To the casual eye, China’s social media landscape might look diverse and lively. But the social media clones are careful to follow Communist Party censorship.
As the showdown escalated between Chinese security forces and residents of Wukan, where villagers revolted against the Chinese Communist Party, you didn’t find as much discussion of the incident in Chinese social media as you might expect. And it wasn’t only because the internet was shut off in the town.
It was also a result of China’s development of a set of “social media clones” that ably mimic the functions of the most popular, internationally recognized social media applications, such as Facebook and Twitter. The replicas, however, come with a major catch: they systematically comply with the Chinese Communist Party’s strict censorship requirements.
This innovative approach embraces, rather than resists, technological advances. It satisfies the growing demand of hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens for social media tools, reducing incentives for them to circumvent the “Great Firewall,” while still enabling the Communist Party to control what they say to each other on matters of political consequence.
Here’s how this critical piece of China’s modern censorship mosaic works.
First, the big transnational social media players – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube – are blocked in China. This clears the playing field for homegrown firms, such as Renren, which provides Facebook-type functions, Youku.com, a YouTube-like video sharing service, and Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblogging service.
These services are then required to have automated or manual monitoring and censorship mechanisms in place to quickly identify and delete user-generated postings or disable accounts that run afoul of the Communist Party’s ever-changing censorship red lines. It’s a daily reality for Chinese bloggers, academics, activists, and even ordinary users to discover a posting deleted, their account locked, or their “friends” unable to view what they have just shared.
The case of Sina Weibo, which boasts some 250 million registered users, is instructive. Launched in 2009, it’s similar to Twitter in that it allows users to post 140-character “tweets” and gather followers. Since coming on the scene, the company has enjoyed explosive growth and the service’s millions of users have become an important audience for a diverse range of interests.
But in the same way this microblogging service can enable commerce, entertainment and personal communication, it’s also increasingly used to share information and commentary unwelcome to the ruling Communist Party. To keep pace, Sina Weibo reportedly employs some 700 people to perform around the clock monitoring of millions of tweets.
Despite Sina Weibo’s vast user base, it represents just a small corner of China’s parallel social media universe. Instead of MSN messenger, there’s QQ, which downloads automated keyword filtering upon installation. Instead of Wikipedia, there is Baidu’s Baike. Instead of Blogspot, every major web portal has its own blogging service.
Photo Credit: Photobucket / Blaque_07
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Mark Downham
“..the big transnational social media players – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube – are blocked in China. This clears the playing field for homegrown firms, such as Renren, which provides Facebook-type functions, Youku.com, a YouTube-like video sharing service, and Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblogging service.”
They are starting to look like us. They are starting to sound like us. They are starting to act and behave like us. They are starting to copy (and mimetically replicate)everything we do….but it is still not Coca Cola (lol) and the Chinese people are more than capable of identifying (and authenticating) “the real thing”.
Shawn
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2011/02/latest-directives-from-the-ministry-of-truth-february-10-15-2011/
Too bad Chan won’t be able to see this link from behind his firewall.
Assume every single pro-China comment on every forum originates from the Central Propaganda Department.
Too bad he can’t see this link either:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward
Bill Webb
People know when they are being duped, especially when they’ve grown to expect it. The Chinese are doing a masterful job of containing the criticism while not providing a compeling reason to go beyond what is allowed. They may continue this for a long time to come, but they cannot extinguish the spark of freedom that the people instinctively know is out there.
John Chan
@Bill Webb,
Do you know you are duped by the Wall St. bankers? Too big to fail, so the USA citizens bailed the Wall St. out with trillion of dollars, meanwhile those bankers gave themselves billions of bonuses. Is it you and your compatriots have grown to expect to be taken for granted like suckers, therefore none of Americans raise a voice to say no to the Wall St. rip-off?
Wall St. has taken the Americans to the laundry not just for the current generation, but they have taken next few generations of Americans to the laundry too already, do the Americans have a desire of freedom to break free form the debt yoke imposed on them by the Wall St. swindlers? It is the question you should ask first, instead of meddling something you don’t know.
Mike
Wall Streets misdeeds are actually covered by US media, second, the US government does not suppress information and commit crimes against its own people on a massive scale, like your darling Beijing does. Ironically, your slavish devotion to the soul crushing authoritarian leviathan that is the CCP blinds you to understanding how US politics works, beyond the incomprehensibly warped neo-Maoist interpretations you spout on a regular basis.
