A Million-Word Novel Got Censored Before It Was Even Shared (technologyreview.com) 237
Imagine you are working on your novel on your home computer. It's nearly finished; you have already written approximately one million words. All of a sudden, the online word processing software tells you that you can no longer open the draft because it contains illegal information. Within an instant, all your words are lost. This is what happened in June to a Chinese novelist writing under the alias Mitu. From a report: She had been working with WPS, a domestic version of cloud-based word processing software such as Google Docs or Microsoft Office 365. In the Chinese literature forum Lkong on June 25, Mitu accused WPS of "spying on and locking my draft," citing the presence of illegal content.
The news blew up on social media on July 11 after a few prominent influencer accounts belatedly picked it up. It became the top trending topic on Weibo that day, with users questioning whether WPS is infringing on their privacy. Since then, The Economic Observer, a Chinese publication, has reported that several other online novelists have had their drafts locked for unclear reasons in the past. Mitu's complaint triggered a social media discussion in China about censorship and tech platform responsibility. It has also highlighted the tension between Chinese users' increasing awareness of privacy and tech companies' obligation to censor on behalf of the government. "This is a case where perhaps we are seeing that these two things indeed might collide," says Tom Nunlist, an analyst on China's cyber and data policy at the Beijing-based research group Trivium China.
The news blew up on social media on July 11 after a few prominent influencer accounts belatedly picked it up. It became the top trending topic on Weibo that day, with users questioning whether WPS is infringing on their privacy. Since then, The Economic Observer, a Chinese publication, has reported that several other online novelists have had their drafts locked for unclear reasons in the past. Mitu's complaint triggered a social media discussion in China about censorship and tech platform responsibility. It has also highlighted the tension between Chinese users' increasing awareness of privacy and tech companies' obligation to censor on behalf of the government. "This is a case where perhaps we are seeing that these two things indeed might collide," says Tom Nunlist, an analyst on China's cyber and data policy at the Beijing-based research group Trivium China.
you think that you novel in China is going bypass (Score:3)
you think that you novel in China is going bypass the govment censorship?? they should be lucky to not be jailed over it's content
Re: you think that you novel in China is going byp (Score:5, Insightful)
This is sad, and scary
Re: you think that you novel in China is going byp (Score:4, Interesting)
Nice FP branch, though it makes the Chinese look so ham-fisted. I think the American approach will be to tie things up with copyright lawsuits. Just claim the "bad" novel is a derivative work that violates someone's copyright. Maybe the biggest future value of copyrights will be in the payments copyright owners can collect for helping to stifle speech the government doesn't like? With a court system like America has now, there's no such thing as a frivolous lawsuit filed by serious people!
Different angle on the story, but I'm reading an interesting book called Chinese Senior Migrants and the Globalization of Retirement by Nicole Dejong Newendorp. Mostly about old Chinese people who have moved to America, largely for the relative freedom they think they will have in the States, though there are also familial and financial considerations. But the interesting part is their revisionist historical perspective of China under Communist rule. They know how bad things were, they survived some very bad times, but now they mostly "want" to remember the good times and how they were helping to build the economic powerhouse that China has become.
Gee, I almost wonder if they're afraid of making trouble for their family members who are still back there? Naw, that would be too ham-fisted.
Re: (Score:2)
Slashdotters say, First crypto, then your book. Be like China.
Re: you think that you novel in China is going byp (Score:5, Informative)
There is only one side actively [theguardian.com] banning [vox.com] books [texastribune.org], and it's not the left.
They're also notorious for stealing books from libraries [wgbh.org] and otherwise keeping books off their shelves [fredericknewspost.com].
It's like every accusation is a confession...
Re: you think that you novel in China is going byp (Score:5, Insightful)
It's like every accusation is a confession...
(Ex) President 45 is like that. Everything he complains about is actually something he's done/doing.
For example: Complains about Dems (falsely) trying to steal the election while literally trying to steal it himself...
Re: you think that you novel in China is going byp (Score:4, Informative)
There is only one side actively...
Cali school book ban [newsweek.com] on To Kill a Mockingbird, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, Theodore Taylor's The Cay and Mildred D. Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, because their all 'racist.'
Publication of Dr. Seuss books ended [cnn.com] because 'racist.'
