Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

China Removes Four News Apps From Smartphone Stores To Tighten Control (scmp.com)

Posted by msmash on from the my-way-or-highway dept.

The mobile apps for four popular news apps in China, including the most popular aggregator, Jinri Toutiao, were removed from a number of Chinese smartphone app stores following reports of a crackdown by the country's media watchdog, local media reported on Monday. From the report: Toutiao, with about 120 million daily active users, was not available on the app stores of smartphone manufacturers Xiaomi and Meizu on Monday afternoon. The apps for Tiantian Kuaibao, Netease News and Ifeng News were also not found on Xiaomi. China's authorities have asked several of the country's smartphone app stores to remove the four apps by 3pm on Monday as part of efforts to "regulate order in the broadcasting environment," according to Chinese news portal Sohu.com. The apps will be removed for between three days to three weeks, with Toutiao being offline for the longest period, according to the Sohu report. [...] China has shut down more than 13,000 websites in the last three years as Beijing sought to tighten its grip on the internet.

52 comments

  1. Made in China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Donald Trump's hair.

  2. In Soviet Russia... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    control removes YOU!

  3. Dumb americans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Protectionism is a GOOD thing.
    I know you can't understand this, but the Chinese don't give a fuck about blocked western sites, in the same way you'd literally never notice if a Chinese site was blocked for you.

    Americans think they're free, but all media is 100% propaganda, just different.

    1. Re:Dumb americans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then why do they block the sites you psyops commie dipshit?

    2. Re:Dumb americans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Protectionism. It's literally the only way a country can sustain a home-grown tech industry.
      Europe should block the fuck out of dirty (((american))) sites.

    3. Re:Dumb americans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      informatsionaya voyna Americans easily have the tech to own your asses, but they don't.. they don't because you guys are such a basket case that the alternative is worse. What processor are you using? What operating system? Who made the network? Who has the best search engine? Who has the best AI and talent? You dumb, annoying, fucks.

    4. Re:Dumb americans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What processor are you using? Diffused in Germany, assembled in Malaysia.
      Who made the network? Foxconn, China
      Who has the best search engine? Not google! Google's results are fucking garbage. Machine learning has only made the results worse.
      AI is just the investor scam 2018. It's a meme.
      Google should be banned, because it's a botnet piece of shit.

    5. Re:Dumb americans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Must suck to be you.. stuck in some shitty office on a shitty wage, fighting for a shitty cause for a shitty tzar who has no plan b for the country. Must be demorsalizing.

    6. Re: Dumb americans by kurkosdr · · Score: 1

      All these products were assembled by Foxconn and whatnot but made using American intellectual property, which China tries to copy, but they will be hit with some sanctions for it. Now go back to blowing commie dicks.

    7. Re:Dumb americans by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 2

      > Protectionism is a GOOD thing.

      Only cowards censor.

      In an enlightened society it is NOT the government's job to determine for me what news I should or should no be allowed to see. Maybe China should try joining the 21st century instead of repressing people's free will.

      > Americans think they're free

      We actually have a choice in what to watch. If I want to watch China Uncensored then I can.

      Maybe China's government should try fixing the root problem instead of knee-jerk reaction to the symptom.

      At least in America:

      * If I want comedy I can watch the news (Faux News, etc.)
      * If I want the news I can watch the comics (LastWeekTonight, etc.)

    8. Re:Dumb americans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      pee pee in your coke

    9. Re:Dumb americans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can watch both those things in China too.
      You don't even need censorship for Americans, they are too busy looking at cat videos, sharing all their information on facebook, and trying not to get freedom shot. Americans only watch what is spoon fed to them in their respective bubbles, left and right.

    10. Re: Dumb americans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Intellectual property" you say. OK, in that case the entire shitty american n1ggerstan is a stolen property, built by migrants who were educated in other countries, where education was free with expectation that the carrier of said education would contribute back to society, and not feed corporate terrorists in america.

    11. Re:Dumb americans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stupid fucking faggot that can't read. They are blocking Eastern websites. Not western. Eastern! Save humanity, kill yourself.