Craig Purcell
NDAA
http://annapolispoliticalscene.blogspot.com/2011/12/obama-sells-out-in-name-of-defense.html
Tony Gilbert
Wow Mike, you jump straight into attack mode don’t you? I find your defensiveness very revealing. OK, so John Chan is apparently Chinese (although you make some big assumptions even there) and therefore can be labeled as some kind of spokesperson for the CCP because of that? The rest of the world would also like to ask similar questions not just about Wall St but about the global financial system bailouts and where that money went, when the financial system is again paying massive bonuses and ripping off its customers. I’m Australian, what can you attack me with?
JUSTSAYNO
The article has some factual errors. For example, the Chinese media did cover the Arab Spring. While the Western media focused only on the positives aspects of the rebellions, the Chinese media focused pretty much only on the negative and predicted that the Arab Spring would do more bad than good. Now that the Arab Spring is finally settling, I would say that the Chinese media’s take on this whole event is far more accurate and realistic than the wishy-washy pseudo analysis published by neocon thinktanks which saturated the Western media. Now, there is definitely more government censorship going on in China, however it would be interesting to see whose take on world events are more accurate; The Western media which seeded the vision that that Arab Spring will somehow end up with happy, pro-western, anti-fundamentalist liberals, or the Chinese media which pushed for a vision of massive chaos and even more brutality committed by various parties on ordinary citizens?
Also, on the Chinese microblogs you can routinely find people complaining and outing corrupt officials, inefficient practices, etc. On popular forums like Tianya and Mop you can find dozens of such posts and hundreds of comment responses on a daily basis. The argument that the Chinese government is this awesome cyber machine which can monitor and delete any dissent on the Chinese internet is silly, not to mention technologically impossible to accomplish.
Excuse watcher
You are utterly missing the point. Just because the CCP can’t stifle online discussion completely doesn’t mean it isn’t trying and isn’t having some success. What kind of argument is that???? Oh, CCP isn’t that bad because they don’t have the technology yet to censor everything. Puleeeze. It’s about intent and the considerable if not perfect success they have had.
Justsayno
“You are utterly missing the point. Just because the CCP can’t stifle online discussion completely doesn’t mean it isn’t trying and isn’t having some success. ”
More like excusewatcher was missing the entire point of my post and instead tried to focus on one sentence. The reason why censorship is bad is because it prevents accurate information flow from individuals to the masses. However, on important events such as the Arab Spring which the article has mentioned there is no certainty that the lack of censorship has resulted in more enlightened citizens, or more enlightened policies for that matter.
Another example would be this article itself. There are plenty of factual errors. Although my criticisms were not censored, it’s apparent that many people are still accustomed to defend their own ideologies than the face and examine the facts. Hence we have the reason why the lack of censorship doesn’t automatically produce more enlightened viewpoints. I would go further and argue that the so called “free media” produces an illusion of more informed citizens, while the reality is that the “free media” in general are heavily influenced by the elite few and of course the governments.
Excuse Watcher 2
Again you missed the point. I know people in China that found it very hard to get certain information about Arab Spring events. Yes the government allowed some coverage – but it was almost all negative. Yes some coverage was allowed – but it only coverage that made the uprisings seem bad (and obviously meant to look dangerous for China – dont try this here folks!) That is censorship. And it’s fact there were times many keywords were blocked. The article says people can sometimes get around it, but thats not the point is it? They shouldnt have to!!! I know people in China who told me. So please dont talk about facts being wrong when you just try to ignore facts you dont agree with. But theres no point arguing with you. You post follows the typical pattern. Complain about errors of fact, use subjective interpretations to “prove” an article is wrong and then finish by mysterious talk about “elites” and “governments” influencing the media. I just ask myself how much of this do you actually believe?
John Chan
@Excuse watcher,
JUSTSAYNO presented the fact that it is simply not possible to censor Chinese internet, but you countered his argument with conjecture and extrapolation on the basis of prejudice. So which argument is more reasonable between two of you? I would take the one based on the facts rather than the one based on conjecture.
Besides, which nation does not censor public opinions? It is just different format in different places. In the western media, they simply do not publish the opinions they do not approve, and selective reporting is the norm in the western media.
