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China Censorship The Internet

Chinese Internet Users Who Uploaded Coronavirus Memories To GitHub Have Been Arrested (qz.com) 216

Posted by BeauHD from the error-404 dept.
schwit1 shares a report from Quartz: A group of volunteers in China who worked to prevent digital records of the coronavirus outbreak from being scrubbed by censors are now targets of a crackdown. Cai Wei, a Beijing-based man who participated in one such project on GitHub, the software development website, was arrested together with his girlfriend by Beijing police on April 19. The couple were accused of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," a commonly used charge against dissidents in China, according to Chen Kun, the brother of Chen Mei, another volunteer involved with the project. Chen Mei has been missing since that same day. On April 24, the couple's families received a police notice that informed them of the charge, and said the two have been put under "residential surveillance at a designated place." There is still no information about Chen Mei, said his brother. It is unclear whether the arrest of the couple and the disappearance of Chen are directly linked to their GitHub project, named "Terminus2049."

Chinese citizens had been turning to Microsoft-owned GitHub after the outbreak began, as it remains one of the few major foreign websites that can still be accessed in China. Now, volunteers linked to these GitHub pages are facing the growing risk of reprisals from authorities. Another GitHub page, #2020 nCov memory, which was initiated by seven volunteers around the world to chronicle personal accounts and news stories of the outbreak, is no longer publicly available. The team behind #2020 nCov memory said in an email to Quartz that they will suspend operation of the page and collection of submissions due to the "situation" in China, and that they hope to see "sunshine tomorrow."
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Chinese Internet Users Who Uploaded Coronavirus Memories To GitHub Have Been Arrested More

Chinese Internet Users Who Uploaded Coronavirus Memories To GitHub Have Been Arrested

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  • Wow (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Tuesday April 28, 2020 @06:31PM (#60002316)

    The couple were accused of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," a commonly used charge against dissidents in China, ...

    Note to basically everyone on the Internet (and The President): Don't visit China.

    Seriously, though, that accusation is pretty vague, but I guess it's meant to be.

    • Re: Wow (Score:2, Insightful)

      by NagrothAgain ( 4130865 )

      "picking quarrels and provoking trouble,"

      In the US this charge would be translated as "toxic behavior," "harassment," or "hate speech," or if you're in California, "misgendering." All of which can result in arrest and prosecution in the right circumstances.

      • Re: Wow (Score:5, Insightful)

        by t4eXanadu ( 143668 ) on Tuesday April 28, 2020 @07:04PM (#60002416)

        Give an example of someone being arrested and prosecuted for misgendering.

        • Using the wrong bathroom in North Carolina?
        • Probably not jail [politifact.com], but you can be charged with a misdemeanor. At least in the State of California.

        • You shouldn't have fed the troll. Look how the whole topic just got derailed. If you had just let him get modded down to -1 we could have avoided a flamewar. I know you're not wholly responsible, and I also make this mistake from time to time, but please resist the urge to feed the troll.

          This is why our government doesn't achieve anything positive. These "culture wars" are nothing but a big distraction.

      • This is bullshit. In the US you have to have an actual charge under existing laws, you can't just make stuff up. I know you want to bash and people or governments you don't like, but you'd be more effective at this if you stuck with the truth otherwise you make it look like you ran out of actual flaws to criticize.

        • This is bullshit. In the US you have to have an actual charge under existing laws

          Wrong. I was arrested and spent the night in the Santa Clara County Jail. The police report said "NPC" which means "No Probable Cause". I was never charged with anything.

          • Ok, a whole night. How does that compare to China? Were you kept under house arrest for months for vague and fuzzy charges? I don't understand this insistence that every time China shows contempt for civil liberties someone has to step up and claim the US is equivalent.

            • Ok, a whole night. How does that compare to China?

              I never made any comparison to China. I was just addressing the claim that Americans can't be arrested and thrown in jail without being charged with a crime. That is false.

              Ok, a whole night. How does that compare to China?

              So one night is meaningless, but a month is terrible? What is the cut-off for when incarceration without charges is "ok"? Two nights? Three? A week?

