胡泳 | China feeds rumor mill with media curbs

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/MK16Ad01.html

Nov 16, 2011

China feeds rumor mill with media curbs

By Yvonne Su

BEIJING – The
Chinese government this week issuing new orders aimed at curbing online rumors
that spread too quickly through Twitter-like micro-blogs for the authorities to
censor, such as the false reports in July of former leader Jiang Zemin’s death.

On November 11,
the General Administration of Press and Publications released new regulations
that ban journalists from reporting unverified information from the Internet or
mobile phone messages. While the ban is part of government efforts to block “unofficial
information” it says threatens social stability, observers say that the
approach could backfire.

“The
government tends to delete blog posts when rumors are widely circulating, which
ends up attracting more attention to them. It only leads the public to believe
the deleted posts are accurate,” wrote Hu Yong, associate professor at
Peking University's School of Journalism and Communication, in his study
“Rumor as social protest.”

A survey conducted
by the Hong Kong based Phoenix News Media Inc in October on why China had been
flooded with rumors found that 55% of respondents believed the government’s
lack of transparency led the public to disseminate and believe rumors or
unofficial information, while 32% believe the country’s blocked information channels
were the cause.

“Rumors have
existed as long as human beings. The Internet is just the activator,” said
Zhou Yuqiong, associate professor at Shenzhen University's Mass Communication
College, “Reality is the best enemy of rumor,” says Zhou, who points
out the Internet rumors about HIV/AIDS have almost disappeared in the three
years since public discussions about the disease became more common.

Unofficial
information in China can take different forms. Recently, state-run media
mistakenly reported on a fake government document, a development some might
argue lends the new laws credibility.

On July 27, the
“State Administration of Taxation's Notice 47, 2011”, a circular
explaining new personal income tax rules in China, was posted on the social
media website, Tianya. About two weeks later, China's state-run Xinhua News
Agency, China Central Television (CCTV) and others all reported the new rules
stated in the document.

But, three days
later, the State Administration of Taxation said it had never issued such a
circular. At the end of October, Shanghai Public Security Bureau's website
announced a 15-day-detention for a netizen online-named “Piplet”, a
temporary resident in Shanghai's Minhang district, for fabricating Notice 47.
According to the police website, Piplet's real surname was Li.

Shortly after the
incident, the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee concluded its sixth
plenum with a call for a tighter media control, including strengthening
“guidance and management” of social networking and instant-messaging
applications, punishing the spread of “harmful” materials online, and
promoting better security to “uphold public interests and national
security.”

In order to
control Internet usage, China has introduced some 20 regulations and assigned
multiple police departments to monitor websites in their districts, even though
Chinese President Hu Jintao told Chinese netizens in June 2008 that “the
web is an important channel for us to understand the concerns of the public and
assemble the wisdom of the public”.

According to the
Telecommunications Regulations introduced in September 2000, no organization or
individual is allowed to produce or reproduce information with content that
spreads rumors, disturbs social order or disrupt social stability, harms the
dignity or interest of the state and compromise state security or damage
national unity, without providing any specific definition of many of these
vague terms.

Violating the
regulations constitutes a crime and would be subject to criminal investigation,
according to the Decision Preserving Computer Network Security of the Standing
Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s parliament. The
government has also increased pressures on website operators, who are not only
required to keep a close watch on netizens’ activities but also held
responsible for rumor circulation.

Sina.com, one of
China’s most popular websites, set up a team to verify suspicious information
posted on its website last year. The team is entitled to punish those who
spread inaccurate information on the website by suspending their accounts, but
some netizens compare the process to an online lynching.

Huang Xuamin, one
of the founders of Wenzhou’s 703804.com, a website once famous for disclosing
information about corrupt government officials, said his company has been
working with the local police on monitoring netizens’ activities on the website
for years. The local police, he said, could directly delete any items they
think are sensitive.

Still, the vague
laws give the government more rights to interpret on its own. The government
has deleted many blog posts or messages that it considers
“sensitive,” or “rumors”.

In September, a
blog called Huguoshan General Secretary that exposed the luxurious watches worn
by local government officials became popular among netizens. But the blog was
swiftly removed. (See China begins to watch out, Asia Times Online, September
30, 2011)

The government's
tighter rules, meanwhile, have frustrated Chinese netizens. In responding to
the latest announcements, a netizen called Wang Gang posted a note on Sina.com
saying “People who fabricate rumors shouldn't enjoy the right to suppress
rumors. When the truth is only known by a small group, no reality can be
found,” said one.

“It is not
possible for a country to hold high moral standards when it has a propaganda
department in operation,” said Bright moon rising above the sea.

Based on Zhou’s
analysis, some netizens do deliberately fabricate information to provoke the
government to come up with more accurate answers.

Other rumors this
year include false reports in July of former paramount leader Jiang Zemin’s
death, as well as reports this month that a Yunnan citizen dying of cancer had
murdered eight village officials and claims that a J-10B fighter aircraft had
crashed during a test flight.

According to the
Shanghai Public Security Bureau, which publicizes online the names of people
and websites that violate the Internet laws, Piplet was detained for 15 days
for fabricating a government circular, without elaborating which law the
blogger has actually violated.

Piplet didn’t
respond to interview requests submitted via his or her Tianya account. The
Shanghai police also declined interview requests over their Internet monitoring
work and Piplet’s case.

Some netizens and
Chinese reporters, meanwhile, remain suspicious about whether the circular was
really fabricated and whether Piplet really exists, arguing Notice 47 might
have indeed been a leaked government document draft. They question why the
State Administration of Taxation took longer than 48 hours to clarify the report.

“Rumors run
the wildest in a no-information society. The strengths of rumors grow more
powerful when a government covers-up and manipulates information more
frequently,” said Peking University's Hu Yong said in his research paper.

Yvonne Su is a
freelance journalist based in Beijing.

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