JohnX
Fair points John Chan.
Though it is interesting that the CCP doesn’t believe that its citizens can handle certain information and thus tries to prevent them from accessing it.
Personally I feel that its kind of stupid in a way as it really doesn’t make the CCP look good. I realise that media promotes a certain image and thus I have to look at many different points and I do. I seek out alternative opinions to just one storyline, just as I wager you do too.
The problem is that if all Governments including the CCP continue to manage information, the opportunities to learn certain facts gets lost. Plus who determines that the right message is going through, the CCP may in fact be negating the message that should be out there because of thier actions.
Thus, its the point that the intention to block information and sometimes its not even really important information is the problem. Personally, it makes the CCP look like they think that chinese citizens are too stupid to handle the truth. (Just like that movie expression).
Therefore, your support of thier intention to block information says that you think that you cant handle the truth or a different view of information. Whereas, you would probably discover that China and the democratic countries hide thier secrets mainly to hide thier corruption and incompetence.
webster0105
you’re absolutely right!
I think most people have a hard time putting it in context, but the government doesn’t have the means, or money, to sift through that amount of data and pick and choose what stays and what doesn’t. It doesn’t work that way. period.
What their angle IS, is to be able to get rid of content that pops up and causes problems; poses significant influence (like the Wenzhou train crash, activits’s blogs, etc). Basically, they want to make sure that the “official” version of the story – the “facts” – are coming from them, not some annonymous person on the web. THAT is the main point. It’s not good, yeah, but this idea of an “Orwellian state”…please, these officials are not nearly that competent. And it DOES NOT work…as much as they like to give the impression that it does, it doesn’t.
What I’d love sites like Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, etc to do would be to log the users they get daily from China…I can guarantee you it’s pretty damn high.
confuscan
This is why China is so frightening. They’ve melded capitalism, consumerism and totalitarianism into a lean, mean Orwellian political machine. The secret is to address its citizens’ desires within the constraints of the regime’s control. Give them their CCP-stamped versions of Twitter, Facebook, Google and all the rest but under tight control and monitoring. It becomes an 80/20 exercise with 80% of the population walking away happy and content. The regime can then deal with the remaining 20%. What you see here is China’s electronic “Soma” for its people.
ttaerum
There are, undoubtedly, those in our present Administration who are looking at the benefits of such an arrangement in the United States. Imagine, before a protest can occur at the President’s next campaign stop, the Secret Service would know all about it. It’s not that they would stop the protest, although they might tamp it down, just a wee little bit. Being ever resourceful, they’d pull up the photos of those involved (you can never be too safe), check their backgrounds – OMG this one shot a deer in her youth. Bambi!!! Better keep an eye on her.
Mind you, given the costs of such an operation in the U.S., it would make the most sense to off-shore it. And perhaps China might be willing to help our Secret Service and we could exchange “security” information. Our “terrorist” suspects (which they’d be free to investigate since they’re foreign to them) and their “terrorist” suspects. Hmmm. What an amazingly slipperly slope we’re on.
Jimmy
Thats the dumbest thing i have ever read. Seriously, everyone is now that much dumber after viewing your comment. It makes no sense, it’s like the wandering thoughts of your mind just siddenly spilled themselves on a keyboard and ended up in cyberspace.
For one, nobody cares about protesters, especially when you can just call police with mace, dogs, and sticks to get ride of them, no background checks or outsourcing required.
Also, nobody cares about what other people post on the internet. Most stuff you read is either factually inaccurate, or, like your post, debatable trolling.
Lastly, suddenly linking every article you read to the current person(s) holding office is a sign of serious mental illness, particularly when it has nothing to do with anything whatsoever on this side of the planet.
Get Help.
Mathias
The British spy on US citizens for the US government and vice versa. It’s called “echelon” and it’s commonly known in intelligence circles. Perhaps before embarrassing yourself by insulting other you should comprehend the bigger picture.
jack
I don’t really buy the argument that Weibo is ‘part of the censorship’ – its true that their business depends on compliance, but it depends just as much so on providing a relatively open forum for discussing the news (Sina’s share price crashed when real-name registration was announced a few weeks ago) – the extreme difficulty encountered in censoring Weibo is the main reason why it is so much more popular than renren, for example. This is probably why they blocked 乌坎 (wukan) on Weibo’s search function, but left ‘wukan’ ‘wk’ ‘乌k’ and others open to search – sina complies, but does only the bare minimum.