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by Pimpy ( 143938 )

                That's being a bit obtuse. In most countries the law permits holding someone on suspicion for 24 to 48 hours without charge. If you were detained past this period of time without a charge being brought forth, then you are facing arbitrary detention and have something to complain about, until then it's nothing more than an inconvenience. It's also not uncommon for this to be blanketly applied - in Japan, for example, it's common practice for police to round up everyone when there's a report of drugs and/or v

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by piojo ( 995934 )

          While I agree that the GP is wrong, "disturbing the peace" and anything related to threatening/intimidation are a couple types of catchall charges that can be applied fairly arbitrarily. Furthermore, the police don't need a charge to go fishing, just an excuse. Once they go fishing, they may find another reason to charge or harass.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Pimpy ( 143938 )

          The inhabitants at Gitmo or the targets of FISA warrants may disagree with you. The US arbitrarily detains people on made up charges all the time, I'd go so far as to call it a key pillar of its foreign policy - if actual charges were brought forward, they could easily be dismissed, much easier to hold people in an arbitrary state of legal limbo while pretending to be at war with arbitrary concepts instead of specific nations.

      • In the US this charge would be translated as "toxic behavior," "harassment," or "hate speech,"

        Err....where in the US can you be arrested for so called "hate speech"?

        And I"m a bit doubtful of your other "charges"....is my sarcasm filter not working for me today or were you trying to be serious?

    • The thing about something like "assault" or "fraud" is it describes a kind of crime where we can imagine the victim and the harm and the perpetrator and the act.

      "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" = "you are choosing to be a bad person on purpose, and so everyone and the gov't should treat you badly, actual harm does not matter as much as your mean-spirited intent (and if you deny our conclusions about your intent, you are trying to cause even more trouble for authorities who are rightly trying to fix

    • I knew someone who was once arrested for "impersonating a criminal". A crime that (it seems to me), if you're guilty of, that makes you not-guilty of it as well.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pimpy ( 143938 )

      I don't know why you think this is vague - it's basically the definition of an agitator, which also has a definition in US law.

      You can argue about whether someone should have the right to stir things up or not, China obviously doesn't think so, and that's their prerogative.

  • Don't piss off the dicatator.

  • I mean, if you can track who uploaded stuff to GitHub so easily, it may not be the best choice
    for "free" posting.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by vlad30 ( 44644 )

      TOR over VPN with a fake MAC address in coffeeshop

      I mean, if you can track who uploaded stuff to GitHub so easily, it may not be the best choice for "free" posting.

      Your assuming a certain level of expertise in internet skills or at least access to it. GitHub was something they could access to get the info out. The problem is you need to make sharing this info as easy as sending an email but as you might realize both apple and google stores play by the rules in china and won't put up anything not approved by the CCP

      can you come up with a solution that is a moving target that won't get blocked isn't linked to your phone (used for payments in china) and using free wifi

  • I am shocked (Score:3)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Tuesday April 28, 2020 @07:04PM (#60002418)

    SHOCKED!

    Well, not that shocked.

  • Can we finally say "fuck China?" (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Snotnose ( 212196 ) on Tuesday April 28, 2020 @07:57PM (#60002564)
    20-30 years ago their pet food was killing pets. I googled for pet food made in China, all mine was. Yet the packages never mentioned China.
    I returned a month's worth of cat food to Vons, they said "um, dafuq", I said "made in China, not feeding my cats this".

    At the same time I also started looking for a "made in China" label. Guess what? No cat food said such a thing. Look today, you won't see a single bag marked "made in China", even though half of them are.

    All we need is a clear "Made in China" label and I suspect over half of China's imports will dry up. I'm not just talking cat food, how about those Dollar General stores with kids toys that have too much lead? How about the plastics you can get at Target or Kohls that are unsafe?

    I know if I saw a "made in China" label I would spend the extra buck or three for the doohicky next to it, but we just don't get that choice.
    • We can say 'fuck China' all we want, and it's valid. However the kool-aid drinking China shills, the paid China shills, and the Chinese nationals whose job it is to whitewash China on the Internet, will rip you several new ones for daring to speak out against China. Ask me, I know all about that, I criticize China all the time around here, and the shills and Chinese operatives jump all over me, try to make the U.S. out to be orders of magnitude worse, claim Western countries are all degenerate and the stand

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Origin labels have never worked very well and can't be fixed. Hardly anything is made in just one place any more.

