#greatfirewall

There has been a great deal of mystery for some time shrouding the use of the internet, and further the use of social media in China. People like us, hailing from the Western World have always assumed that people in China are severely missing out on activities which we are able to do so freely. Although in some ways this statement is accurate on a broad scale in relation to censorship issues in China, when it comes to Social Network Sites, China has been able to deliver some highly popular alternatives.

The Chinese Government has allowed the use of sanctioned social networking sites that can only be accessed within China, allowing users to connect internally and appeasing some dissatisfaction in regards to people’s abilities to network. Crampton (2011) says that for people in China, connecting with other Chinese people is a top priority, access to the internet and social networks has opened up a stream of information to people that has been unimaginable for quite some time.

The monopolisation of state-approved social networking sites all but guarantees their popularity, given China’s massive population and yearn for information; we can start to see that perhaps our understanding of their social media landscape was ill informed.

“Numerous factors help drive Chinese, more than other populations, to engage in social media. These include rural-to-urban migration that has separated families, the loneliness of the one-child generation, and a distrust of information from government-controlled media.” (Crampton, 2011)

Most studies have found that people in China, almost spend more time on the internet than other countries with similar populations. Linkfluence reports that “With 91% of internet users frequently using social media, (against 67% in the US), Asia presents an unmissable opportunity for digitalised brands…” Linkfluence are an organisation with offices in China and Singapore who offer services to businesses stipulating they enable them valuable insight into how they can breach this previously impenetrable market space.

The illusion and veil that surrounds the internet and social media use in China really demonstrates the success of the regime that is being enacted by the Government in China. One of the most well-known blockages of information to Westerners is China’s incapability to view information on the pro-independence activism that took place in Tibet in 2008. Tibet was invaded by the Chinese People's Liberation Army in 1950, the act was called the liberation of Tibet and Tibetans have tried to combat the repression of the Chinese ever since the initial invasion. It is particularly important for the Chinese Government to maintain the belief in their own people that Tibet is happily under Chinese rule, just like everyone else.

“To Americans and other Westerners, it might seem odd that Internet censorship is still possible at a time when YouTube, satellite TV and online chat rooms produce an overwhelming flow of real-time news and data. Yet authoritarian regimes from Cuba to Saudi Arabia to Pakistan rely on a mix of sophisticated technology and old-fashioned intimidation to ensure that dissent can be repressed, even in the Information Age.” (Wiseman, n.d)

To look at the broad issue of censorship in China would require much more time and would far exceed the word count than this blog could afford. In talking positively about the Chinese availability of their own social networking sites we are not diminishing the larger issues at hand, merely recognising that things are different than in our own Western world.

References & Bibliography

Chiu, C, Lin, D & Silverman, A 2012, China's social-media boom, McKinsey & Company, viewed 3 February 2017, <http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/chinas_social-media_boom>.

Crampton, T 2011, 'Social media in China: The same, but differen't, China Business Review, Vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 28-31, viewed 3 February 2017, <http://www.thomascrampton.com/china/social-media-china-business-review/>.

CNN, 2012, "Timeline of Tibetan protests in China", viewed 3 February, 2017, <http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/31/world/asia/tibet-protests-timeline/>.

DLDconference 2013, DLD13 - How Social Media is changing China and Asia, 7 February, viewed 3 August 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG3z2ucaR6A>.

Forsythe, M 2017, "China Clamps Down on Online News Reporting", Nytimes.com, viewed 3 February, 2017, <https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/26/world/asia/china-media-sina-sohu-netease-phoenix.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FInternet%20Censorship%20in%20China&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=collection&_r=0>.

Freetibet.org 2017, "Tibet's history | Free Tibet", Freetibet.org, viewed 3 February, 2017, <https://freetibet.org/about/history>.

Linkfluence, 2016, Top 10 Chinese Social Media, viewed 3 February, 2017, <http://linkfluence.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/top-10-chinese-social-media.2-2.png>.

Greatfirewallofchina 2014, viewed 3 August 2016, <http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org/>.

Simon, D 2017, "China’s scary lesson to the world: Censoring the Internet works", Washington Post, viewed 3 February, 2017, <https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/chinas-scary-lesson-to-the-world-censoring-the-internet-works/2016/05/23/413afe78-fff3-11e5-8bb1-f124a43f84dc_story.html>.

