China Closes More Than 13,000 Websites in Past Three Years (reuters.com) 73
China has closed more than 13,000 websites since the beginning of 2015 for breaking the law or other rules and the vast majority of people support government efforts to clean up cyberspace, state news agency Xinhua reports. From the report: The government has stepped up already tight controls over the internet since President Xi Jinping took power five years ago, in what critics say is an effort to restrict freedom of speech and prevent criticism of the ruling Communist Party. The government says all countries regulate the internet, and its rules are aimed at ensuring national security and social stability and preventing the spread of pornography and violent content. A report to the on-going session of the standing committee of China's largely rubber stamp parliament said the authorities had targeted pornography and violence in their sweeps of websites, blogs and social media accounts, Xinhua said.
Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
What I don't understand is, why does China's government even *care* about porn? It's an atheist state that theoretically was spared the neurotic hang-ups Christianity has inflicted on the rest of the world.
Ditto, for China's official opposition to homosexuality & gay rights. With China's goal of limiting population growth & keeping people content, you'd think it would actively *encourage* guys who like dick to stick to guys... fewer babies, and more women for the men who genuinely *want* a woman.
China has a *serious* problem with its lopsided male-majority population. If every single woman in China married one man, something like 5-10% of its population would never be able to have a Chinese wife because too many women aborted female babies back in the 70s & 80s because they wanted their one (and only) child to be a son. Those men are a far bigger threat to China's social order than porn and gay people could *ever* be.
Re: Why? (Score:1)
Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)
Entertainment, fiction, science fiction, art, culture all takes time away from the teachings of Communism.
It weakens the society and results in people escaping inwards after work. Less of a communist community results as more people withdraw into their own self centred and selfish pastimes after work.
Another reason why Communism hates and censors everything creative or fun is to keep CIA/MI6 backed NGO's, ideas, hobbies, lifestyles and artists out of China.
They spread lifestyles what weaken workers and disrupt the communist way of life with ideas of voting, creativity, freedom, democracy and the rule of law.
Imagine not going to work in China in a mil uniform and having to work for the mil all day for a low wage? Starting your own company and not having to ask the mil/party if you can sell, export, attend a conference, go to another nation to get a real education? Not having the Communist party have a say over housing, health care, your pension, mmil service, work and education?
Communist ideology does not like that kind of disruption to its workers. So it censors anything that can upset and disrupt its hold on power.
Censorship stops the CIA/MI6 from trying a color revolution in China. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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A better question is "Why did Hillary think dressing in a Mao suit was a good idea?". You'd think her media buddies would have their finger on the pulse of Middle American opinion and advise her against them it.
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How many years ago did you register that username, intending to use it to make the most relevant post?
IOW: user name checks out!
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
China isn't communist. I'm in China right now, it's a monument to consumerism. Capitalism is huge here, people value material possessions and bling more than anything. "Imported" brands (made in China) are the most desirable.
China is just authoritarian. Not socialist, definitely not that, and not communist in any meaningful way. It's no more communist than the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is democratic.
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Not socialist, definitely not that, and not communist in any meaningful way.
To be pedantic (i.e. meaninglessly strict in meaning), no country today is Communist. Communism is supposed to be the end state, when the state and the party wither away, leaving behind a classless society of equals. That's the theory anyway. As for the practice, we can see very fine example of how it's not done. I suspect that only Clarke's proverbial magical technology can bring about this true communist ideal, when every person can 3-D print his or hers every need, from their food to their clothes to the
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I suspect that only Clarke's proverbial magical technology can bring about this true communist ideal, when every person can 3-D print his or hers every need, from their food to their clothes to their jet packs.
I suspect that nothing short of that coupled with a benevolent AI which allocates wealth can bring about a true communist ideal, because some humans are always trying to have more than other humans so they can feel like they're better than they are. This is why anarchy leads naturally to feudalism.
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I suspect that only Clarke's proverbial magical technology can bring about this true communist ideal, when every person can 3-D print his or hers every need, from their food to their clothes to their jet packs.
I suspect that nothing short of that coupled with a benevolent AI which allocates wealth can bring about a true communist ideal, because some humans are always trying to have more than other humans so they can feel like they're better than they are. This is why anarchy leads naturally to feudalism.
What is wealth but the potential to acquire the things that you want? This would be fully satisfied by universal self-production. Only the truly sociopathic would desire to have more than 10 cars when a single one would do fine. And if I'm happy having one or say at most three different cars (sports, sedan, and off-road), why should I care if the billionaire next door has 365 cars for each day of the year? I think there's a practical limit to human envy and greed. Or to put it in more practical terms, if yo
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I think there's a practical limit to human envy and greed.
Why?
if you're the hungry homeless guy on the street you can look longingly through fast-food restaurant window at the Big Mac on the corner table feasting on two quarter pounders one after the other, but if you're a fellow diner who had just finished your own McChicken lunch (after having become mildly ecoconscious from watching some famous Hollywood actor's documentary about the relationship between cow farts and climate change), does it matter if the guy sitting next to you has a dozen quarter pounders piled on his table?
