For years China's censors have relied on a trusted tool kit to control the country's internet. They have deleted posts, suspended accounts, blocked keywords, and arrested the most outspoken.
Now they are trying a new trick: displaying social media users' locations beneath posts:
Authorities say the location tags, which are displayed automatically, will help unearth overseas disinformation campaigns intended to destabilize China. In practice, they have offered new fuel for pitched online battles that increasingly link Chinese citizens' locations with their national loyalty. Chinese people posting from overseas, and even from provinces deemed insufficiently patriotic, are now easily targeted by nationalist influencers, whose fans harass them or report their accounts.
The tags, based on a user's Internet Protocol, or I.P., address that can reveal where a person is located, were first applied to posts that mentioned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a topic authorities said was being manipulated with foreign propaganda. Now they are being expanded to most social media content, further chilling speech on a Chinese internet dominated by censorship and isolated from the world.
The move marks a new step in a decade-long push by Chinese officials to end anonymity online and exert a more perfect control over China's digital town squares.
[...] Those who appear to be getting online from abroad, even if they're just using a virtual private network or VPN that cloaks their location in China, are treated as foreign agitators and spies. After being reported by the trolls, some accounts are deleted by the platforms for violating "community regulations."
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 20 2022, @09:16PM
Chinamen sure know how to run good laundries.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 20 2022, @09:52PM (2 children)
By doxxing the commenters, they can encourage citizens loyal to the government to stop traitors from spreading disinformation.
This sounds oddly familiar...
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday May 21 2022, @04:51PM (1 child)
I see you've never met anyone from China. Orwell's 1984 was right on the money, only it was China instead of Britain. 1984 China [mcgrew.info] is an article about me meeting Chinese citizens in that year.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @05:53PM
Did I need to add the [irony] tag to my post? (GP post)
(Score: 0, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 20 2022, @10:14PM
Too late!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Snotnose on Friday May 20 2022, @10:47PM (8 children)
I live in either the Bay area (500 miles away) or somewhere in Kansas (1000+ miles away).
If you think I post anything the least bit inflammatory to the government under my own name without a VPN then you're delusional. And I live in the USA, not China.
Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday May 20 2022, @11:20PM (2 children)
Kansas, huh? You might want to join the class-action suit [arstechnica.com] on this, then.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @04:09AM (1 child)
I guess they eventually moved the default location to the middle of a lake. Now they will get sued if someone drives in the lake as a result.
They should have just moved it to the center of the moon. Of course this could create problems once space travel becomes a thing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @04:11AM
And once people start living on the moon.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 20 2022, @11:29PM (1 child)
VPN is a good countermeasure, but I wonder what about the location of the source makes the information more or less correct.
It may be that the truthfullness of the post is proportional to the distance from China.
What is to say that the folks out of reach of the Chinese govt have bad intentions? They may be the best source of truth.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @04:44AM
Read the article source. There are some examples in there of what you are talking about.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday May 21 2022, @04:58PM (1 child)
I post things on my own web sites, as well as others, about shit that pisses me off about America, and the FBI hasn't visited once. Be glad you don't live in Russia, China, North Korea, or any other authoritarian hellhole where freedom of speech is forbidden rather than insured by the constitution. No VPN needed; I'm a law abiding citizen (at least since Illinois lagalized weed). Even before weed was legal, I still spoke up about how stupid the law was; you can't do that in China. Not without spending time in a "re-education camp".
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @05:56PM
You are also a nobody. You are not a real threat to replace the people in charge. Get specific with your "complaints" (who and what, particularly local) and present an imminent alternative, and you'll see the pushback increase dramatically.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 22 2022, @05:56AM
you do realize that now we can draw two circles, and they will intersect in two places, and then we get a rough idea of where you live, right?
(Score: 1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 20 2022, @10:50PM (2 children)
Thank goodness nothing like this ever happens on SoylentNews!
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday May 21 2022, @05:03PM
You aren't responding to a comment, who ARE you quoting? The trolls aren't the ones reporting community standards violations, they're the ones committing them!
Did I just respond to a troll? Damn!
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 1) by liar on Saturday May 21 2022, @06:21PM
"After being reported by the trolls..." was in the article iirc.
I very often set my VPN to Troll Station, which returns a location of Canada in MyIp, and leads to my getting Canadian commercials when I use radiory.com .
Have I been trolled too? *8')
Noli nothis permittere te terere.
(Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Saturday May 21 2022, @10:15AM (5 children)
When all your town gets their social credit suddenly decremented make sure everyone in town knows well who was the culprit.
Works perfectly in any epoch and any regime.
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Saturday May 21 2022, @10:41AM (1 child)
Which is why Publius and the anonymity of the author of Common Sense [wikipedia.org] are important.
The ability to dissent anonymously is important, especially if it turns out you are in an unpopular minority, even if you are right.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 22 2022, @05:00AM
No reason the anonymous voice /needs/ to be on the Internet. In fact, it'd be more effective if it wasn't, as the Net is now Power-controlled.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday May 21 2022, @05:07PM (1 child)
Christ, this is about CHINA, not Keokuk. Nobody in America needs to worry about the cops at the door for a comment, unless the comment is in favor of committing murder or racial terrorism. Where in hell do all you paranoid fools come from??
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @07:53PM
The Department of Homeland Security's "Disinformation Governance Board": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disinformation_Governance_Board [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Sunday May 22 2022, @08:19AM
> When all your town gets their social credit suddenly decremented...
...make sure someone else takes the blame (or better still, make sure another town altogether takes the blame)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @03:02PM
Do I mention my Amateur Radio licence callsign that'll let everyone here know where I live?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 22 2022, @03:54PM
anonymous coward reporting in: Still on earth! still looks round to me.