  4. just give me internet browser... by tribalmixes · · Score: 1

    as long as there's still a browser and i can reach my favorite mp3 converter - it's ok with me... everything can be done online these days,

    --
    youtube to mp3 converter
    1. Re:just give me internet browser... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      as long as there's still a browser and i can reach my favorite mp3 converter - it's ok with me... everything can be done online these days,

      What does this have to do with reading a new aggregation website?

      Also, you should just use youtube-dl

  5. why? by AndyKron · · Score: 1

    How can any Chinese person stand to live in China? I would think they would be revolting or committing suicide by the millions.

    1. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How can any Chinese person stand to live in China? I would think they would be revolting or committing suicide by the millions.

      Funny you are asking this while the Americans are asking for their government to punish Facebook

      You can't have it both ways, can you?

    2. Re:why? by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      Perhaps if they knew what they were missing, they might.

      On the other hand, they might not see the level of freedom we take for granted as either necessary or desirable.

      Do note the number of people here who spend time trying to abridge the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth Amendments (usually with some variant of "For the Children" as their rallying cry). So it's not like we don't have a similar impetus to regulate the lives of strangers....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    3. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your view is very Western. If they don't question authority they're pretty free to live their day to day lives, and that's enough for most people... Especially considering that collectivist cultures in the East always put the survival of the group ahead of the individual.

    4. Re:why? by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 2

      How can any Chinese person stand to live in China? I would think they would be revolting or committing suicide by the millions.

      You may have hear about a little communist revolution they had there, and the totalitarian state that followed.

      Those who opposed them fled to a little island. Or just got slaughtered.

    5. Re:why? by loonycyborg · · Score: 1

      Yeah right, I totally see how a million of Chinese would off themselves for lacking access to some trashy news apps. Because killing self is easier than setting up vpn or tor.

    6. Re:why? by DigiShaman · · Score: 1, Troll

      Because your average Chinese citizen are brainwashed ignoramuses. Worse yet, it's not even a Chinese trait, rather a universal human one. Please see American and their consumption of MSM fake news. Oh Oh!!! But lookie what do we have here? Richard Pan, a California Senator, is introducing a bill to kill free speech as it requires state-sanctioned fact checkers to approve online content . Ministry of Truth!!!

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    7. Re: why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Chinese smell and eat cats. Discuss.

    8. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      On the other hand, they might not see the level of freedom we take for granted as either necessary or desirable.

      I have first hand experience (anecdotal, I have to add) with what you suggested. Some years back, while I was still in university, I ended up sharing a flat with a Chinese. And throughout the period we lived together, we talked about this. And he said something along the lines of: "You can't have full freedom, if you want a country of 1.5 billion to work." So yeah, they believe it.
      But people elsewhere don't understand the value of freedom and the problems of mass surveillance, so why do we think the average Chinese should? We seem to be too happy to give it all to Facebook and Google, for the ease of arranging events and GPS directions. If we don't care and we're "free," why should the Chinese, if they never were?

    9. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Your view is very Western. If they don't question authority they're pretty free to live their day to day lives, and that's enough for most people...

      It wasn't not so long ago we had this scenario in multiple occasions here in Europe. It always ended in mass executions, genocides and war.

    10. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Facebook is optional. Nobody has to make the conscious decision to upload all their data to Facebook and confirm that it's true and periodically re-confirm it, and also sell out their friends and get sold out by their friends, and tell the platform all their marketing and political preferences and their photograph, all while Facebook has explicitly told us and re-told us exactly what they're doing with the data (and their overall strategy too, so we even know the big picture of what Facebook is trying to do to us, in addition to the daily details) and we all re-confirm that we are definitely ok with it, and then a story comes out that finally makes us wonder if there's a downside that we haven't thought of, even though it's been right in our face all along and all the technologists repeated warned us over and over against until we got tired of hearing it and tuned them out because only "paranoid" people ever acknowledge real world risks, because bad things only ever happen to other people.

