Buying Silence: The Price of Internet Censorship in China
Publication: China Brief Volume: 21 Issue: 1
Image: How China’s Censors View Themselves (Image source: Central CAC).
Introduction
On Monday, November 12, 2018, the recently-appointed director of China’s Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission (CAC) Zhuang Rongwen (庄荣文) summoned senior executives from WeChat and Sina Weibo for a “discussion” (Central CAC, November 16, 2018). While there is no transcript of the meeting available to the public, one thing is certain: It did not go well. For months, Zhuang had been telegraphing his discontent with the state of censorship in China and specifically, the role that social media giants had played in undermining it (New America, September 24, 2018). His official statement about the meeting, which was uploaded to the CAC’s website a few days later, accused China’s largest internet companies of “breeding chaos in the media” and “endangering social stability and th
The Thatcher Estate // Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons
Some people remember former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as the quick-witted Iron Lady who resolutely lead the UK through the end of the Cold War. Others recall her as a heartless conservative hardliner who tore down labor unions while stripping away the country’s public resources. Some newcomers just know her as a new character on Netflix’s
The Crown. The United Kingdom s first female prime minister was one of the most influential and divisive leaders of the 20th century. Here are 10 things you might not know about Margaret Thatcher.
1. Margaret Thatcher’s family took in a Jewish refugee during the Holocaust.
‘Out of respect for the informed, selfless actions of my father’s generation, I will follow the advice of NHS professionals rather than heed bluster about saving the economy,’ writes Nic Howes. Photograph: Alamy
A bubble a day keeps the doctor away, but what if you’re not in a bubble? I have lived with loneliness for a very long time. I cope as best I can and sometimes do well and enjoy good contact with friends, but sometimes I am unbearably lonely.
It is worse this year as everyone rushes into their Christmas bubble: the travel window is just an empty pane of glass for some of us; the Christmas food shop is much like any other food shop, but with the Christmas music emphasising our aloneness.