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posted by martyb on Monday January 07 2019, @02:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the keep-your-friends-close-and-your-enemies-closer dept.

The New York Times has an article about China's online censorship factories and how they operate. Censors are specially educated accurately in history and politics so that they have mastery over how to spot and eliminate references, even indirect ones, to forbidden topics. Potential employees for censorship factories have to cram for two weeks for a comprehensive exam which they must pass in order to begin work. This education is followed by ongoing training which includes regularly visiting and reviewing web sites normally blocked by the Great Firewall of China.

Li Chengzhi had a lot to learn when he first got a job as a professional censor.

Like many young people in China, the 24-year-old recent college graduate knew little about the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. He had never heard of China’s most famous dissident, Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who died in custody two years ago.

Now, after training, he knows what to look for — and what to block. He spends his hours scanning online content on behalf of Chinese media companies looking for anything that will provoke the government’s wrath. He knows how to spot code words that obliquely refer to Chinese leaders and scandals, or the memes that touch on subjects the Chinese government doesn’t want people to read about.

Previously:
Censorship a Trojan Horse (2018)
Unpublished Chinese Censorship Document Reveals Effort to Eradicate Online Political Content (2018)
The "Great Cannon" of China (2015)


Original Submission

Related Stories

The "Great Cannon" of China 35 comments

We had two Soylents send us news of a new tactic in state-sponsored attempts at silencing undesired content on the internet:

China Is Said to Use Powerful New Weapon to Censor Internet.

Late last month, China began flooding American websites with a barrage of Internet traffic in an apparent effort to take out services that allow China’s Internet users to view websites otherwise blocked in the country.

Initial security reports suggested that China had crippled the services by exploiting its own Internet filter — known as the Great Firewall — to redirect overwhelming amounts of traffic to its targets. Now, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Toronto say China did not use the Great Firewall after all, but rather a powerful new weapon that they are calling the Great Cannon.

The Great Cannon, the researchers said in a report published Friday ( https://citizenlab.org/2015/04/chinas-great-cannon/ ), allows China to intercept foreign web traffic as it flows to Chinese websites, inject malicious code and re-purpose the traffic as Beijing sees fit.

The system was used, they said, to intercept web and advertising traffic intended for Baidu — China’s biggest search engine company — and fire it at GitHub, a popular site for programmers, and GreatFire.org, a nonprofit that runs mirror images of sites that are blocked inside China. The attacks against the services continued on Thursday, the researchers said, even though both sites appeared to be operating normally.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/11/technology/china-is-said-to-use-powerful-new-weapon-to-censor-internet.html

[Continued after the break.]

Unpublished Chinese Censorship Document Reveals Effort to Eradicate Online Political Content 16 comments

The Globe and Mail covers an unpublished Chinese censorship document revealing sweeping effort to eradicate online political content.

Chinese authorities have tightened their grip on the country's online broadcasting platforms, banning a long list of content – everything from tattoos to religious proselytizing, violations of "mainstream values," flirtatious dancing, images of leaders and Western political critiques – as the government seeks to stamp out any venue that could be used for dissent or behaviour it considers obscene, according to an unpublished censorship directive obtained by The Globe and Mail.

The meteoric growth of online video services in China has offered a vibrant venue for creativity and, occasionally, obscenity and political protest – unleashing a daily riptide of user-made cat videos, pranks and glimpses of everyday life. Hundreds of millions of people in China watch short video clips and live-stream video every month.

Chinese authorities have responded with strict new rules, ordering online broadcasters to eradicate a wide range of content, according to the document obtained by The Globe, which is entitled "Management requirements for live service information and content."

The document is being used as a master guideline for content blocking by some of the country's most-used video sites, multiple sources in the industry told The Globe. It began circulating early this year, and is believed to have been issued by the powerful Cyberspace Administration of China, China's central Internet authority, which did not respond to requests for comment.

Comments from Amnesty International and other organizations are included. The document outlines ten basic categories of banned content and provides insight into the Chinese government's goals.


Original Submission

Censorship a Trojan Horse 135 comments

From an editorial in the Otago Daily Times out of New Zealand, Censorship a Trojan Horse:

It's an oft-cited maxim that the news media is the "fourth estate" upon which a healthy democracy stands.

