China Digital Times (CDT) » Tag: Internet censorship

Need a Job? Be a Chinese Internet Censor

Scott Greene — Thu, 24 May 2012 02:10:10 +0000

The Wall Street Journal’s China Real Time Report calls attention to a notice posted by Sina Corp. on Monday which invited candidates to apply for the position of “monitoring editor,” a notice which drew a wealth of cynical comments from netizens about China’s censorship regime:

Monitoring Editor: 1) Handle various tasks related to information safety; 2) propose specific information safety-related requirements, oversee the implementation and analysis of data; 3) gather requirements for information safety editing, oversee implementation and guarantee implementation results. Job requirements: undergraduate degree or junior college plus three or more years of work experience; experience working as a monitoring editor. Resume.
…
Sina Weibo users largely mocked the ad on Monday. “Compensation: 50 Cents,” wrote one user, a reference to the amount of money government-hired online commentators are rumored to receive for every pro-government comment they post online.
“Monitoring experience a must, editing experience not necessary,” joked another.
Readers unsure if they’re cut out for the position can have a look at the comments below the job posting and see which ones jump out at them as in need of further monitoring.

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Internet censorship, online public opinion, propaganda, sina weibo
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Murong Xuecun: “No Roads Are Straight Here”

Samuel Wade — Wed, 09 May 2012 05:13:36 +0000

Tea Leaf Nation recently reported that an Iowa county attorney had dropped witness tampering charges against two Chinese parents, citing “cultural differences”. The pair had flown to the US after their son was charged with sexual assault while studying there, and had allegedly tried to buy off his accuser. The implication that bribery is an integral part of China’s culture was “like a hard slap on Chinese people’s faces” according to Sina Weibo user @Y如墨, quoted by TLN.

At The New York Times, Murong Xuecun explains his own view of corruption’s place in Chinese society, recalling an encounter with an entrepreneurial road builder in Sichuan some fifteen years ago. “Like most Chinese people,” he writes, “he was harmed by corruption yet he dearly wanted in.”

I will never forget something Mr. Zhao said to me: There’s not a single straight road in China; they were all built with kickbacks ….
If corruption is inevitable, then people inevitably force themselves to get used to it, and even defend its legitimacy. Most of us Chinese go from being shocked to being numb ….
The leadership in Beijing needs corruption and actually encourages it. Corruption is the system’s natural lubricant, without which everything would grind to a halt. There’s no shortage of upright people in China, but in this system even the upright must study the crooked arts simply to survive.
Not a single person in China can completely break free from corruption, and not a single road is straight.

The South China Morning Post reports that Murong Xuecun is one of a number of prominent weibo users whose accounts have been suspended during the past week.

Hao Qun, a novelist-turned-blogger who uses the pen-name Murong Xuecun , said his microblog, which had 1.85 million followers, was suspended on Thursday and he had learned it could last a month or so, until after the 23rd anniversary of the bloody crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
He said he had also learned that the order to suspend his microblog had come from the government’s top internet censor.
Hao said he imagined that the suspension was punishment for his comments on the ongoing Chen [Guangcheng] saga in the overseas press and his attempt to visit Chen in Shandong in October. “If you’d asked me or any other bloggers, we’d have all told you with confidence that we knew where to draw a line, but apparently we’re all wrong,” he said.
“The order could just come from anyone at the top or even his secretary, who simply call the censors because they bump into a posting they’re not happy with.”

Read an account of the attempted visit to Chen Guangcheng and more by and about Murong Xuecun, via CDT.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bribery, Chen Guangcheng, corruption, Internet censorship, June 4th, Murong Xuecun, road construction, sina weibo, United States, weibo
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China’s Censors Tested by Microbloggers

Sophie Beach — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 04:48:27 +0000

The Guardian is publishing a seven-day series titled, “Battle for the Internet.” According to their introduction: “From states stifling dissent, to the new cyberwar front line, we look at the challenges facing the dream of an open internet.” As part of the series, Tania Branigan writes about the myriad ways microbloggers are challenging China’s censorship regime:

International attention tends to focus on the Great Firewall, which stops Chinese citizens from reading sensitive content overseas, and constraints put on familiar western brands – the blocking of social media services such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, or the Chinese government’s clash with Google, which saw the internet giant relocate search services to Hong Kong rather than continue to censor results.
But the world’s largest internet population is far more interested in what happens on domestic sites – and particularly the “weibo” or microblog services, which boast about 300 million registered users. Microblogs, particularly Sina’s Weibo, are where the clash of political controls, commercial interests and the urge of millions to share their thoughts on official scandals, or just last night’s TV, play out.
“Weibo plays a much more important role in China than Twitter in the west, because of the heavy censorship imposed by the regime on the other media,” said Beijing-based scholar Michel Bonnin. “Weibo is also censored and cannot be considered a free public sphere but it is still the place where exchange of information is the most developed in China, and even traditional and official media are forced to go through it to have a real impact on the public. It is also the only place where the receptors of information can react and influence the circulation of information.”
Official anxiety about the repercussions has become increasingly evident. Some think the authorities might have shut down microblogs entirely if they did not fear the backlash. Others suggest they see them as both threat and opportunity.

