【 在 BlueOrange (喵呜) 的大作中提到: 】
: could you please post the link of the original article?
: 【 在 bridged 的大作中提到: 】
: : 嗯，提到牛博了，提到五毛了。
: : 读完paper以后如果还有时间写点感想。
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/world/asia/05beijing.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=bullog&st=cse
Chinese Learn Limits of Online Freedom as the Filter Tightens
Aly Song/Reuters
An Internet cafe in Shanghai. With almost 300 million Internet users, China has tried to strike a balance between allowing vigorous growth of the Web and preventing it from becoming a tool for undermining Communist Party rule.
BEIJING — It was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek alternative to the stultifying variety show beamed into hundreds of millions of living rooms on the eve of each Lunar New Year holiday. But the program, called “Shanzhai,” which roughly translates as “knockoff” or “underground” gala, was not to be.
After television stations withdrew their promised slots, the extravaganza’s producers turned to the Internet. Those who tried to download the three-hour program on Jan. 25, however, were disappointed. The show had been quashed by censors, presumably for its mockery of a hallowed state-molded institution.
The incident has provoked howls among China’s so-called netizens, who say it is another example of the Communist Party’s heavy-handed oversight of the Web. Since early January, the government has been waging a decency campaign that has closed more than 1,500 Web sites found to contain sex, violence or “vulgarity.” Numerous other sites, including Google, have responded by removing any pages that might offend puritanical sensibilities.
But indecency is often in the eye of the beholder. Last month, Bullog, a popular bastion for freewheeling bloggers, was shut down for what the authorities said were its “large amounts of harmful information on current events,” according to a notice posted by the site’s founder, Luo Yonghao. When Mr. Luo briefly resuscitated the site on Sunday using an overseas server, it was blocked again.
Many people here believe that Bullog may have crossed a line by posting information about Charter 08, an online petition calling for democratic reforms. Organizers say the manifesto has garnered thousands of signatures since its introduction in December. Within the Chinese Internet firewall, it is now nearly impossible to find a copy.
While some see the monthlong crackdown as a portent of increasing government restrictions on electronic expression, those who follow China’s evolving relationship with the Internet say it is too soon to tell.
“The authorities tighten the screws every few months, and some periods are tighter than others, so this is nothing new,” said Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project at the University of California, Berkeley.
But the wild card this time, Mr. Xiao and others say, is an economic downturn that has the potential to put the Communist Party’s oversight of online content to a new test. For years, China has tried to strike a balance between allowing vigorous growth of the Web and preventing it from becoming a tool for undermining party rule. But popular anger against official corruption or ineptitude may become harder to contain in an era of economic pain.
Despite building one of the most technically sophisticated Internet firewalls, China still has a community of Web users that is among the most dynamic in the world. There are more than 70 million bloggers in China, and last month officials proudly announced that the number of Internet users had approached 300 million, more than in any other country.
The Web has become a forum for public activism that would be speedily suppressed, or widely ignored, if it occurred offline. In recent months, a spate of vigilante campaigns have been waged against low-level officials accused of corruption or unseemly behavior.
In one notable case in December, an ostensibly harmless photograph of Zhou Jiugeng, a Nanjing housing official, found its way onto the Web. Sharp-eyed bloggers could not help noticing the $15,000 Swiss watch on his wrist and the $22-a-pack cigarettes on the table in front of him. Two weeks later, Mr. Zhou was fired after investigators determined that he had led an improbably lavish lifestyle for a modestly salaried civil servant.
Two weeks earlier, a Communist Party official in Shenzhen resigned after he was accused of abusing an 11-year-old girl in a restaurant bathroom. What tripped him up was a security camera video, widely circulated online, that showed him waving off the girl’s distraught family as he taunted them with his lofty rank.
Then there is the case of a Wenzhou government delegation whose publicly financed junket to Las Vegas, Niagara Falls and Vancouver was exposed by a blogger who found a bag of incriminating receipts on a Shanghai subway. After the documents were published on the Web in December, two top officials were ousted from their jobs; the other nine travelers were forced to write self-criticism essays.
These and a score of other incidents have convinced commentators like Ai Weiwei that the Internet will pave the way to a new era of free speech and democracy. “As long as people care about society’s problems, they will go to the Web to look for information,” he said.
An artist who is one of China’s most widely read bloggers, Mr. Ai helped inspire a surge of populist support for Yang Jia, an unemployed 28-year-old convicted of killing six police officers in Shanghai. Although he was executed in November, Mr. Yang gained considerable public sympathy after Mr. Ai and other bloggers highlighted the abuse Mr. Yang said he had suffered at the hands of the police before his murderous rampage.