It ensures the three traditional powers of state — the legislature, executive and judiciary — can be critiqued, challenged and curbed from quietly drifting into the arms of corruption and authoritarianism.

A free, fair, open and uncensored media is an antidote to state power and, for all its failings (and there are many), should be treasured as such. There are many countries around the world whose people would give anything for such a freedom.

Yet calls for the banning of certain opinion pieces, cartoons and commentary have risen in recent months, especially from those using social media, a world where such talk is becoming a trend. It is a trend we must confront.

Censorship is to suppress the harmful, the unacceptable, the obscene and the threatening from the media and other forms of public communication. Like a virus attacking democracy from the inside out, it was traditionally the tool of the dictator, though it is one used by many in power.

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @03:39PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @03:39PM (#783203)

    the data is there, it's just not for everyone:

    "“They didn’t know things like June 4,” he added, referring to the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. “They really didn’t know.”

    Beyondsoft has developed an extensive database based on such information that Mr. Yang calls one of its “core competencies.”"

    that database doesn't know a (chinese) internet exists else it would be censored:
    "boss, why did we turn up to work today?"
    "Uhm, errr ... i don't remember."

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @03:40PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @03:40PM (#783206)

    Didn't Winston work in the continuity department of the ministry of truth? He got to see real history, but he was also training himself to forget.

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by ikanreed on Monday January 07 2019, @04:16PM (3 children)

      by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Monday January 07 2019, @04:16PM (#783224) Journal

      Winston was only supposed to know what previous versions of history said, not necessarily the truth. But yeah, the parallel there is pretty obvious.

      • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @05:37PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @05:37PM (#783257)

        You want the truth? No problem. Just go down to the cellar. Look in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'. Don't forget to knock loudly, you know, just in case the leopard is asleep.

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @06:36PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @06:36PM (#783286)

        How does this job in China compare to the censor moderator jobs at, eg, Facebook?

        The FB worker probably didn't need to bone up on history, but equally has a list of bad words and code words to watch for.

        • (Score: 2, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:05AM

          by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:05AM (#783560) Journal

          Fortunately the entire internet is not filtered through Facebook. Your ISP is far more dangerous.

          --
          La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @08:05PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @08:05PM (#783341)

      I remember one passage where Winston was privately proud of his BS skills, almost like a fiction artist writing a great story. We in the West know them as "marketers" or "lobbyists".

  • (Score: 5, Funny) by Spamalope on Monday January 07 2019, @03:41PM (1 child)

    by Spamalope (5233) on Monday January 07 2019, @03:41PM (#783208) Homepage

    So, is there a list of keywords? Does the firewall block forbidden references in English or does it need to be in Chinese?

    I'd love to add a bit of text to our email server's Hello message.

    • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @08:00PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @08:00PM (#783335)

      You could probably trigger them with something like :

      Long Live the Memory of the Brave Tank Man of Tiananmen Square, 4 June 1989, murdered in secret by Deng Xiaoping.

  • (Score: 1, Troll) by exaeta on Monday January 07 2019, @03:42PM (17 children)

    by exaeta (6957) on Monday January 07 2019, @03:42PM (#783209) Homepage Journal
    For all the good they're doing in manufacturing I wish they'd treat human rights the same way, with openness.
    --
    The Government is a Bird
    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @03:56PM (14 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @03:56PM (#783216)

      Hmm... the "good" they are doing in manufacturing?
      I see rampant destruction of the environment and poisoning of people.
      As fir goods produced, I see shoddy products that are dangerous, fraudulent, and break after first use.
      I'm sure someone will tell me, "But look at the iPhone, they can make quality goods!" which is really an argument about the exception more than the general case. Oh, the mountains of trash that result from shoddy products. But I will give you this: they can make CHEAP stuff, which if you are a business that sells to consumers so you don't care if it breaks (all the better!), you like. Bigger profits for you. Maybe a net drag on others.

      • (Score: 5, Interesting) by PiMuNu on Monday January 07 2019, @04:16PM (2 children)

        by PiMuNu (3823) on Monday January 07 2019, @04:16PM (#783225)

        > I see shoddy products

        The quality of any products is as good as the QA process that vets it. Which is (should be) owned by the company that commissioned the product, i.e. the Western design/engineering outfits like Apple, etc.