Also in the series, artist, activist and microblogger extraordinaire Ai Weiwei writes an opinion piece, “China’s censorship can never defeat the internet“:

Even though we had reform and opening, “opening” didn’t mean “openness”; it meant opening the door to the west. It was more practical than ideological. At the very beginning, nobody – even in the west – could predict the internet would have so much to do with freedom of speech and that social media would develop in the way it has. They just understood it was a more efficient, fast and powerful means of communication.
But since we got the net and could write blogs – and now microblogs – people have started to share ideas, and a new sense of freedom has arisen. Of course, it varies from silly posts about what you’ve had for breakfast to serious discussions of the news but, either way, people are learning how to exercise their own rights. It is a unique, treasured moment. People have started to feel the breeze. The internet is a wild land with its own games, languages and gestures through which we are starting to share common feelings.
But the government cannot give up control. It blocks major internet platforms – such as Twitter and Facebook – because it is afraid of free discussion. And it deletes information. The government computer has one button: delete.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Ai Weiwei, Great Firewall, Internet censorship, microblogs, sina weibo
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Urgent Notice on Network and Information Security

Hernandez — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 17:27:57 +0000

Below is an urgent notice many Chinese websites received on March 31 following the recent suspension of commenting on Weibo. Translated by Hernandez.

Urgent: Regarding Network and Information Security
Joint announcement from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of Culture, effective immediately: For network and information security, all departments are to launch a real name registration crackdown between April 1, 2012 and August 1, 2012. During this period, clients are requested to suspend all services involving unregistered domain names; content related to pornography, gambling or drugs; pornographic information; illegal discussion forums; and counter-political activities.* This will be a wide-range, long-term and large-scale crackdown.
网络信息安全紧急通知
即日，接中华人民共和国工信部、公安部、文化部联合通知，2012年4月1日至2012年8月1日期间，各部门对网络信息安全进行实名制严打。在此期间，请客户停止一切未备案域名、黄赌毒、色情信息、违法论坛、反政治活动等业务。此次严打，涉及范围广，时间长，规模大。

* “Counter-political” (反政治) is a vague term used by the Chinese Communist Party which may imply disobeying the ruling of the CCP, and is somewhat similar to “counter-revolutionary.” It has nothing to do with being “anti-political.”

© sandra for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Internet censorship, real name registration
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Beijing Cracks Down on Web Commentary (Updated)

Sophie Beach — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 20:08:17 +0000

Update: The restrictions on the microblogging services were lifted Tuesday. See a Wall Street Journal report.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the crackdown on the commenting function on microblogging sites in an effort to stop rumor-mongering:

The state-run Xinhua news agency called the measures a punishment for the companies for allowing the rumors to appear, “resulting in adverse impact.”
Xiao Qiang, a scholar of the Chinese Internet at the University of California, Berkeley, said the moves show online discussion is hitting closer to home for the Communist Party than in years past, when authorities used censorship to quash discussions about issues such as democracy or Tibetan independence. Now “it’s about internal politics,” he said. The crackdown is “a public acknowledgment of their insecurity about online public opinion.”
Separate Xinhua articles Friday and Saturday also announced the closure of 16 websites, the detention of six people for “fabricating or disseminating online rumors” particularly through microblogs, and the arrest of more than 1,000 other suspects since mid-February in a broader “Internet crime crackdown.”that Xinhua said focused on information related to firearms smuggling, drug smuggling and drug-related crimes and other offenses
The articles didn’t provide details on the arrests. The State Internet Information Office didn’t respond to requests to comment.

