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New Media News Every Morning

China imposes news blackout in Tibet

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tibet censorshipThe ongoing riot in Tibet displays China’s Internet censorship prowess at its finest. Other countries pay attention and jot down notes. It turned out blocking YouTube and Google News is just an initial salvo.

BusinessWeek reports the Chinese government has banned journalists and tourist from entering Tibet to control the flow of information. To make matters really worse, there is a stricter measure implemented over the Internet.

All comments in different blog-hosting companies are filtered to be consistent with the news release from state-controlled media companies including China Central Television and Xinhua News Agency.

Even popular search engines like Baidu, Yahoo! China and MSN China are playing safe to avoid suffering the same fate as Google News. These leading sites only add news coming from state-owned media companies.

It goes to show how China is obsessively compulsive when it comes to suppressing freedom of speech and flow of information. However, it should not underestimate the power of the frustrated online mob for it has the power bypass all these controls.

Originally posted on March 19, 2008 @ 11:38 am

China now the world’s largest Internet market

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china-internet.gifIt’s inevitable. Reuters reported that Beijing-based research firm BDA claims China has outpaced US as the world’s biggest Internet market in terms of its users.

However, these are all based on projections and not on actual count. Based on data from China Internet Network Information Center, Internet users in the Great Firewall of China reached 210 million in 2007. Nielsen/NetRatings, on the other hand, records that US Internet population totaled 216 million in the same period.

Analyst Bin Liu said that if you simply assume the growth rates of both markets will remain the same as in 2007, you can easily conclude China is now ahead of US. Though China will certainly outpace US, this projection fails to factor in market trends shaping this industry in both countries and simply assumes all things to be equal.

Originally posted on March 13, 2008 @ 11:14 am

Believe it or not, Chinese children are more exposed to online dangers

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china The saying “truth is stranger than fiction” applies to China. Though it is notorious for suppressing online freedom, a new report reveals that children in China are more likely to be exposed to online dangers compared to children in the US, France, Brazil and Japan.

Conducted by Symantec Corp among 4,600 online adults and 2,700 online children, it turned out about 50% of the Chinese children 8 to 17 years old have received inappropriate materials online. Aside from that, 41% said they have talked to strangers online about sensitive and offensive topics like sex.

These numbers are strikingly worse compared to the US where only 16% received inappropriate materials and a meager 4% experienced talking about sex to online strangers.

No one earth would be very devastated to hear this report than the powerful Chinese authorities. Of course, the initial reaction is denial. According to China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) director Liu Bin:

I don’t think China’s Internet environment is worse than in other countries. But the lack of proper protection systems, especially in Internet cafes in rural areas, does increase the chances of children being exposed to danger on the Internet.

Well, I think this will motivate China to apply more pressure online and vex the already aggravated privacy groups.

via ChinaDaily

Originally posted on March 3, 2008 @ 9:39 am

Sex scandal in China forced actor to leave the showbiz indefinitely

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edison-chen.gifOne of the sure-fire ways to vex the always watchful Great Firewall of China is an Internet sex scandal involving its famous celebrities in Hong Kong.

This might be one of the reasons, aside from public castigation, why popular actor and hip-hop artist Edison Chen apologized to the public and vowed to leave the show business indefinitely. But for perverts, he’s the sex god of China these days.

In case you don’t know, Chen was in the movie The Grudge 2 with Sarah Michelle Gellar. Ok, never mind. Back to the main issue.

According to Chen, those 1,300 sex and sexually suggestive photos of 6 famous celebrities were stolen when he went to a computer repair shop to fix his lustful laptop. It was later uploaded on the Net by one of the shop’s crew.

To date, this scandal has led to 10 arrests for distributing explicit photos – a big deal if you’re in China since pornography is a mortal sin there. China even censured its local search engine Baidu.com for allegedly helping spread these photos.

Then again, 1,300 private photos? Wow!

Originally posted on February 21, 2008 @ 11:35 am

China shuts down over 40,000 porn sites

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no-porn.gifChina has become exceedingly efficient in busting online pornography. According to a news report, the government proudly announces that it closed down 44,000 porn sites, made 868 arrests and penalized almost 2,000 people connected with this operation.

Today, China has the 2nd biggest online population composed of 210 million people. Given this massive force, Chinese president Hu Jintao believes pornography is a big threat to social stability so strict measures are needed to control its flow.

Recently, the ever suppressive China announced its plan to limit video-sharing sites to state-controlled companies. I feel sorry for those Chinese perverts but the good news is there is light at the end of this oppressive tunnel. Xinhua reports this whole anti-pornography campaign will loosen up after the prestigious Olympics in September.

Originally posted on January 23, 2008 @ 11:13 am