      No one makes us; we just like doing it. We choose to be irresponsible and hypocritical. But in China, it's forced upon them. Poor Chinese. Someone should save them.

    11. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because unlike in the US where the middle class hasn't had a pay-rise since the 60's, China's middle class is undergoing continuous rapid growth in wages and standard of living for the last 30 years.

    12. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because this is happening in China and not America. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/1...

    13. Re:why? by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      The Supreme Court has ruled govenment cannot be the arbiter of truth w.r.t. the First Amendment, especially in politics.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    14. Re:why? by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      LOL, the rule of law is DEAD in America. The legislative and executive branch will just DDOS the Judicial system. And you know what, people wont care. Ohh look, new model of the Sex Robot 3000! With attachments.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    15. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's 2 factors. First, mind numbing ignorance. Second, extreme desperation drives them to focus only on making money at all costs because their sole reason for existing is to make money for the family.

    16. Re:why? by yuriklastalov · · Score: 1

      Because, shock of shocks, the Chinese are not western liberals! Holy fucking shit, I'll bet you'd go along with the proposition that "morality is subjective" but here you are, pretending as though the system you like is the best one.

  6. Isnt this bad for control? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Instead of dangerous views (from the government perspective) being in the open, they force them underground where they cant monitor the people. Seems more dangerous to have a hidden enemy.

  7. Here's how America works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    if there's a way in for pro-American propaganda, use it. When the way in is closed, accuse them of censorship and human rights violations.

    When other countries refute pro-American propaganda, you call it propaganda and fake news.

    China has figured out that America is lying, deceiving, and unreliable, and so they shut them out. Europe should also do like China.

    1. Re:Here's how America works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      more informatsionaya voyna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... and so on..

    2. Re:Here's how America works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This guy gets it.
      More people are waking up to American lies and propaganda. Representative democracy is nothing but farce and spectacle.

    3. Re:Here's how America works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      informatsionaya voyna just keep repeating it thousands of times and you influence unenlightened people to read up about it.

    4. Re: Here's how America works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Putin, shirtless on horseback. That is gay.

    5. Re: Here's how America works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      lol.. russians like a "strongman" ;) ;)

  8. Just following our lead by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

    Just following our lead ... got to have "fact checkers" keeping us safe from "fake news".

    Can't have people getting unapproved ideas from anywhere.

  9. As the princess said, a relevant quote by sabbede · · Score: 1
    "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."

    But why tighten your grip if you aren't already afraid you're losing it? I think the Party sees the writing on the wall. The development they're pushing contains the seeds of their demise.

    1. Re:As the princess said, a relevant quote by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers." ...right after he pulverizes any and everything in said star systems first. The fine dust makes it easier.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
  10. So? by p51d007 · · Score: 1

    California is mulling an idea where websites will be responsible for things posted, and must be fact checked by the state government for "truth". Once you start down the road, there will be no turning back. I don't care for about 75% of the crap on the web, but, I simply IGNORE it.

    1. Re:So? by barc0001 · · Score: 1

      You have a link to back up that rather interesting assertion?

    2. Re:So? by jwymanm · · Score: 1

      Sadly, even if the above isn't true it will probably be true within 5-10 years.

  11. I'm glad by jwymanm · · Score: 1

    I don't live there. *tries to load backpage.com* oops nevermind.

    1. Re:I'm glad by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      Advertising for illegal things like prostitution is illegal when you are part of the operation. Maybe prostitution shouldn't be illegal, but it is, and advertising for it is, and knowingly providing advertising space for it is, too.

      Note it's the participation that is illegal, not the ad itself, which you can reproduce and talk about as long as you are not part of the operation, like a journalist or facebook meme vector.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    2. Re:I'm glad by jwymanm · · Score: 2

      Both host content not the act. Censoring backpage took down legitimate content with the bad content. Same thing China did. You can argue till you are blue that there was illegal content on backpage but I am sure there was illegal content on the social apps also. Demolishing freedom to eliminate some illegal activities might be a no brainer to you but to me and others the illegal activity was just a tiny red herring. It was to send a message.