I’m not arguing that the internet in China is free, just voicing my irritation with assumption that Chinese people have no political views beyond those implanted in them by the government -
John Chan
@Jack,
In the Wespact, China must be portrayed as some sort of Orwellian police state. China in the eyes of the Westerners and the other anti-China people is a caricature and all articles in the Westpac world must fit into that caricature of repression, lack of freedoms, and evil, for the articles to make sense to the writers, editors and its sometimes misinformed readership.
In short, the current world is the Cold War II, the devil of this cold war replay is China instead of the red evil empire USSR. The quest for Western civiliazation domination must continue until the USA rein supreme.
Westpac (Meaning mainly the US with UK its lieutenant and Japan its major vassal state and a host of second tier associate nations.)
Rob
Well, it looks like China has a new batch of poisonous milk. They should first work on not poisoning their own people before censoring the internet.
John Chan
@Rob,
The food recall happens all the time in USA, Canada as well as other Westpac nations. Are you suggesting the anti-China hostility of the Westpac people is the result of their governments’ insidious anti-China operations?
Leonard R.
I look at Renren (dumb name), Youku & Weibo and I wonder how they would fare in competition outside the PRC.
The answer is easy. They would be crushed very fast. They are not competitive.
These entities are creatures of the CCP. They have no place outside a CCP-driven system. Few customers anywhere on earth would want what they have to offer if they had to operate in any other kind of market.
I ask the same question about most of what I see coming out of the PRC. How would it fare, if forced to compete in the world? Would it survive?
The answer is always the same – no.
yang zi
Pretty sweeping conclusion without any careful thought. Online products are culturely related and that’s why local product fare better. Chinese internet companies are copies of US models ( except a few are indigenously came up, like tensen and alibaba), they survive by localization and then improve by competition.
China has fared better than other countries in this space to stop US online dominance.
As far as competing on the international stage, made in China is winning, not enough high tech content, but wining and has been gaining in technology related field. China provides a wining combination of technology, cost and quality, especially in developing world. If China keep on building its brand name, it is going to have a huge market in the rising developing world.
yang zi
The greatest change for China is, it realized competition is good. It thought competition is a waste, then it found competition is the driver, now it found China can win in the competition.
This is why China is committed in free trade and willing to make concessions for trade packs. It is also explains recent military technology improvement, I fully expect more advanced military technology to come from China with increasing intensity.
I have long believed China will never in 100 years to exceed US in defense technology and neve should, now I am not so sure. With a right system, consistent investment, you are going to see a crop of Chinese companies that are similar to Japanese subcontractors, who are capable of making high quality component for China’s weaponry.
Again, this will take 10 to 20 years, but it will get there.
I also think genie is out if bottle for China, it may even thrive with much less foreign trade. Chinese trade with US is not a big deal in comparison to its GDP, besides, a lot of money in that trade is made by Americans and other countries.
Nice drinking tea with you, Leonard.
JUSTSAYNO
“I look at Renren (dumb name), Youku & Weibo and I wonder how they would fare in competition outside the PRC. ”
I don’t think the Chinese social media equivalents intend to conquer much of the world market, but I know for a fact that Youku is doing very well outside of China. Youku offers many services which Youtube does not, such as the ability to download the videos and play them on your computer offline. If you like to watch translated Japanese/Korean dramas, there are far more of that stuff on Youku than Youtube, where this kind of stuff is regularly removed.
Henry003
You mean now that you can’t incite rebellion inside China by subversion and spreading the lie you are disappointed
Well seem like the China is more sophisticated than the Arab government in Middle east in blocking rumor,lie,malicious effort to destabilized, democratic zealot
Go China go
nirvana
(Legend of King Midas’s ears)
King Mydas lived in Phrygia (now Turkey). He offended Apollo who transformed his ears into donkey’s ears. The King kept this secret from his people by always wearing a turban. Even his wife did not know of his misfortune!
But the King could not hide it to one man: his barber. King Midas told the barber that if anybody else discovered this state secret, the barber would be immediately sentenced to death. The barber felt so tortured by the ugly truth that he went out into the meadow, dug a hole in the ground, whispered the story into it, then covered it up. Months later, a thick bed of long grass sprang up in that place and when the wind blew through it, a whispering can be heard: “King Midas has ass’s ears”.
