DigiCha

One of China’s more aggressive state-owned newspapers, The Global Times, has an amazing article today describing Internet censorship in China. The most pervasive and impactful web censorship in China is not carried out by state-owned filtering systems or censors operating the “Great Firewall” and blocking foreign sites. As Rebecca MacKinnon has pointed out, it is undertaken by individual Internet companies at the root level; i.e. before or just after posting the “offending” content.

All Internet companies in China have to abide by these rules, whether you are a startup, a state-owned firm or an overseas listed company like Tencent, Sina, Baidu, Sohu, Shanda, Netease etc.

Given how sensitive this topic usually is, I would not be surprised if the article eventually is “harmonized” (the Chinese netizens’ term for deleting sensitive content). Then again, this kind of “openness” to a foreign audience may have its uses.

Here are some of the highlights, though I urge you to go to the Global Times site and read the entire article:

Self-censorship is the rule of survival that prevents popular websites from being shut down, Zoe Wang, a veteran website developer told the Global Times.

“I can understand an author being outraged when his post gets deleted, but it’s even harder to operate a website as I have to suffer the humiliation of supervisory organs and handle all the criticisms coming from users,” she said.

“How can you hope to pay your staff or maintain your users’ statistics if the website is shut down all because of one sensitive post?”

“You can never relax,” said the small website operator.

“You’re always keeping your phone switched on and waiting for that emergency call from the authorities requiring deletion of a post.”

What’s worse, she said, was the complete absence of clear-cut rules for deciding whether or not to delete an online post.

“The criterion of sensitivity depends on many aspects such as the political environment, the website’s background, size and location, as well as the different understandings of Web masters.”…

A site that published collaborative user-submitted translations of English and Chinese articles, Yeeyan was shut down in November last year for violating the regulation on “running a news information service”.

According to this national regulation, any organization applying for the establishment of an Internet news information service on the Chinese mainland must have registered capital of no less than 10 million yuan and at least five Chinese mainland editors who have engaged in journalism for longer than three years.

Yeeyan relaunched 39 days later under tight self-censorship, with all “political” news removed…

“It’s impossible to rescue your website if you violated the related law,” a Web master from China Unicom, Beijing branch, told the Global Times.

“As long as Douban is growing, it won’t care about what users say because the real threat comes from the authorities,” Fang said.

It’s pointless fighting the system, he said.

“We can only fight the slavish social environment and gradually gain a sense of citizenship,” he said…

There are 14 general laws and regulations governing illegal online behavior, all vague and lacking in detailed, practical provisions, according to Li Yonggang, a professor of Internet politics from Nan-jing University, in his newly published book Our Great Firewall: Expression and Governance in the Era of the Internet.

“As a result, it’s difficult to draw a line when operators and Web users censor, apart from the well-known restricted field of political issues,” he wrote.

There are more than 10 government organs entitled to supervise the Internet, Li said. This inevitably gives rise to conflicts, he believed.

Bans are also increasingly unpredictable, he said. Recipients receive no explanation and no comeback. Chinese mainland Web users tend to react with a pessimistic, alienated and impotent attitude.

“Chinese may criticize the evils of society, but at the same time they feel like participants,” Li said.

“In fact the Great Firewall is rooted in our hearts as so little ‘harmful information’ will ever come to light thanks to individuals’ self-discipline and website operators’ self-censorship.”…

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