        • (Score: 2) by insanumingenium on Tuesday January 08 2019, @12:11AM (1 child)

          by insanumingenium (4824) on Tuesday January 08 2019, @12:11AM (#783478) Journal

          THIS

          I have been involved in manufacturing in China, the thing that Americans don't necessarily understand at first is that they view QA as 100% your responsibility, almost as if they are mandated to cut every corner that they can. Of course this cuts both ways, if you lock your spec and QA down super tight you will find that you don't get your pricing where you need it anymore, and deadlines start slipping. There is a temptation to say they have no pride in their work or they make shoddy products, but it really is more nuanced than that. Fantastic products are made in China, and you can have a device made by the likes of Foxconn very economically, but if you expect Apple build quality just because it is the same OEM, you are in for a ride.

          • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday January 08 2019, @10:11AM

            by PiMuNu (3823) on Tuesday January 08 2019, @10:11AM (#783606)

            Nb: This is my experience everywhere - not just china. If you don't test it, it doesn't work (I am mostly a software guy).

      • (Score: 3, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 07 2019, @04:18PM (8 children)

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday January 07 2019, @04:18PM (#783226) Journal

        True - but - let's be fair. I don't like making excuses for either the Chinese, or their government, but honesty forces us to consider a few things.

        Right here in the US, industrialization destroyed a helluva lot of the environment. Love Canal for one, the burning river in Chicago, and at least a couple dozen other Superfund sites. There were hundreds of other sites that were terrible, but didn't qualify for Superfund. Bootstrapping an industrial nation isn't easy, and there will be a lot of screwups along the way. To give credit where credit is due, I think it has taken China less time to address the problems of pollution, than it took the United States.

        Next - there was a lot of shitty manufacturing going on, here in the US, and everywhere else in their early days of industry. I hold out Japan as an example. When I was a small child, "Made in Japan" was synonymous with "junk". No one wanted the stuff. Japan countered Americans refusing to buy anything made in Japan by founding a village or town, called "USA". So, the bauble said "Made in USA", and Americans bought it. Today? Japan is known for it's high quality automobiles, among other things. The US in it's best days never equalled Japanese quality control in the auto industry.

        China is gaining the education, experience, and knowhow that we had 70 or 80 years ago. They will get there.

        Unfortunately, we here in the US are sliding backward. We no longer have the millions of steelworkers and autoworkers who supplied the world with much of it's automotive needs. Yeah, we still have a cadre who might train the next generation - but it isn't really clear that the next generation is going to do that kind of work.

        China is also cracking down on the kind of corruption that lead to poisoned milk products. I don't trust them yet, but we do know that they are addressing the problem.

        Remember, the Chinese were nothing more than a fourth world possession of various nations over the past couple centuries. They were held back somewhere between the 12th and 15th centuries, for the profit of England, and then various other Euro nations, and then Japan, and finally Russia. It takes time to move into the age of industry.

        • (Score: 3, Interesting) by khallow on Monday January 07 2019, @04:55PM (6 children)

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday January 07 2019, @04:55PM (#783238) Journal

          To give credit where credit is due, I think it has taken China less time to address the problems of pollution, than it took the United States.

          Note that China has barely started to address the problems of their pollution. Meanwhile, a significant part of the US's pollution problem on the West Coast comes straight over from China. I'd wait on giving that credit. Same goes for most of that list. China has done some remarkable stuff, but so have most countries of the world, including the US.

          Remember, the Chinese were nothing more than a fourth world possession of various nations over the past couple centuries. They were held back somewhere between the 12th and 15th centuries, for the profit of England, and then various other Euro nations, and then Japan, and finally Russia. It takes time to move into the age of industry.

          They got that way by growing complacent. In the 15th century, China was the most powerful and advanced country in the world. Odds are good that they'll be in that position again by the end of this century. But the lesson of those in-between centuries is that one can't expect the world to stop for them.

          • (Score: 2) by legont on Tuesday January 08 2019, @12:17AM (5 children)

            by legont (4179) on Tuesday January 08 2019, @12:17AM (#783481)

            In the 15th century, China was the most powerful and advanced country in the world. Odds are good that they'll be in that position again by the end of this century.

            Odds are, by 2030.

            --
            "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
            • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 08 2019, @06:20PM (4 children)

              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday January 08 2019, @06:20PM (#783778) Journal

              Odds are, by 2030.