Tea Leaf Nation looks at the actual impact of the new rules on Sina Weibo and other microblogging services:

Something feels different: Fewer tweets, thinner commentary, and a greater profusion of movies, movie stars, TV shows, and other light fare on the trending topics board. To wit, current trending topic #2 on Sina Weibo: The Public Safety Department press office and Sina Weibo jointly present safe travel tips for Qing Ming Festival. Riveting!
It’s impossible to say when this chill will end. Sina and Tencent both maintain the comment suspension will cease promptly at eight o’clock on Tuesday morning, but one can easily envision a “trial extension” under thin pretexts. Huang Jinghao (@黄京皓), a close Weibo watcher, offers these predictions for a Weibo sans comments: “1. Official accounts won’t be greatly affected, and retweeting won’t be affected at all; 2. Celebrity accounts won’t be greatly affected, as fans will retweet their tweets no matter what; 3. The grassroots will be the most affected. Originally many friends would chat with you via ‘comments,’ now that is not possible.” He ends by asking, “Would you still use a Weibo … this boring, with only celebrities and official accounts?”
Some will simply say, “No thanks.” In targeting comments, censors may have found Weibo’s Achilles Heel (read: its best, most democratizing feature).

For more on this topic, see an earlier CDT post, “Weibo Comments Suspended in Coup Rumour Aftermath” and cartoons created by netizens in response to the order.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Internet censorship, online rumors, sina weibo
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Sina Weibo: No Comment

Sophie Beach — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 04:52:57 +0000

Chinese netizens are quick to express their opinions on the new order on Sina Weibo and Tencent microblogging services that outlaws commenting, a key feature of the popular services. Below are three cartoons being spread around Chinese cyberspace. To read more from Chinese netizens on this issue, see CDT Chinese.

“Hey, so banning comments can prevent the spread of rumors?”
“Of course not. They just want you to know who the real boss is.”
“Sometimes a penguin’s scarf is not a fashion accessory” [The figure on the left is the logo for Sina Weibo; the penguin is the logo of Tencent.]
See more cartoons translated on Ministry of Tofu and via the Twitter account of @RichardBuangan.
© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Internet censorship, online rumors, sina weibo, sinaweibo
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Ferrari Crash on Sina Weibo: A List of Banned Terms

Hernandez — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 06:21:35 +0000

As rumors of the mysterious Ferrari crash have been circulating in cyberspace, CDT staff conducted an independent test on Sina Weibo (on March 19th and 20th) and uncovered a brief list of banned search terms that are directly related to the crash:

“Ferrari” (法拉利), “Shangshu” (尚书, a government official title in Imperial China)*
“North 4th Ring (area) + car accident” (北四环+车祸; area of the crash), “Baofusi + car accident” (保福寺+车祸; location of the crash), “falali” (Chinese pronunciation of Ferrari, often used by netizens to bypass censorship)

* There have been rumors that the driver was the son of some high-ranked government official. “Shangshu” is used by many netizens as an code term for high official to bypass censorship.

CDT Chinese has launched a project to crowd-source filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information.

© sandra for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: filtered keywords, Internet censorship, second-generation rich, sinaweibo
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Ferrari Crash Alerts Censors

Sophie Beach — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:25:40 +0000

A Ferrari crash on a Beijing highway in the early morning hours of Tuesday may not have aroused much attention, until netizens suddenly found that searches for “Ferrari” were blocked on microblogging sites. Rumors started flying about the identity of the driver, who died in the crash, and why officials wanted the news covered up. Unconfirmed reports have said it was the son born out of wedlock to Politburo member Jia Qinglin. Two female passengers were taken to the hospital. Global Times English edition posted a story about the crash and subsequent censoring:

The crash, near Baofu Temple, Haidian district, in the early hours of Sunday killed the driver, reported the Beijing Evening News on Sunday. The two women were hospitalized.
A black Ferrari, driven by a man from west to east along the North Fourth Ring Road access road, crashed into the wall on the southern side of Baofusi Bridge around 4:00 am, then smashed into the guardrail on the roadside.
According to pictures posted online of the aftermath of the crash, the Ferrari was ripped in half, with the front portion crushed and the engine in flames.
The injured women were transferred to hospital by the Beijing Emergency Medical Center (BEMC).

And from the Globe and Mail:

That might have been the end of the story – another tale of reckless driving on Beijing’s roads – if China’s tireless censors hadn’t kicked in and raised suspicions. First, the initial report by the Beijing Evening News disappeared from Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging service. Then, other reports and comments on the crash started disappearing from other websites.
Soon, entering the word “Ferrari” on Chinese websites brought you to a dead end familiar to most of the country’s 500 million Internet users: “According to the relevant policies and laws, the search results are not shown.”
After years of living behind the “Great Firewall,” those 13 words are now read by millions of Chinese as code for “there’s more to this story than we want you to know about.” (The same 13 words come up in response to thousands of other searches, including anything related to the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, the persecution of the Falun Gong religious sect, and the Nobel Peace Prizes awarded to the Dalai Lama and Liu Xiaobo.) Why the secrecy surrounding the Ferrari crash? The assumption that quickly made the rounds was that the deceased young man must have been someone powerful, or at least someone with powerful connections.

