How often have you posted a political rant or linked, liked or shared negative information about the current government or particular political parties? Lord knows I have! Ok imagine then living in China, where there is no Google, Facebook, Twitter or Youtube. Did I hear someone say apocalypse? Calm your jets and stress less, the people of China do have these things, yet their own version and heavily censored.

Google= Baidu

Facebook= Renren

Twitter= Weibo

Youtube= Youku

These alternatives are all part of the internally run web that is China’s Internet. So pretty much China’s government didn’t like the idea of servers not being located in the country so the created the Great Firewall. Nothing gets in nothing gets out (figuratively speaking).

This firewall and internalized Internet allows the government to track everything and anything that gets posted, viewed, shared and liked. Total control of the Internet. It seems such a strange concept, as our own Internet is so uncontrollable.

As you can imagine that with everything being monitored there must be some restrictions. You’re right. The presidents name cannot be searched through search engines either can certain officials. Anything even slightly offensive or negative said about or towards the government then the person responsible can guarantee that there will be repercussions. This strict censorship has lead to innovative Internet users to come up with code names for anything from political leaders names to swearing.

Yet this strict censoring can be utilized and become an incredibly powerful tool. There are 500 million Internet users in China, the biggest in the world. 300 million of them use Weibo, that number is the equivalent to the population of the United States of America. When there was a horrific train crash and a Chinese politician tried to cover it up the censoring was relaxed and for the first time in Chinese history people spoke out against the government namely this particular politician which intern lead to his dismissal. It wasn’t only the public who were sick of this particular person so were his colleagues. By loosening the censorship not only were the public able to voice their political opinion but the government used the people power to their own ends.

The unique situation in China isn’t all bad however. If you’re a business and you’re advertising on social media chances are you are seeing fantastic returns. A staggering number of Chinese Internet uses respond to advertising on their social media sites, especially if a peer has recommended the brand through social media.

Until this week I wasn’t aware of the prominence of social networking in China, especially amongst their younger generations. What I was aware of to some extent was the heavy censorship and monitoring by the Chinese Government around Internet usage and opinions that juxtaposed those imposed by power, ascending from this is a sense of citizen empowerment and reliance on each other for truth. What amazed me is the Internet counter culture and reliance upon social media sites to connect with each other predominately through mobile devices and in turn a reliance on each other, creating mobility and spreadibility as a platform to express themselves against China’s strict communist regime. Even more interesting is the invisibility of the Chinese online culture in western society when it is emerging at such a rapid pace within such a dense population uncontested by any other country. Looking at statistics from can often be misleading as a comparative medium when comparing Internet access of citizens. According to backgroundcheck.org On the surface USA seems to dominant with 78% of citizens having access to basic internet access which looks like a vast comparison compared to 36% in China in 2012, although this is not relative. 36% of China’s population accumulated to over 1,337 Million people compared to the 313 Million people in America, Social media platforms in China harnessing the power to reach a much wider community than Facebook could ever attempt in America, the reach-ability is vast explaining the governments hostility towards it.

In retaliation to this emergence of an online culture and citizens reliance on online active engagement which dominates over a third of China’s population the government has initiated the most extensive and restrictive internet surveillance project on the globe known as ‘The Great Fire Wall of China.’ The aim? To neutralize critical opinions, eradicate access to political sensitive information and prevent it’s people form being corrupted by evil cultures that emerge from western opinion. They prevent access to sites that violate their constition and attack leaders which can lead to political unrest and subvert their power contrastingly using the power of the internet to spread government messages in their favour, using social media as a modern age social media platform. By monitoring what the public sees they are directing their opinion and influence. With an estimate between 30,000 and 200,000 Chinese monitoring sites for data deemed inappropriate and monitoring activity, amongst those blocked are western societies largest platforms for social interactions including Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. While this is suppressive it has allowed the public to become innovative online citizens, creating languages that defy censorship as a way of communicating and informing each other, the tight regulations work as a catalyst for a sub-culture of individuality that actively creates community norms and languages around those forced by power. More trust and validity is placed on the online public than anywhere else, the internet it’s self is hard to distinguish from social media in the Chinese culture.