              No way. They'll probably be close to or just past having leading GDP by then. But they'll still have some catch up to do to get to the technology and standard of living of the rest of the developed world. 2050 would be the earliest I'd put forth unless the rest of the developed world screws up massively somehow.

              • (Score: 2) by legont on Thursday January 10 2019, @01:46AM (3 children)

                by legont (4179) on Thursday January 10 2019, @01:46AM (#784404)

                Standard of living, yes, it'll take some more time. As per technology, financial and military power, and overall leadership, 10 more years will do it, I think. Unless there is a war.

                We should expect Japan's level per capita in similar to Japan's time frame. And let's not forget that the rest of the region will move forward even faster. It'd be a miracle if the US still has hegemony position in 10 years.

                --
                "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
                • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday January 10 2019, @02:26AM (2 children)

                  by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 10 2019, @02:26AM (#784419) Journal

                  As per technology, financial and military power, and overall leadership, 10 more years will do it, I think.

                  They're not that close. Plus, I think there's at least one huge economic correction in China's future like what happened to the Japanese in 1990. Move wrong on that and they might be indefinitely behind the developed world.

                  • (Score: 2) by legont on Thursday January 10 2019, @04:16AM (1 child)

                    by legont (4179) on Thursday January 10 2019, @04:16AM (#784463)

                    Well, my bet is that in 10 years we will have 1990 Japan adjusted for the population size of China. This should be more than enough to make it the leader.

                    I'd agree with you if a serious recession is to happen now - withing 2-3 years - but it got to be a Chinese only recession and a long deep one at that, which is not very likely. Japan got their lost decades only after they achieved comparable living standard.

                    --
                    "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
                    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday January 11 2019, @05:14AM

                      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 11 2019, @05:14AM (#784904) Journal

                      Well, my bet is that in 10 years we will have 1990 Japan adjusted for the population size of China. This should be more than enough to make it the leader.

                      They're not that close and they have a huge number of rural people that they need to deal with. And keep in mind that neither the US or EU are standing still for them.

                      I'd agree with you if a serious recession is to happen now - withing 2-3 years - but it got to be a Chinese only recession and a long deep one at that, which is not very likely. Japan got their lost decades only after they achieved comparable living standard.

                      While that's quite possible, it's not the only time that such a recession can cripple China. The lesson of Japan is not that recessions can hurt, but rather that the response to recessions can cripple for decades.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @10:30PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @10:30PM (#783414)

          Love Canal was the government's fault; forcing a private company to sell them the land, then violating the proviso that they didn't build on it. And you might want to look in to how many of those Superfund sites are EPA labs...

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Arik on Tuesday January 08 2019, @12:14AM

        by Arik (4543) on Tuesday January 08 2019, @12:14AM (#783479) Journal
        "As fir goods produced, I see shoddy products that are dangerous, fraudulent, and break after first use.
        I'm sure someone will tell me, "But look at the iPhone, they can make quality goods!" which is really an argument about the exception more than the general case."

        No, it's actually a bit more than that.

        It's about supply and demand.

        They *can* produce relatively high quality product - we know because they do.

        Yet they produce mostly junk. Why? Are there just a few good factories, and most are incapable?

        No, that doesn't seem to be the case. The same company, even the very same factory, that's putting out an award winning product for someone else will often simultaneously produce and sell shoddy trash under their own name!

        What's happening here is a little more subtle. This is the result of Chinese companies applying axioms they often learned in the US getting their MBAs. They will produce the product as inexpensively *as possible.* They will cut every corner they can - and only if they can't sell the product at a profit will they think there is any need to change what they are doing.

        Apple learned from the first few failures and wrote their requirements into subsequent contracts very carefully, very thoroughly, with very serious financial consequences. If iphones are failing QA it costs the manufacturer money, and as soon as that was the case, they started producing phones that passed QA. They're still cutting every possible corner to reduce costs - but a bunch of those corners have now been defined as 'impossible' because of the way the contracts work.

        On the other hand, when they put out their own product, it may be a very similar design, made by the same people, using the same machines, mostly from the same parts - but they know this one does not fall under Apples contract, so they cut more corners to bring the cost down lower. And if the resulting product fails to impress the buyer, oh well. They aren't going to be able to impose financial penalties like Apple can, so it doesn't matter.

