The “river crabs” are cracking down on “grass-mud horses” now. Oiwan Lam writes in the Global Voices Online:
Last week the story of Grass Mud Horse has traveled to the U.S.A via the New York Times and re-imported back to China with new ideas for reproduction, such as the marriage of two legendary creatures: Grass Mud Horse and FaKe Squid into FaKe Mud Horse.
As imagethief pointed out, the New York Times may have over-interpreted the Grass Mud Horse for criticizing the repressive censorship mechanism. Instead of mechanical blocking, there are some other soft tactics (summarized by “The Seven Possible Fates Of An Internet Post”), and the Chinese censor team is ready to show how with its latest notice about “Grass Mud Horse”.
The administration’s notice to forum managers has been tweeted and re-tweeted many times in twitter:
草泥马相关内容不得进行任何推荐，不得炒作（包括××神兽、河蟹），点名批评猫扑。目前该事件已上升到政治高度，境外媒体炒作该事件为网民与政府对抗。
One shouldn’t promote any content related with Grass Mud Horse, don’t turn it into hyperbole (including xx legendary creatures and river crab). It names and criticizes mop.com. The issue has elevated into a political level, overseas media has turned it into a hyperbole of netizen and government confrontation.
