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
China Daily: Chinese, Russian digital media urged to bolster ties
BEIJING, Dec. 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ Chinese and Russian digital media outlets should strengthen cooperation to inject more vitality into their strategic partnership, participants said at the 2020 China-Russia Online Media Webinar.
Niu Yibing, deputy head of the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, said at the opening ceremony of the webinar on Friday that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant increases in global instability and uncertainty. Unilateralism, protectionism and hegemonism are threatening world peace and development. The international situation has become more complicated, with conflicts and challenges following one after another.
PRN: China Daily: Chinese, Russian digital media urged to bolster ties comunicati.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from comunicati.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Innovation primary driver in media development, says official chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2020-12-21 11:11 Share CLOSE Niu Yibing, deputy head of the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, speaks at the 2020 China-Russia Online Media Webinar in Beijing, Dec 18, 2020. [Photo by Zhu Xingxin/chinadaily.com.cn]
Online media from both China and Russia should accelerate innovation driven development, said Niu Yibing, deputy director of the Cyberspace Administration of China, at the China-Russia Online Media Webinar in Beijing on Friday. A new information technology revolution is gaining speed around the globe, Niu said, noting that online media from the two countries should follow up on cutting-edge, strategic and disruptive technologies and enhance technological communication and coordination.
Li Wenliang’s death had only been announced a few hours earlier, but Warming High-Tech was already on the case. The company had been monitoring online mentions of the COVID-whistleblower’s name in the several days since police had detained and punished him for “spreading rumors.” Now, news of his deteriorating condition, and eventual passing, had triggered a deluge of sorrow and outrage online adorned with candle emojis, photos of farewell wishes scrawled into the snow, and a final image of the 34-year-old ophthalmologist as he lay in his hospital bed in Wuhan.
It was February 7, 2020, and Warming High-Tech’s “Word Emotion Internet Intelligence Research Institute” swung into action, drafting a “Special Report on Major Internet Sentiment” for “relevant central authorities.” Warming’s report explained that online discussions of Li had “flooded” the Internet; the public’s “grief and indignation” would demand an urgent response from government officials