Lefties tend to go after publishers and resellers. Amazon has been disappearing whatever LGBTQLMONP+ doesn't like for a while now.
Re: you think that you novel in China is going byp (Score:5, Insightful)
"Once you've built the big machinery of political power, remember you won't always be the one to run it."
P. J. O'Rourke
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
At least we're past pretending it's only one side.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Are you for real? You cited one school district in California while ignoring the literal book burning being done by the lunatics on the right?
And the publisher of Dr. Seuss decided to stop selling the books themselves- no one pressured them into anything.
The right literally just makes shit up constantly and then acts surprised when people call them on their bullshit.
Re: (Score:2)
And the publisher of Dr. Seuss decided to stop selling the books themselves
Don't be so naive. A publisher's goal is to make money. They won't make money by stopping the publishing of books, unless they're afraid of the backlash and the boycott that'd come their way if they published the book. They may have "decided to stop selling the books", but it wasn't by choice.
Re: (Score:3)
> They may have "decided to stop selling the books", but it wasn't by choice.
They may have decided that having a brand where any Dr. Seuss book is safe and good and in alignment with modern mores outweighs the incremental revenue from a few less well-regarded books.
Re: (Score:3)
E.g. "The text beneath the Asian characters describes them as ‘helpers who all wear their eyes at a slant’ from ‘countries no one can spell,’” " ... If you want to preserve Dr. Seuss's legacy, do you really want to be marketing this particular book to kids in 2022?
Re: you think that you novel in China is going by (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Publishers stop publishing books all the time. It has nothing to do with censorship and everything to do with the free market. It should come as no surprise that a children's book with racist text and images isn't going to be a top seller in 2022.
Re: (Score:2)
Ah, a few books removed from curriculum/mandated reading in one district during a review in response to complaints is a "Cali school book ban". Meanwhile, the books remain in libraries.
Compare to conservative actions nationwide to remove large swaths of books from not just curriculum, but school libraries:
https://chicago.suntimes.com/e... [suntimes.com]
https://www.theguardian.com/us... [theguardian.com]
https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]
https://ncac.org/youth-censors... [ncac.org]
https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]
Re: (Score:3)
But then, if you didn't have false equivalencies and misinformation, you'd only have petty complaints left that expose just how big the difference actually is, even if neither side is perfect.
Re: you think that you novel in China is going byp (Score:5, Insightful)
Dr Seuss was not banned, the estate decided to stop publishing certain titles that are most definitely racist.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: you think that you novel in China is going by (Score:2)
Re: you think that you novel in China is going by (Score:5, Informative)
Who was it that got dr suess books removed from publication?
Dr. Seuss Enterprises did. I'm not taking a side in the argument, blanket statements are usually wrong regardless of side, but at least don't use an example where it was an internal decision.
Re: you think that you novel in China is going by (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: you think that you novel in China is going b (Score:5, Informative)
Re: you think that you novel in China is going by (Score:4, Insightful)
Dr suess is not racist.
I have seen his comics that very clearly, in no uncertain terms, show he was at least at one point racist.
Aside from that, he leaned on stereotypes in his works. One could make an argument about whether the use of stereotypes at the time was racist or not. I would be one to defend their use at the time. However, coupled with his blatantly racist comics, it's harder to defend. The short answer is that what was at one time considered acceptable, at another is not.
They decided that the content in those books was no longer considered acceptable, so decided to end publication. That doesn't mean they folded to cancel culture, or anything else. It just means that the times changed, and they changed with it.
Re: you think that you novel in China is going (Score:2)
Re: you think that you novel in China is going by (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
You mean the Mark Twain books removed from the curriculum in one district, but still available to students in the school library?
Yeah, that's totally the same thing... Ugh...
Re: (Score:3)
You are referring to books banned from being taught in schools - books banned for sexuality and racism.
So what you're saying is that To Kill a Mockingbird was banned for sexuality? Because it sure shouldn't have been for racism. For fucks sake (spoilers coming), the book brings to light the racism that existed in the south and the star of the book defends an innocent black man in court. I've read recent criticisms of the book and they do not hold water, IMO. It's true that the book doesn't show things from the perspective of black people living in the south, but that wasn't its purpose. Lack there of do
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: you think that you novel in China is going by (Score:2)
Seriously, the left and right will be outlawing so much. Though if the right gains power there will likely be a whole lot more outlawed:
- Don't say anything bad about the right wing political narrative
- Don't talk about abortion (or the feds will come)
- Don't talk about police activity (or the feds will come)
- Don't complain about Christianity being the established religion in public schools
- Don't talk about racism or any racist incidents you may have witnessed (things will go very bad for you if you do) .