We can ask that question when we run out of hungry homeless guys, especially since there are currently wealthy people avoiding taxes and putting their money into tax havens where it does nothing but accrue more zeroes until they die. If the so-called "job creators" actually invested that money, it actually would create jobs, and then that guy could have a burger.
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Last time I checked, Facebook doesn’t have the ability to jail and/or execute people. So the level of “evil” Facebook can commit pales in comparispn.
Re: China is evil (Score:2)
Facebook is well known for collaboration with the Stasi. They do their part to feed the Gulag.
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I have seen many organisations claim that porn destroys society. I have seen many claim that they have scientific backing for their claim. I have even gone so far as to examine some of this backing, though as a layperson I am not competent to fully analyse the published body of work.
I have concluded that, though research in the area is very difficult to carry out, there is no solid evidence that widespread availability of pornography is harmful to society. It seems to have surprisingly little impact at all.
Re:Why? (Score:4, Informative)
Hint for those not paying attention: China doesn't care about porn.
They will knock some of the porn sites offline because it gives them a PC cover to restrict political speech that they don't like or that might challenge the oligarchs in the communist party, which is communist in name only, they are just the new ruling class in China and everyone else in China are their surfs.
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For almost all people, their moral judgements are founded in only two principles: "This makes me feel icky, therefore it is wrong" and "People get punished for this, therefore it is wrong." Pornography makes a lot of people feel icky. It's also an excellent pretext for controlling the internet. Once you have a national censorship system in place to 'protect the children,' it's almost trivial to use it to censor other things too.
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What I don't understand is, why does China's government even *care* about porn? It's an atheist state that theoretically was spared the neurotic hang-ups Christianity has inflicted on the rest of the world.
Ditto, for China's official opposition to homosexuality & gay rights. With China's goal of limiting population growth & keeping people content, you'd think it would actively *encourage* guys who like dick to stick to guys... fewer babies, and more women for the men who genuinely *want* a woman.
China has a *serious* problem with its lopsided male-majority population. If every single woman in China married one man, something like 5-10% of its population would never be able to have a Chinese wife because too many women aborted female babies back in the 70s & 80s because they wanted their one (and only) child to be a son. Those men are a far bigger threat to China's social order than porn and gay people could *ever* be.
Just because China is an atheist state, that doesn't mean it is an open, liberal culture. In many ways Chinese culture (or CJKV cultures for that matter) lack some of the ridiculous mores of the West (specially Bible Belt mores.) But they are still very macho-oriented, prude societies.
In the case of China, the CCP still copes with Chinese cultural attitudes and nixes anything that might seem as "destabilizing" even if it is utterly ridiculous from our POV. It's about Confusian harmony, personal liberties
And compared to the USA? (Score:1)
We know China does this; that is how their 'legal' system works. There is no news here.
How about some real news, like how many sites the DoJ has shutdown in the past three years?
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People can buy your books, art, music, review and comment on your past work.
In the USA you are free to buy and then read a book form Japan, South Korea. No questions later in the USA.
People in the USA have freedom of speech and freedom after speech.
No neighborhood committees reporting book reading habits to a Communist party.
I
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Are Facebook, Tweeter, Cloudflare all under Chinese communist control?
If no, why then they are entitled to shut down any site / page, and/or close accounts, for no reason?
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Western companies and their SJW staff are willing to support the communist legal system if they think the Communist party profits will flow back into their fully complaint company.
Total censorship is no problem for western companies if they think they will be protected in a Communist nation.
Once they have shown a good attitude western companies who fully supported communism might also get to block emerging global completion.
Entering a new market and having a near monopoly? Thats win
Re:And compared to the USA? (Score:4, Insightful)
Except it doesn't work. China has a history of forcing out foreign companies as soon as a domestic version is available, no matter how much the foreign company bends over backwards to comply with Chinese censorship laws.
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They’re entitled to for the same reason i can tell you to get out of my house and off my lawn. You may have freedom of speech but I don’t have to use my private property as your platform.
Re: And compared to the USA? (Score:2)
Fake progressive shitheads sure do love big corporations and hate freedom of speech.
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The USA has and protects freedom.
Communism in China has control.
And you have Poe's Law [wilhelmreichtrust.org]
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You forget the most important part. In the US, there is a sacrosanct freedom to directly and openly criticize the government by the press and individuals, including calling for the removal of the current leaders, the changing of laws, and the callings of assemblies to protest the government. These are by far the most important of the freedoms in the US and why the first amendment is the first in the Bill of Rights.
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When DoJ shuts down websites, it is not okay, but when Cloudflare shuts down daily-stormer, it is okay.
I've closed more than 13,000 Chinese IP's... (Score:1)
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Nice grammar on the title (Score:3)
LOL (Score:3)
the vast majority of people support government efforts to clean up cyberspace, state news agency Xinhua reports.