The misconceptions of China's Internet and its users
Some might be under the mistaken impression that China’s Internet landscape is a rigid maze of red-taped barriers filled with dutiful automotons, constantly toeing the party line. While it is true that Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and numerous other western sites are blocked here, China’s Internet community is as vibrant as it is large (450+ million). Self-censorship remains the lynchpin for keeping society harmonious but rebellious factions looking for some kind of justice have sprung up and are making themselves heard.
For one thing, virtual private networks (VPNs) are an easy and effective way around the “Great Fire Wall.” There are no numbers for how many Chinese Nationals use VPNs and although it may not be a huge number, it is not due to inaccessibility. Chinese netizens don’t need to use VPNs because of the high number and quality of local Chinese sites. Youku and Weibo are amalgams to America’s YouTube and Twitter and in some ways have more potential for growth...inside and outside of China.
Numerous social networking sites for all demographics proliferate here and even if Facebook does make it into the market, it might be too late for it to make any kind of large-scale dent, as was the case for it in Brazil and Japan. Upon entry, Facebook will have to submit to the government for censoring and might have to create a separate product for the Chinese market, disconnected from its main site. In the meantime, the local sites are battling in an already competitive marketplace, even without the big foreign names.
On Sina Weibo (microblog), political scandals are exposed and spread at a dizzying pace. When the government tried to cover up details of the recent high-speed train crash in Wenzhou, Weibo was a flash point for anger toward the scandal-ridden railway ministry, which eventually spilt over to the government at large. Even with about one-sixth of the people working on Sina’s Weibo monitoring and censoring comments, the sentiment was widely heard. With 140 million users as of May, keeping them all in line would be a tall order even for a staff of thousands.
With the seeming loss of control over these mediums, the government has tipped its hand that the blocking of foreign sites may have more to do with economic protectionism than keeping its iron fists completely clenched. Considering that Sina Weibo is in Chinese and therefore would be considered much more dangerous than its English-language counterpart, this theory gains even more ground.
One of the most evident forms of China’s vibrant Internet culture is its Human Flesh Search Engine (HFSE), an informal and anonymous horde of netizens bent on vigilante justice through identifying “wrong-doers.” All they need is a grainy picture or video. This has proven to be effective in tracking down provincial cadres that get too grabby with waitresses, girls who kill and torture kittens for money and hit-and-run perpetrators. Once the “guilty” identity has been discovered, they will be shamed and harassed unyieldingly, often resulting in them losing their jobs and receiving the ire of the nation.
The HFSE is much like America’s subversive 4chan, the popular English-language imageboard site, in that it is a group of anonymous netizens who have the power to promote change. The difference is that although 4chan can be a tool to promote positive change they have proven themselves to lean toward the juvenile, and most of their escapades involve spamming online chat rooms, making mass prank calls and ordering dozens of unwanted pizzas for their enemies.
One recent case of the HFSE that resulted in far-reaching change involved a woman named Guo Meimei who began bragging online about her lavish lifestyle. The problem was that she identified herself as working for the not-for-profit Chinese Red Cross Organization and her account had been officially verified by Sina Weibo. The HFSE sprung into action to verify her position in the organization and determine if there was any wrongdoing. The Chinese Red Cross disavowed all knowledge of her and even the department that she claimed to work for, but the damage had been done.
The Chinese Red Cross has seen donations go down across the board in the wake of this scandal and the government has vowed to make charity organizations more transparent. That’s quite a bit of change for some girl with a big mouth who might not have even been telling the truth. But in a country with a huge wealth gap where embezzlement is prevalent, this could be considered a beacon of hope that justice and change is quite possible. While the HFSE’s execution can be a bit scary and sometimes disagreeable, their goals appear to be mostly noble.
For the uninitiated foreigner in China, without great Chinese reading skills or a VPN, the Chinese Internet can prove to be a dreary wasteland. However, due to local companies churning out quality products, and a rabid and excitable online community, the Chinese Internet is turning into more of a lush jungle than many politicians and higher-ups can probably bear.
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Comments
Nestor Santana said on 2011 10 31:
Facebook is in China, and they are hiring, but it is unavoidable that they would need to create a different product for reasons stated here. This localization process extends to gaming as well, World of War Craft and the China influence on that game being a great example e.g. no walking skeletons, no harming pandas though the original releases had a flavor of that. With such an activity community presenting a challenge for managing all that information, it’s good to keep a watch on the changes as they roll in from the prevailing government ministries. A curious thing happened recently, seemingly as a result of the popularity and effect that China’s most popular version of twitter, sina weibo, has had: new regulations stipulate that starting very soon, only 10 hours of entertainment will be allowed for public television, per week. The rest of the programming must be populated entirely with news or educational content, carefully curated by the powers that be. There is also a reverse flesh search tool that is taking off here, it’s an application called 微信 and one of it’s more used features is searching for people registered with the application that are within 1 kilometer of your position, as determined by a mobile device’s positioning functionality.
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