I think there is a common misconception of China as a copycat nation especially when it comes to networking sites, seen as internal platforms that mimic their western constructs but in reality they interpret and reinvent social networking to adapt to their culture. For every western social network platform there is multiple Chinese equivalents. My favourite is their adaption of Twitter through their own micro-blog platform Sina Weibo. Like twitter the netizen’s, or online citizens have a limit of 140 characters, while this is limiting in the English language in China each word is one character so while it looks as condensed as your average twitter post it is spreading way larger amounts of information making it a platform that’s sways towards blogging. With nearly half the users interacting through mobile devices compared to 20% in the USA. Even the equivalents of Facebook are more segmented and specialized in audience and ability the largest and most relative being RenRen while Douban supports an art subculture, attracting art students with similar interests. Chinese social networking is unique as it is so dominant in their everyday lives investing more time online than any other average in the world. It is driven by culture, language and trust amongst citizens an outlet that lets them be expressive and individual even when being heavily monitored.

I find this very interesting. I'm sure most of us would agree that social media allows us some freedom, right? We can question authorities and criticise things and let our voices be heard... on a global scale too, someone in Canada can listen to the complaints of a 15 year old Australian for instance. Although, this has been achieved by the allowance by the government quite ironically. In China, the government cuts off the chinese citizen's internet reach, so that only Chinese websites may be viewed and many global internet media moguls have been blocked; no Facebook, no Twitter.

My intial reaction was that wow, the Chinese government really does put a choke hold on freedom and access to information and news for their people, and that may be true for an interesting array of reasons (which would most likely lead me off topic). Although, the citizens of China are seemingly adaptive and bright...

I find it quite ironic that when China's social media systems have been heavily regulated, the nation (particularly the youth) has become united. Secret languages and words have been developed to avoid "internet police" that the Chinese government employ to take down things they don't agree with. They gather together and form a place to hang around. Chinese copies of twitter and facebook have been created, through brands like Tencent. Tencent, a mass media company as sky rocketed and has created an empire in China, and only in China... although, still much more bigger revenue wise and user wise than Facebook and Twitter, combined. 

The main thing I loved about learning more about this, is the concept I briefly touched on above... the unity that came out of this ironically. As the government conjurs up ways to hold back the citizens of their nation, they think of ways to get around it, whether its a proxy or a language, you best believe the people of China will subtly and sometimes not-so-subtly rebel against major authorities, as they know they deserve the same access to information as everyone else. Good luck to Chinese citizens and best of luck.

mainstream social media sites banned in China : still the worlds most active social media country. (Chiu, Lin & Silverman, 2012)

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are all banned in China, yet it is the most active social media country.. doesn't sound right does it? Those three social media channels are up there with the most popular so it is strange to think that China still use more social media than the rest of us.

I didn't know much about the banning of specific social media sites overseas, but through research and university I became more aware of what is happening in China. Yes three really popular sites are banned but there is always ways around it - and there are also substitutes in China that are the equivalent to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

I guess my main reason is why? Why does China need to police the way people use the internet. Why do they need to create their own social media sites - what if users want to communicate with people outside of China?. 

I realise that a lot of the substitute websites in China are actually more user friendly for the language barriers and so on.. but I still don't believe that other sites should be banned from the country.

Most people I know, well actually pretty much everyone apart from one grandma and my Dad, have Facebook accounts. So it’s weird to think that in China Facebook is blocked to those who either can’t be bothered or don’t know how to use proxy’s.

But when looking into Chinas social media use I was surprised to find that it was filled with copy cats of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, you name it! They operate in the same way with the same functions but are just for the Chinese population. It’s interesting to note that although Facebook is not available in China, when given a copycat platform like Ren Ren it is utilised in the exact same way. They are not just following suit and doing what every other county with Facebook is doing, they came to their own conclusions on how to use it and create communities within it and that just happened to be the same way the rest of the world use it.