Re: you think that you novel in China is going byp (Score:5, Insightful)
The right literally attempted a coup but it's the left who are the problem? Good lord those are some amazing mental gymnastics.
Re: (Score:2)
You're all missing the foundational issue here that comes prior to widespread censorship: If you depend on subscription and/or online systems — web-based work processors, image editors, spreadsheets, encryption/decryption — you are 100% vulnerable to data loss, censorship, repression, punishment, etc. and other bad things. Before you ever even get a chance to attempt distribution, if that's your goal.
If you value your work, you should be using n
Re: (Score:2)
You're all missing the foundational issue here that comes prior to widespread censorship: If you depend on subscription and/or online systems — web-based work processors, image editors, spreadsheets, encryption/decryption — you are 100% vulnerable to data loss, censorship, repression, punishment, etc. and other bad things. Before you ever even get a chance to attempt distribution, if that's your goal.
If you value your work, you should be using non-subscription, desktop-based applications where y
Re: (Score:3)
Government censorship of thoughts privately put on private "paper" is on another level.
Because in this case it was a draft that was being written and not something that was being vetted in the process of being published.
Now I'd say it's the authors fault for not backing up their work using some degree of redundancy. I'd say that it's the authors fault for having used a cloud based word processor in the first place, while there
Re: (Score:2)
cloud-based word processing software
How stupid do you have to be to think that this is a good idea?
If the authors have a choice then you're right; but It's possible that in China there is no viable, or even legal, alternative to cloud-based word processors.
Re:you think that you novel in China is going bypa (Score:5, Insightful)
cloud-based word processing software
How stupid do you have to be to think that this is a good idea?
If the authors have a choice then you're right; but It's possible that in China there is no viable, or even legal, alternative to cloud-based word processors.
Writing a text editor is pretty much a college comp sci 1st year assignment. Maybe books of the future will be written only by those who can write their own text editor to avoid them being 'edited' by the state. That would do away with a lot of literary nonsense.
Laughed So Hard (Score:5, Insightful)
with users questioning whether WPS is infringing on their privacy
I choked on my drink when I read this. Did they really expect privacy while in China, using a Chinese web site? Also, who in their right mind, writes a million words and saves it to the cloud?
Re:Laughed So Hard (Score:5, Insightful)
There are people all over the world who genuinely believe their authoritarian governments are doing good things and THEY won't be targeted because they're doing nothing wrong. It takes an incredible amount of blatant abuse for public awareness to exceed the "everything is okay" bias. People who try to raise awareness are dismissed as conspiracy theory nutjobs.
Re:Laughed So Hard (Score:4, Insightful)
Most of the people reading this think that their national government's authoritarian aspirations and actions magically become good every 4-8 years, then horrendous in the other years.
When a Clinton donor who put an (R) after their name is in the White House, everything the government does is horrible (or wonderful).
When segregationist who put a (D) after their name moves in, suddenly the action same programs become wonderful (or horrible).
Most of us are just rooting for a team, for which gang gets to beat us up today.
Re:Laughed So Hard (Score:5, Informative)
Most of us don't live in the US, and are just enjoying the spectator sport that is US elections.
Worth it just for the utterly ridiculous advertising.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I think if there's one legacy Trump left (one he'd probably not be proud of at all), is that it really kicked a lot of countries that more or less coasted along on the US's coat tails in the ass.
And now they realize they really need to start standing on their own 2 feet (or 2 million feet, or 50 million feet), and disentangle themselves from the US.
So who knows..
Re: (Score:2)
I don't see the Clinton's as Authoritarian (Score:2, Insightful)
Democrats are more like "eat your vegetables" kind of nagging. But they're not all that interested in seizing and wielding power. Hell, they won't even do away with the filibuster for Christ's sake, and they let McConnell walk all over them.
They're more like well meaning hobbyists and bored rich people than Authoritarians.