Mr. Ai acknowledged that the government’s noose would tighten if public unrest grew, but he insisted that any attempt to strengthen Internet restrictions would backfire. “Clamping down will only produce more of an outcry for democracy,” he said.
The government is well positioned to prevent that outcry from growing too voluble. Although imperfect, its weapons include a firewall that effectively blocks foreign Web sites by groups like Amnesty International and Falun Gong, and a number of Chinese-language media sites in Taiwan, to name a few. Algorithms weed out postings that include words like “democracy,” “Dalai Lama” or “Tiananmen massacre.” When those fail, the legions of censors employed by privately owned Web sites are ready to step into the breach.
Then there are the untold thousands of paid commentators who pose as ordinary Web users to counter criticism of the government. Known derisively as 50 Cent Party members, these shapers of public opinion are often paid a small sum, 50 Chinese cents, for every posting.
Speaking at a media forum in Beijing last week, Liu Zhengrong, a top official in China’s Internet affairs bureau, warned his colleagues to be vigilant in the coming year, which will include the 20th anniversary of the crackdown in Tiananmen Square and the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising that led to the Dalai Lama’s exile.
“You have to check the channels one by one, the programs one by one, the pages one by one,” he said, according to Southern Weekend, a newspaper known for its investigative reporting. “You must not miss any step. You must not leave any unchecked corners.”
Rebecca MacKinnon, an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Center, has no illusions about the Internet as a vehicle for political reform. The Web may be a hurly-burly of opinion and criticism, she said, but the moment that participants talk about organizing, the conversation — and the site — are shut down.
“All this Internet discourse has not brought China closer to democracy than it was 10 years ago,” said Professor MacKinnon, whose expertise includes Chinese bloggers and Internet censorship.
In some ways, she said, the government uses the Internet as a pressure valve that allows aggrieved citizens to blow off steam before their fury comes to a head.
“One can make the argument that the Internet enables the Communist Party to remain in power longer because it provides a space for people to air grievances without allowing real change,” she said.
【 在 BlueOrange (喵呜) 的大作中提到: 】
: could you please post the link of the original article?
: 【 在 bridged 的大作中提到: 】
: : 嗯，提到牛博了，提到五毛了。
: : 读完paper以后如果还有时间写点感想。
【 在 falve 的大作中提到: 】
: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/world/asia/05beijing.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=bullog&st=cse
: Chinese Learn Limits of Online Freedom as the Filter Tightens
: Aly Song/Reuters
: An Internet cafe in Shanghai. With almost 300 million Internet users, China has tried to strike a ba
: (以下引言省略...)
【 在 falve 的大作中提到: 】
: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/world/asia/05beijing.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=bullog&st=cse
: Chinese Learn Limits of Online Freedom as the Filter Tightens
: Aly Song/Reuters
: An Internet cafe in Shanghai. With almost 300 million Internet users, China has tried to strike a ba
: (以下引言省略...)
对这篇文章，我的简单看法：
网络拓展了言论空间，并且看到了民意，比如新闻评论后面，支持和反对比显示不满的人群占了九成以上。但是同时要了解到，网络是一个廉价的表达模式，表达是不需要成本的。在不需要成本的情况下反对的人数占了九成，自然能让人乐观，可如果需要成本呢？能有几成？一成还是两成？我真的不看好。
跟文中那位美国教授说的一样，别把这事太当真了。光有这种廉价表达还不够，还需要再进一步，conservation and organization。这一步可真是艰难了。
对这篇文章，我的简单看法：
网络拓展了言论空间，并且看到了民意，比如新闻评论后面，支持和反对比显示不满的人群占了九成以上。但是同时要了解到，网络是一个廉价的表达模式，表达是不需要成本的。在不需要成本的情况下反对的人数占了九成，自然能让人乐观，可如果需要成本呢？能有几成？一成还是两成？我真的不看好。
跟文中那位美国教授说的一样，别把这事太当真了。光有这种廉价表达还不够，还需要再进一步，conservation and organization。这一步可真是艰难了。
不一定啊。是有很多人对党感恩戴德啊。
甚至有个美国学生，也跟我扯共产党救了很多人，很多人不至于饿死。还说是一个大学者对张戎写毛的新书的评价。我当场就说：without the communist, we can still feed ourselves! 不过我还有很多话没有说成，就是如果当年不是共产党上台，那我们的alternative 是什么？是国民党。不是anarchy. 而人家国民党已经在台湾民主化了。而且在多年内战外战以后，是谁执政都会有一点经济增长；是奴隶养活奴隶主 而不是相反，等等等等。另外一个东欧学生，也说中共很成功。他们说这些，还是在老师已经提了，毛杀的人比希特勒和斯大林加起来的都多以后。不过其他多数同学都是站在我一边的。那个东欧学生在课后和我交流了一下以后也态度转变了。