The Great Firewall of China 2013, Open Democracy viewed 3 February 2017, <https://www.opendemocracy.net/china-correspondent/great-firewall-of-china>.

A friend of mine lived in Shanghai for many years. She would come and go from Facebook sporadically, with the occasional announcement that the loop hole they used to access Facebook in China had been closed, but they were back again with another work around to the Great Firewall of China.

Here’s how it works…

( Hungry Beast, 2010 )

While I knew that social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter were banned in China, I wasn’t aware of the extent of the internet censorship. In April 2014, an explosion at the main railway station in Urumqi occurred at the end of President Xi Jinping’s visit to the region, during which he had committed to increase focus on fighting terrorism (Waddell, 2017). The Chinese government’s censorship protocol began immediately, with search terms blocked and thousands of paid propaganda posts flooding the internet to distract from the news of the attack in Urumqi (Waddell, 2017). King et al. (2017) suggest that there are now up to 2 million people who are paid to add huge numbers of social media posts to distract and change the subject, in order to avoide controversial issues. The estimate is that this group, known as the “50c party” as they reportedly get paid 50c per post, make around 448 million social media comments each year (King et al., 2017).

According to Crampton (2011), while China’s online censorship is important to the 420 million internet users, connecting with other Chinese online is their top priority. While sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are blocked, the Chinese have created their own social media equivalents (Crampton, 2011).

(Top Social Networks in China 2014)

Chiu et al. (2012) suggest that Chinese internet users spend an average of 46 minutes each day on social media, compared to 7 minutes in Japan and 37 minutes in the United States of America. Perhaps this significant social media interest is part of the reason Facebook are developing software to censor posts according to geographic profiles, in order to break into the Chinese market (Isaac, 2016)?

References

Chiu, C, Lin, D & Silverman, A 2012, China's social-media boom, McKinsey & Company, viewed 3 August 2016, <http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/chinas_social-media_boom>.

Crampton, T 2011, 'Social media in China: The same, but differen't, China Business Review, Vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 28-31, viewed 3 August 2016, <http://www.thomascrampton.com/china/social-media-china-business-review/>.

Hungry Beast 2010, The Great Firewall of China, You Tube, viewed 4 February 2017 < https://youtu.be/dWfUOG0EA9w>

Isaac, M 2016, Facebook Said to Create Censorship Tool to Get Back Into China, New York Times, 22 November 2016, viewed 4 February 2017 < https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/22/technology/facebook-censorship-tool-china.html?_r=0>

King, G Pan, J, and Roberts, M 2017.  “How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, not Engaged Argument.” American Political Science Review, 2017. Viewed 4 February 2017 <http://j.mp/1Txxiz1>

'Top Social Networks in China' [image] 2014, Social Media Today, viewed 3 August 2016, <http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/understanding-social-media-china-2014>.

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Despite not hearing much about China’s social media landscape, it is undeniable that it holds a major presence in China and large importance on Chinese citizens. China’s major social media channel Qzone, has about 200 million – 300 shy off Facebook users in the US. China’s large social media presence influenced the largest e-commerce market in 2014, topping America’s 200-billion-dollar e-comm market. However, despite having a large social media presence and lots of social media users, China’s censorship laws have been responsible for inhibiting citizens access to information in past times. 

China is no stranger to strict online censorship. The Golden Shield Project (also known as ‘The Great Firewall of China’), originally implemented in 2000 began on the aim of creating a sophisticated database of all Chinese citizens personal information to improve the security of the nation. Since then, The Great Firewall of China and other censorship laws have seen that Facebook, Google, YouTube and other major social media channels to be blocked. 

Granted, this sort of censorship does seem harsh to an outsider, sitting at home reading this blog from their MacBook Air, whilst listening to music and Facebook open on another tab. But it’s not all bad for China, they still have social media that’s actually pretty sophisticated and stuff us westerners should actually be jealous of. Baidu, Weibo, WeChat, QQ and Youku are all social media platforms that are similar to western social media channels that offer 1 to 1 communication, content sharing and other means of communication. Qzone, a popular Chinese social media platform, allows users to modify their profiles with pretty colours and unique themes, making them stand out from other profiles. I don’t know about you, but this is pretty cool. China doesn’t have it so bad; they can still communicate with each other.