        Chinese brands are typically just as you say. Even patriotic Chinese people avoid them for the most part, and buy something with a foreign name on it (still made in China!) as long as they can afford to do so. So the key denominator for junk here doesn't appear to be Chinese origin, but Chinese *branding.* It's sort of a self-perpetuating assumption that when a Chinese company makes something of quality they put a foreign brand name on it (either by contract or simply by counterfeiting!,) so Chinese brands can be very low end.

        --
        If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 08 2019, @06:37PM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday January 08 2019, @06:37PM (#783781) Journal

        I'm sure someone will tell me, "But look at the iPhone, they can make quality goods!" which is really an argument about the exception more than the general case.

        It's a big enough exception to prove the general case wrong. It's not a few people who happen to be obsessed with quality, but a huge supply chain. And really, pay attention to Arik's reply [soylentnews.org]. You could learn something, if you're not careful.

        But I will give you this: they can make CHEAP stuff, which if you are a business that sells to consumers so you don't care if it breaks (all the better!), you like.

        You might want to think about why most of the developed world has lost its ability to make cheap stuff.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @03:58PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @03:58PM (#783218)

      seems humans with rights is not a requirement for "good" manufacturing in china? maybe they're mutely exclusive?

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Gaaark on Monday January 07 2019, @05:33PM

      by Gaaark (41) on Monday January 07 2019, @05:33PM (#783255) Journal

      "I wish they'd treat human rights the same way, with openness."

      i wish the rest of the world would too!

      --
      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Monday January 07 2019, @04:20PM

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Monday January 07 2019, @04:20PM (#783227) Journal

    If I ever heard of Liu Xiaobo, I'd forgotten about him. Can I get the full list of things to be censored? I could use something new to read. Thanks, China!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @07:30PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @07:30PM (#783315)

    If you paste stuff about Tienanmen square, the Chinese trolls need to sign off. If you post stuff from the Snowmen leaks, the US trolls need to sign off. Etc.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @07:49PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @07:49PM (#783327)

      US troll found:
      > ... the Snowmen leaks, the US trolls need to sign off.
      cleverly misspelled Snowden, so it would slip through!!

      Note to self, better add Snowmen to *that* wordlist.

    • (Score: 1) by Sulla on Wednesday January 09 2019, @09:34PM

      by Sulla (5173) on Wednesday January 09 2019, @09:34PM (#784284) Journal

      I was unable to find it, but for a while /pol/ was spamming a half english/half mandarin copypasta that would trigger Chinese lurker's net to get cut. Bunch of stuff about Tienanmen square.

      --
      Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
  • (Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @08:05PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @08:05PM (#783340)

    Berkman Klein Center, Institute for Strategic Dialogue, Microsoft Research, Google Jigsaw, Demos, Applied Research Center, Inclusive America Project, Anti-Defamation League, Open Society Foundations, and every university and workplace with a "Safe Space" program...

    All run by the Muslim Brotherhood. Yes, the ADL too. It's a national security project of the US government so you're not supposed to talk about it, but the channers figured it out from open sources.

  • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:18AM (1 child)

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:18AM (#783562) Journal

    The guy sees the horrors committed by the state, and says, *Cool! Where do I sign?*

    --
    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
    • (Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Tuesday January 08 2019, @02:27PM

      by nobu_the_bard (6373) on Tuesday January 08 2019, @02:27PM (#783653)

      Once you find out you live somewhere such things happen, and you learn the truth - wouldn't everything else seem kind of shallow in comparison?

  • (Score: 2) by DavePolaschek on Tuesday January 08 2019, @02:35PM (2 children)

    by DavePolaschek (6129) on Tuesday January 08 2019, @02:35PM (#783660) Homepage Journal

    We watched Katyń last night. Kind of a depressing film, but interesting to see how first the Germans used the news of the massacre of Polish officers as propaganda, and then the Soviets did, blaming the massacre on the Germans.

    For nearly 50 years, if you mentioned that a Polish officer was killed in the Katyń forest in 1940, that would be censored. There's a scene in the film where a tombstone is smashed to bits for having the "wrong" date of death. You see, the Germans didn't control the territory the forest was in until April 1941, so there is no way such an officer could have been killed in 1940, it must have been in 1941.

    Finally in 1990 Gorbachev acknowledged Soviet responsibility for the Katyn massacre for the first time.

    The truth will get out. Eventually, hopefully.

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