Now Republicans? T
Re: (Score:2)
You've managed to hit all the Dem party talking points. Unfortunately, reality exists. Dems are more like "Let us sodomize you with this zucchini." than "eat your vegetables". Forcing people, by nature of birth, to give money to for-profit companies that invented the term "medical bankruptcy" is the height of corruption. Not to mention the billions that are being shoveled to the war profiteers by this and our last Dem POTUS. Then there's the censorship pogroms. Let's not forget the Dems just recently
Examples? (Score:3)
Meanw
Re: Examples? (Score:2)
We could instead do gov't spending to expand cities and education so that there would be more productivity with the same workforce, and thereby more goods and services.
You want to tax and spend your way out of inflationâ¦? Thatâ(TM)s like trying to stop the car by slamming the gas pedal to the floor.
You're thinking has been constrained by your media (Score:2)
Yes if we waste money on bombs to blow up brown people that's just going to cause inflation. Instead what you need to do is invest in the areas that private businesses refuse to invest in while also constraining those private businesses so they don't use illegal tactics to prevent competition.
Think about how you and I are communicating right now. Who's actually respon
Re: (Score:2)
Both parties are simply awful because they only care about increasing their overall power with like care about how they get it. They promote the ranker and bickering so as to make themselves look as friends with the sole goal of contributions. I do believe that people would actually start talking and discussing topics and ideas like rational adults better if the damn parties just weren't there lighting torches. If I had one dream to come true, it would be that both parties are disbanded and their money push
Re: (Score:2)
Now Republicans? Those guys know how to grasp and wield power.
It's impossible to look at Trump and think Republicans know how to grasp or wield power. The whole thing is a clown show.
Re: (Score:2)
So when the AOC have blatantly admitted to wanting to pack the Supreme Court to get their way...that's not attempting to wield power to get your way as just one of many examples?
Look, it you simply see the Democrats as nagging parents who only have your best interest in mind simply shows just how naive you are. Just keep hammering back the Kool-Aid.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not sure that's really true. In America we don't have a lot of respect for leaders. As you mention, when the other party holds the presidency, we think they are the anti-christ/Hitler.
We feel better when someone from our own party is in power, but we're still kind of suspicious that they're messing around there somewhere. A lot of dems don't like Biden, they just think he's better than Trump (or Rick Perry).
Re:Laughed So Hard (Score:4)
conspiracy theorist nutjobs (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Yes, here's another: “I never thought it could happen that officials could use this kind of violent beating against unarmed and defenseless regular people.” “If I hadn’t experienced it myself, I really wouldn’t believe it. When foreign media reported similar incidents in the past, I always thought it was slander,” he said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Did they really expect privacy while in China, using a Chinese web site?
The same question can be asked in US when using any big tech cloud product.
Re:Laughed So Hard (Score:5, Insightful)
People who have not learned the importance of local backups. We've spent years training people to trust infrastructure they have no hope of understanding.
"Are my pictures on my phone? In the cloud? I don't have to care, and that's great!" are the kinds of things that I've seen on this very website. That's what they're telling their relatives and friends. It's disturbing.
Apple started this trend where we hide the filesystem from users and Google followed suit. It's bad for users and bad for society, as articles like the above make abundantly clear.
Take control of your data now. We lied to you. When you put something on the internet, it's not there forever. Print out your pictures, keep local backups of important data. Give up that control at your own peril.
Re:Laughed So Hard (Score:4, Insightful)
We lied to you. When you put something on the internet, it's not there forever.
I'd say that depends on the "something". Anything illegal, embarrassing, or the product of privacy invasion is probably there forever. Anything you WANT to be there, such as files, pictures, etc, may disappear on a whim.
Re: (Score:3)
First, remember that the Chinese writers don't know any other life. The Chinese are brainwashed into thinking everything the government is good - privacy is something people use to hide criminal plans from each other and such. Talk to any Russian citizen about the "special operations" and they believe Russia is at war with Ukrainian Nazis. Likewise, the Ch
Everyone Needs Backups Under Their Direct Control (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't trust any system to have the only copy of any important work-product. Certainly not a cloud tool, and certainly not in China (although corporations are hardly saints).
Although it may not be the most current version, any earlier version is better than no version.
