to be somehow exerting influence on US-based tech companies to silence a Chinese ex-patriot living in New York. Read the article and you can clearly see it's a concerted and coordinated effort.

      By extension, this means that the Chinese government has enough influence over these corporations to silence *any* viewpoint, regardless where in the world it originates from.

      Yeesh, if you still don't get it, then it's on you, not me.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  3. Re:For those who may analyze, it's all about the $ by gtall · · Score: 2

    Except for the Chinese government, then its about power.

  4. Big brand thinks of making a profit in China by AHuxley · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Capitalism? Freedom of speech? Freedom after speech?
    All the best protections a nation like the USA can offer, protect and support...
    What does a US big brand do?
    Work extra hard to embrace and side with Communism and China.
    Is this what the internet and "social media" will look like? Communist parties tracking any content globally?
    US brands comply with removing free speech?
    What will be banned next?
    Tiananmen square? 4 June 1989?
    Tank Man https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
    No more terms like Flower of Freedom? Goddess of Democracy? Operation Yellowbird https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., River elegy?

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  5. Re:Hint: by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: 4, Funny

    "our president.........is not equated to an emperor with the mandate of heaven"

    Where were you between 2008 and 2016?

    --
    "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
  6. Don't Be Evil by rossz · · Score: 2

    Unless it threatens the bottom line.

    --
    -- Will program for bandwidth
  7. Re:Do No Evil by wjcofkc · · Score: 2

    No, I'm linking to YouTube. Now take those two neurons of yours and rub them together. Unless that was a flippant remark. It is sometimes very hard to tell around here.

    --
    Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
  8. Re:Do No Evil by wjcofkc · · Score: 2

    While it existed, one of the things I liked about RT America is that they told the news without adding any emotional or SJW baggage. It was objective. RT is as close to non-globalist garbage as you can get outside Alex Jones. Despite his own feelings on them. I don't have to agree or disagree with integrity outside of where I call it. I am not a robot like... you? Learn to think and disseminate for yourself, not based on what either side tells you is so.

    --
    Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
  9. Re:I'm not sure you can call him a "dissident" by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

    His videos make specific allegations against specific people. Why don't you refute the allegations instead of attacking him personally?

    That he may have been corrupt himself makes his allegations more credible, not less, since it means he knows how the system works.

  10. Re:Do No Evil by thegarbz · · Score: 2

    "Do No Evil" has become highly subjective at Google\YouTube\Alphabet.

    Yes! Google should instead not bow to the Chinese government and get themselves firewalled off from 1billion people. That would make those people much better off as they can then move to ... errr .... state run services.