      Say you buy a car. Made in America. But many of the components will have been made elsewhere, often China for electronics and maybe steel, perhaps Mexico for some of the upholstery, Europe for the ECU and brakes. All Made in America means is that the bulk of the assembly was done there.

      If you want to avoid products from a specific country you need to be much more sophisticated than just looking a

    • Yet the packages never mentioned China.

      Does America not have basic laws requiring the manufacture location of food to be listed on the labeling? Like WTF.

    • All we need is a clear "Made in China" label and I suspect over half of China's imports will dry up.

      I suspect 99.99% of people don't give a crap. Made in China is written on everything. Yeah pet food killed a few pets, based on your own assertion that half of all pet food is made in China it is pretty clear that whatever was an issue at the time is not an issue currently or half of all pets would be dead right?

      Every time you think of some scandal, just remember you've found one example and tried to compare it to a company that trades $700bn worth of goods every year with the USA alone.

      "Made in China" isn'

    • So... you going to stop buying cellphones, computers, kettles... I mean what's NOT made in China (and know there is stuff, but it's a short list).
      You could always MAKE your own pet food, and no I am not talking about making kibble, I'm taking about cooking a healthy pet orientated meal when you cook your own food. I know lots of pet owners who refuse to feed their pets kibble or canned pet food because it's not the most healthy of diets.
      One guy I know breeds pure bred Pugs, apparently they are rather fin
  • Most people don't realize that the Chinese Constitution guarantees freedom of speech [usconstitution.net] - Article 35:

    Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration.

    Take a read of the Preamble [usconstitution.net] as well.

    • You do realize that the Chinese think that the Constitution is just considered an ideal, not actual LAW. There's a difference in mentality with regards to law between China and the West. Reason? 5000 years of history and what happened during the Qin dynasty.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by LynnwoodRooster ( 966895 )
        No, that is not correct. Per their own Preamble [npc.gov.cn] to their Constitution:

        This Constitution, in legal form, affirms the achievements of the struggles of the Chinese people of all nationalities and defines the basic system and basic tasks of the State; it is the fundamental law of the State and has supreme legal authority.

        Emphasis added. It is not an ideal, it is the actual law - per the Constitution itself. It's just that the CCP can decide when it can override the Constitution and you have no means of challenging that.

        • Sure it may be the supreme legal authority. But that means little when the CCP is the supreme actual authority.

          The constitution stipulates that the National People's Congress (NPC) and its Standing Committee have the power to review whether laws or activities violate the constitution.Unlike many Western legal systems, courts do not have the power of judicial review and cannot invalidate a statute on the grounds that it violates the constitution

        • We had the same in Eastern Europe. We had 'free elections' where somehow the communist party always gathered between 90 and 98 percent.
          We also had 'freedom of speech, travel, gathering, expression and religion' written in the constitution.

          Insert joker's laugh here followed by 'and I thought my jokes are bad'

      • Well you keep changing yours, 27 of them if I'm not mistaken, so it's LAW, until we change it again.
        In the famous words of Jim Jeffries (paraphrased of course).
        "You can't take away my second amendment!"
        "I course you can, that's why it's called an amendment".

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fintux ( 798480 )
      Well, take for example the freedom of the press. It's in the constitution, but still China is on the third last position in the World Press Freedom Index (https://rsf.org/en/ranking). The constitution is just a fake facade, just like so many other things in China.

    • China's Constitution is a bit of a joke.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      The constitution stipulates that the National People's Congress (NPC) and its Standing Committee have the power to review whether laws or activities violate the constitution.

      So anyone can claim the constitution gives them the right to do something. The CCP can just say, "No, it doesn't this time". No pesky courts getting in the way either.

      OK, it's a complete joke.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

      Most people don't realize that the Chinese Constitution guarantees freedom of speech [usconstitution.net] - Article 35:

      Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration.

      Take a read of the Preamble [usconstitution.net] as well.

      Well, you know there's that old joke about the American citizen telling the Soviet citizen "We have freedom of speech, I can insult our president any time I want" and the Soviet citizen says "So do we. I can insult your president any time I want too!".

  • Sounds like what Google said those Doctors in California were doing... and then promptly pulled a perfect CCP censorship maneuver.

  • Gee (Score:2)

    by nagora ( 177841 )

    It's like it was some sort of Nazi superstate or something.

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