In our Internet time, a state can hire an army to delete the citizens’ messages that the state considers politically incorrect. Eventually, the truth will leak out. Just be patient and listen to the wind blowing…
Henry003
There is difference between, rumor mongering,conjecture,opinion, baseless accusation and constructive criticism
Chinese web sphere are alive with criticism and they are tolerated even encourage as long as they don’t call for regime change or question the legitimacy of existing regime.
I believe most Chinese are wise enough to know the difference and That’s why all the call for Beijing spring, TAM,Tibetan riot, are whither to the disappointment of all those people who wish ill of China
The time for revolution and the ensuing chaos and decline is over most Chinese agree on this only slow reform can achieve a better and more responsive government.
China is developing country undergoing seismic changes in both economy and social sphere. Change in such rapid pace come with all attending corruption , inequality, environment degradation. There is no magic formula to avoid it. They just to bear and grind thru this phase. Even the critic of government like Han Han realize this Please read his appeal to fellow citizen
韩寒连发博客，他“不认为天鹅绒革命能发生在中国”，认为“革命的最终收获者一定是心狠手辣者”，因此支持“更有力的改革”。他还认为中共有8000万党员，3亿亲属，“已不能简单被认为是一个党派或阶层了”，“党组织庞大到一定程度，它就是人民本身，人民就是体制本身”。当下中国难得听到的大实话！
Han Han has written several posts, with lines like “I do not believe that a Velvet Revolution can take place in China,” and that he thinks “the ultimate winner in a revolution must be a vicious, ruthless person,” which is why he supports “stronger reforms” for China. He also says that the Chinese Communist Party has 80 million members, and 300 million people belong to families in which someone has Party membership: “The Party is no longer just a political party or a class,” “When the party organization reaches a certain size, it becomes the people itself, and people form the system.” This is some real truth you rarely hear in China today!
Dan T.
Censorship is morally wrong, no matter who does it or for what purpose.
nirvana
A state that practices censorship is a state that does not trust its citizens. Citizens that think that they need « protection » by their state to go on the Internet are immature and lack discernment. Rumours are easily spread. To combat them, it is necessary that the media where they are spread is not controlled. The Internet is the only media that can not be controlled.
nirvana
(On Han Han’s posts on Revolution, Democracy and Freedom for China)
Many felt perplex when reading Han Han’s post: “When the Party reaches a certain size, it becomes the people itself, and people form the system.”
Some may be of Wei Wei’s opinion that Han Han’s post is “a good piece for the Global Times”. Others like me think that, putting in the context of Han Han’s entire triple posts (“On Revolution”, “On Democracy” and “On Freedom”), it could well be that Han Han tried to tell his dissident compatriots that the dark side of the system has now invaded a large part of China society and that the urgent task is no longer to “break the system” but to change the “substance” that runs in it, that is people’s mentality.
What else could Han Han mean when he wrote this:
“the quality of the citizens will not prevent democracy from arriving, but it can determine its quality. Nobody wants a Rwanda-style democracy” (On Democracy)
Or this
“if you insist on asking me about the best timing for revolution in China, I can only say that when Chinese car drivers know to turn off their high beam light when they pass another car…When the civic quality and educational level of the citizens reach a certain standard, everything will happen naturally.” (On Revolution)
And this
“… one-person-one-vote will ultimately result in the victory of the Communist Party. Who has more money than the Party?” (On Revolution)
John Chan
@nirvana,
(Legend of kingdom Lala)
The kingdom of Lala is a decadent nation; the citizens of the Lala kingdom are morally bankrupted. So Apollo transformed all their ears into donkey’s ears. In order to hide their misfortune and embarrassment from their neighbouring nations, the citizens of Lala kingdom smear and rant their neighbouring nations with lies day and night to the sky in the hope to misguide Apollo in making everybody’s ears donkey’s ears too, so that their donkey’s ears won’t appear ugly.
Although it is a legend, but the behaviour of Lala kingdom citizens is being replayed in front of us day and night even on this site. It seems ugliness of human nature does not necessary change with time.
ashleyhk
John Chan
You have finally got it. Well done. When did the scales fall from your eyes and you realised what the CCP is doing?
Congratulations.
Happy New Year