And the Guardian’s Pass Notes series summarizes the issues involved in this story:

Hardly earth-shattering. It has become deeply symbolic. Before the clampdown, the sinosphere was rife with rumour that he was the son of a party official. Bo Guagua, son of the recently disgraced Bo Xilai, was named initially; then speculation turned to the illegitimate son of politburo member Jia Qinglin. China’s middle classes, who earn about £10 a day, want to know how the children of party bosses can get a car worth $200,000 (£126,000).

All seems a bit dull to me. What sort of Ferrari was it?
Is that relevant?

I’d just like to know.
It has been variously reported to be an F430 and an F458 Spider.
Well we need to nail this.
I think you’re missing the point.
The F458 replaced the F430 in 2009. It’s sleeker and sportier, and has a 4.5-litre V8 engine with direct fuel injection. The Spider has a retractable hardtop roof made of …
Can you shut up please. This is a significant story about the faltering emergence of Chinese democracy, not Top Gear.

The Globe and Mail report linked above says the actual model that crashed was in fact worth closer to US$700,000 (4.5 million RMB).

Update: See also a list of filtered keywords relating to the crash, via CDT Chinese.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Internet censorship, princelings, second-generation rich, wealth gap
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The Slang Chinese Bloggers Use to Subvert Censorship

Sophie Beach — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 05:27:06 +0000

The Atlantic Wire excerpts some entries from CDT’s Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon in writing about how Chinese Internet users create slang to get around government censorship:

They call it the Grass-Mud Horse lexicon, and, lucky for us language lovers, the China Digital Times just started a recurring word of the week feature to go along with its catalog of the slang China’s bloggers use to subvert government censorship. The first post, which went up last Wednesday, explains the project’s namesake, Grass-Mud Horse. “Grass-mud horse, which sounds nearly the same in Chinese as ‘f*** your mother’ (cào nǐ mā), was created as a way to get around and poke fun at government censorship of vulgar content,” writes Fiona Smith. The term is perfect for a lot of reasons: It sounds like a swear, has its own YouTube culture and references the Communist party, which is often referred to as “mother.” All of that has led to its evolution as not only a term that means “someone who is web-savvy and critical of government attempts at censorship,” in the words of Smith, but also the representation of an entire language.

See also a recent post from the New York Times’ Rendezvous blog which also discusses the Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: GMH Lexicon, Internet censorship, online culture
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Weibo Analysis Reveals Censorship Patterns

Samuel Wade — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 02:46:06 +0000

A team at Carnegie Mellon University has analysed tens of millions of Sina Weibo posts, uncovering patterns in China’s “soft censorship”—the deletion of existing posts, as opposed to the “hard censorship” of pre-emptive blocking. The project was conceived when researcher David Bamman noticed the mass deletion of Jiang Zemin death rumours last summer. From New Scientist:

“What was … interesting was that messages you’d expect to have been deleted all the time – like mentions of the Falun Gong [spiritual movement] or the dissident and artist Ai Weiwei – were not done so every time. It would seem to suggest that there is no automatic, blanket deletion going on,” says Bamman. Rather it points to a high level of human involvement and a nuanced approach.
The censorship mechanism is also agile – able to turn its attention to troublespots on demand. “This is the most surprising thing that we saw,” says Bamman. “In Tibet there was an overall deletion rate of 53 per cent – against 12 per cent in Beijing and 11 per cent in Shanghai ….”

Two other areas with relatively high minority populations, Qinghai and Ningxia, also suffered from particularly high rates of deletion according to Carnegie Mellon News, where the researchers’ methodology is explained in greater detail:

To study this “soft” censorship, the CMU team analyzed almost 57 million messages posted on Sina Weibo, a domestic Chinese microblog site similar to Twitter that has more than 200 million users. They collected samples of weibos from June 27 to Sept. 30, 2011, using an application programming interface (API) that Sina Weibo provides to developers so they can build related services.
Using the same API, they later checked a random subset of weibos to see if they still existed and another subset that included terms known to be politically sensitive. If a weibo was deleted, Sina would return what the researchers came to regard as an ominous message: “target weibo does not exist.”
In late June and early July, for instance, rumors began circulating of the death of Jiang Zemin …. On July 6, at the height of the rumor, 64 of 83 messages containing his name were deleted; on July 7, 29 of 31 such messages were deleted.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Ai Weiwei, Falun Gong, Internet censorship, Jiang Zemin, microblogging, Ningxia, qinghai, sina weibo, Tibet
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