It got me thinking, if you did an experiment and isolated a group of people from the outside world, and then all of a sudden handed them a technology like Facebook or Twitter, would they use it in the same way we do? Would they create insider networks and communities within their own? Is it human nature to band together with others?

Chiu, Lin & Silverman (2013, p.1) said that ‘social media is exploding worldwide, and China is leading the way'. Hands up those of you that have or have had a Facebook account. Okay I can’t see you but I’m assuming almost all of you have… unless you are from China. In which case you probably aren’t even reading this.

Almost everyone I know (aside from my grandparents) have had a Facebook account at one point in their life or used YouTube or have heard of Twitter. So it’s weird to think that China, which makes up almost 20% of the world’s population, is not using any of these social media platforms.  Censorship in China is very strict and the government does not allow their people to use the platforms we know. But, they do have their own social networking sites.

As you can see in this image, for every type of social media site we have, China has multiple sites for the Chinese people to choose from. With ample choice, why would the Chinese even need to try to get through Firewalls to access sites like Facebook?  RenRen is the Chinese equivalent of Facebook. It's so similar! And tailored towards their needs. Sites like Sina Weibo (Weibo meaning microblogging) is the Chinese version of Twitter. It sticks with the 140 character limit but because Chinese characters can be whole words, they are able to produce longer messages. 

Recent findings from the iConsumer China survey (which is the most comprehensive survey of Chinese attitudes and preferences online to date) found that China is leading the way in the most active country in terms of social media usage. It reported that 91% of China has used social media in the last 6 months compared to only 67% in the United States. 

With these incredible numbers and the government's strict censorship, you'd think it would too much to handle. But the Chinese government has it all figured out.  It's all about censorship aka, the great firewall. But what is censorship? The fact that sites like Twitter and Facebook and other worldly social networking sites are blocked means that the flow of information into China is extremely limited. The government controls the internet through IPs and DNS filtering systems which block all foreign websites. It's designed to "neutralise critical online opinion" and "prevent its people from being corrupted by evil cultures."  For every social media site there is, the government employs around 1000 people to go through all messages or posts and delete what they deem unacceptable. That's around 250,000 people who are employed to do this job. Take a look at this online study which looks at the types of social networking sites and the types of censorship around them. It's long but very interesting. Even just by reading the abstract section you can get the idea. http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3943/3169

Censorship and Surveillance: The Golden Shield The Golden Shield Project, which you would know by the name the Great Firewall, is a program set up by the Chinese government to monitor their citizens. Not only is it used to spy on people, but also used to control what they can access and punish those who are critical of the government. It is a form of control, designed to throttle outside influence from the west on the country. Sites are shut down or blocked if they are in any way: critical of the government; features dissident messages; or is religious or pornographic. This is determined by at least 30,000 (or anywhere up to 200,000) government employees whose job it is to act as cyber police.

The Social Landscape within China From a purely sociological standpoint, China is the perfect breeding ground for social media. It is a collectivist society, where family and the “group” is more important than the individual. This coupled with their rapid urbanisation (which saw a countless number of people leave the countryside, and their families, behind to work in cities) means there is an even greater desire and demand for a very cheap way of remaining in constant contact. China’s home grown social media reflects the group mentality, with the people of each province using a different platform that their friends and family use and recommend, meaning that for every platform with a monopoly we have in the west (for example Twitter) there are several competitor platforms in China (Sina Weibo, Tencent Weibo etc…). Their language also changes the way in which they utilise social media, exemplified by their micro-blogging scene. In English, the 140 character limit on Twitter reduces conversation to one or two sentences. In Mandarin however, 140 characters are enough to write a short story.

The Chinese Social Media Landscape Infographic. Commissioned to Jessica Draws by China Blueprint Online to promote the benefits of using Chinese Social Media...