Category Archives: Censorship

It's easy to be glib about social media. Page upon page of selfies, pleas for attention from celebrities, misogynist trolls and angels-on-pinhead arguments.

But as the Telegraph's research shows, the Chinese authorities take the web very seriously indeed.

Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter, is a huge platform, with over 200 million users. And for a while, it functioned freely, or as freely as anything does in China. It was, of course, monitored, and thousands of people were employed to post pro-government opinions and stories on the network.

But the old-style censorship didn't seem to be working as well as it should. Partly because it was just too obvious. In March 2012, rumours spread that the son of a Communist Party Official had been involved in a fatal crash while driving his Ferrari. As people discussed the story, they suddenly found that the word Ferrari had been blocked. For many, this made it clear that someone powerful had something to hide, and people openly wrote about their frustration with the system.

Shortly afterwards, Weibo introduced new contracts concerning conduct. Anonymity went out the window. Spreading 'umours' became an offence. High profile users were put on alert - if a story you shared went viral, you were personally responsible. On a platform dependent on sharing, this was bound to cause people to think twice before sending their messages out to the world. And on a reactive, interactive and instantaneous platform like Weibo or Twitter, that slowing of pace is lethal. It would appear that Weibo is in danger of becoming boring. Just how the authorities want it.

Could this happen elsewhere? Look at the debate in the UK: every week a fresh cry goes up for something to be 'done' about Twitter trolls, often beyond the existing laws that govern free speech and communication - with the ending of anonymity being a particularly popular (and ill thought out) demand. While these calls may be well-meaning, they are part of a broader uncertainty about how to deal with the fact people now have an unprecedented ability to publish to the world.

The Chinese government (and others, such as the highly tech-savvy Iranians) will tell you that this comes with an unprecedented ability to monitor and censor. As China becomes more and more powerful, its model of web censorship, both internal and external, could become the norm.

Padraig Reidy is a senior writer at Index on Censorship

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China's Sina Weibo is in danger of becoming boring - just how the authorities want it

A billboard calling for the protection of the ABC goes up in Rushcutters Bay. Photo: Edwina Pickles

There's probably a great deal more to Prime Minister Tony Abbott's criticism of the ABC on Sydney commercial radio on Wednesday.

It is less likely to have been some off the cuff comment born out of frustration that the ABC may have got the odd story wrong and more likely to be the launch of a new attack on the nation's public broadcaster.

This is certainly not the first time an Australian prime minister has publicly criticised the ABC in the way it handles its news and current affairs. Practically every prime minister since Bob Menzies has at some stage complained that the ABC either got it wrong, or demonstrated bias in reporting a story. We all remember Bob Hawke's accusation that the 7.30 Report coverage of the Gulf War in 1991 was ''loaded,'' ''biased'' and ''disgraceful'' because of the views expressed by an analyst invited on to the show.

However, Tony Abbott is going a lot further by now suggesting the ABC should censor its news coverage and withhold information to the public when it portrays Australia in a bad light.

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On Sydney commercial radio 2GB on Wednesday, the Prime Minister suggested the ABC ''instinctively takes everyone's side but Australia's'' and he wanted to see ''some basic affection for the home team''.

He criticised the ABC for running a story alleging the Australian navy was the cause of some asylum seekers being burned and that the navy should have been given ''the benefit of the doubt''. In the same interview, he made it clear the ABC should not have broadcast the revelations that Australian spy agencies had tapped the mobile phones of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his wife Kristiani Herawati because the information came from documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden. According to Abbott, the ABC ''seemed to delight in broadcasting allegations by a traitor''.

The inference to be drawn from this is that patriotism should now become part of the ABC editorial responsibility and the ABC should deny the public access to news and information that would portray Australia, and presumably its government, in a poor light.

There is no doubt that Tony Abbott and his more conservative Coalition colleagues genuinely believe the ABC is too left wing and needs to be brought to heel. Privately, they still grumble that the likes of Kerry O'Brien was once a young press secretary in a federal Labour government and Barrie Cassidy was once the press secretary for Hawke.

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Patriotism lies in unbiased journalism not in censorship, Mr Abbott

STOP Homophobia in Russia - NO to censorship!
STOP HOMOPHOBIA IN RUSSIA NOW! Discrimination and violence against the LGBT community in Russia is real and on the rise. Intolerance and open expressions of ...

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STOP Homophobia in Russia - NO to censorship! - Video

1/28/2014 -- Police State Corporation + Social Media Censorship (discussion) -- Freedom Frequency
All about SERCO .. http://chrissysumer.com/2014/01/sercos-web-2/ This show covering the topics of SERCO, Weather Modification, Radio Frequency, Censorship, T...

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1/28/2014 -- Police State Corporation + Social Media Censorship (discussion) -- Freedom Frequency - Video

Marc Randazza Facebook Censorship
My Facebook Page is in the top 10 search for "marc randazza" so he had it flagged as "hate speech".

By: Crystal Cox

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Marc Randazza Facebook Censorship - Video

Music Censorship - JRE #184
Joe Rogan, Deadmau5 and Eddie Bravo talk about censorship in music on The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast. http://PodcastBits.net | http://JoeRogan.net | JRE#18...

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Music Censorship - JRE #184 - Video

Keenen Ivory Wayans discusses censorship on "In Living Color"- EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG
See the full interview at http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/keenen-ivory-wayans.

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Keenen Ivory Wayans discusses censorship on "In Living Color"- EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG - Video

CENSORSHIP [23RD JANUARY 2014] [DAY 847]
SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE AWESOMENESS! VOICE ACTING-http://www.youtube.com/jamievoiceactor FACEBOOK-https://www.facebook.com/JamiesVlogUK TWITTER- https://twitter.c...

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CENSORSHIP [23RD JANUARY 2014] [DAY 847] - Video

1/27/2014 -- SERCO, Censorship, and the US Corporation (part 2) -- Freedom Frequency
All about SERCO .. http://chrissysumer.com/2014/01/sercos-web-2/ This show covering the topics of SERCO, Weather Modification, Censorship, The Act of 1871,an...

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1/27/2014 -- SERCO, Censorship, and the US Corporation (part 2) -- Freedom Frequency - Video

1/26/2014 -- SERCO, Censorship, and the US Corporation (part 1) -- Freedom Frequency
All about SERCO .. http://chrissysumer.com/2014/01/sercos-web-2/ This show covering the topics of SERCO, Weather Modification, Censorship, The Act of 1871,an...

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1/26/2014 -- SERCO, Censorship, and the US Corporation (part 1) -- Freedom Frequency - Video