From 'rice bunny' to 'back up the car': China's year of censorship

[turbinetree]

Online freedom has come under sustained assault from Beijing in 2018, with references to Xi Jinping’s new powers among the prohibited phrases

China stepped up its campaign in 2018 to control what news and information its citizens can see.

While censors continued heavyhanded control for any content deemed dangerous for social stability, including Peppa Pig videos and the letter “n”, regulators also deployed more sophisticated methods, going beyond Chinese social media and working harder to curate and shape what Chinese residents consume.

Authorities have been forcing activists on Twitter to delete their accounts and shutting down the social media accounts of university professors. Apolitical content is coming under more scrutiny. In October, almost 10,000 social media accounts for outlets publishing entertainment and celebrity news were closed.

The country’s largest internet companies have also stepped up self-censorship. The messaging platform WeChat issued a statement in November, promising to step up its policing of “politically harmful information” while in April, the boss of Jinri Toutiao, a content aggregator, issued a public apology more similar to self-criticisms in Mao Zedong’s era.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/31/from-rice-bunny-to-back-up-the-car-chinas-year-of-censorship

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‘Quangong carbon leakage’

In November, officials in Quanggang in the southern Fujian province reported a spillage of C9, a crude oil that is toxic to humans, off the coast of Fujian.

Local residents posted photos and accounts online of residents being sent to the hospital, arguing that the leak was more serious than officials claimed. Internet searches for “Xiamen Quangong carbon leakage” were blocked and video and posts related to the spill were deleted.

Officials initially reported that only seven tonnes of the chemical were dumped into the water. At a press conference later that month authorities admitted that almost 70 tonnes had been spilled.



So to everyone that supports to put plants such as Airplane manufacturing, and have a country attack unions and its people--------------------greed is good huh, so keep turning that blind eye, because after all toxic sludge from oil is not a problem, it does not vanish and one of the biggest polluters in the world thinks everyone is expendable to the communist cause, even if you don't live on the Fujian coast....................

[gtar100]

1. They are trying to create an alternate reality with the intent to protect self interests.

That never ends well. It's an ideological clash with reality. Human culture is a living entity that can be suppressed for only so long. When it comes to controlling information, protection should be focused on weeding out or exposing lies, not hiding the truth. We can only make intelligent decisions if we have good information to rely upon. We don't need others to tell us what we are "allowed" to hear or read. Government vigil should be about making sure that information is as good as possible, not about hiding the truth from people. That destroys government credibility.