Don't keep valuable data online... (Score:5, Insightful)
How often does this need to be stated until it becomes common knowledge?
Clearly not often enough - I guess it's only in tech circles where it _is_ common knowledge.
Solution, OpenOffice and a decent backup solution.
Keeping your valuable data in the cloud? - that's kinda dumb. Almost like keeping your data on someone else's computer ... oh, wait! /s
Re: Don't keep valuable data online... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
I think he really meant LibreOffice. People do still tend to say "OpenOffice" even though its Apache incarnation is effectively moribund
(though not completely dead--it got an update in May), with LibreOffice the only fork getting significant updates.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Don't keep valuable data online... (Score:2)
No they are not trash. They are a perfectly good substitute for MS Office. What specific features are so important that you canâ(TM)t do without?
Re: Don't keep valuable data online... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
How often does this need to be stated until it becomes common knowledge?
People have been warned since the mid 90s or so about phishing and clicking email links without knowing where they lead, and it still happens, even with the "tech-savvy" youth, to this day. No amount of warning or education can penetrate the willing ignorance of some people, and there comes a time when you have to just give up trying. Let those that ignore the issues, fall victim to those issues and move on with your day.
For reference (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
The effect that online connectivity and patronage has had on literature is actually pretty interesting. The need for editing solely for length is effectively nonexistent which means that if a writer can keep things coherent and engaging an entire chapter can be the length of a long novella.
Re:For reference (Score:5, Insightful)
Unfortunately, virtually no writer - even long established professionals - can "keep things coherent and engaging" for normal length chapters, much less million word monsters, without the services of an editor.
Sadly, the more successful a writer is, the harder it is for editors to edit them. Go compare David Weber's early work, thoroughly edited and tightened up, with his later, stream of consciousness infodumps that are longer than most novels.
Re: For reference (Score:2)
Maybe they should have said she allegedly wrote a million words, because thereâ(TM)s no proof she wrote a single sentence. I had a billion word book erased in China as well!
Re: For reference (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I feel bad for the guy, losing all those words. But a novel that takes that many words to write, probably isn't worth reading.
So show of hands... (Score:5, Insightful)
Who here does not think Google is scanning every document you store with them, much less ones you write using Google Docs...
The only thing different is the censorship but that's honestly pretty close at hand.
Write stuff using a local app, keep copies if you care about contents.
The future... (Score:2)
The future if we users of technology aren't careful. When politicians ban a word, phrase, then the online software will be waiting and watching. One reason I don't care for online cloud services, and prefer to have the text editor local on my machine. Moving to the cloud is moving toward a central control.
And, one-million words, wow that's not a novel that's one massive tome of a book, or book series, a trilogy of trilogies...
Josh K.
Re: (Score:2)
Given their propensity to wildly exaggerate things, I'd say 100K words is the true count.
Re: (Score:2)
Given their propensity to wildly exaggerate things, I'd say 100K words is the true count.
Indeed. Reminds me of typing class where a word was always four characters. Or a page in writing is 250-words, but now with ebooks that's a new twist on a page. That might be a new law, for a million-words take the square root.
JoshK.
ChiComs are reading everything in China?! (Score:2)
I don't buy the idea that the Chinese people LOVE their totalitarian overlords. They hate it, but the know that without help from overseas it will be neigh-impossible to overthrow them. The fact that we actively bankroll their masters via our imports is both counterproductive and demoralizing to freedom-loving Chinese people.
For her own good. (Score:5, Insightful)
The monitoring software deleted her illegal words so she was saved from going to prison.
What's even worse, she might have brought shame to her family, her community, and frankly, we the Slashdot community, who acts as a consumer of bad thoughts.
Thank you guardian angel software.
"... the online word processing software ..." (Score:2)
"All of a sudden, the online word processing software..."
I am simply gobsmacked that someone would entrust their magnum opus to the f**king cloud, in any country, much less China.
I wonder what got the attention of the censors.
Take a lesson (Score:5, Informative)
yes, this happened in China this time, but the rest of us (especially in the U.S.) should take a lesson from it. DO NOT RELY ON THE CLOUD, keep your data AND the ability to use it local. Allow no part of it to depend on the cloud, including phoning home for a licence check. Also including mandatory "updates" over the net that allow the deal to be altered without notice or recourse.
Today it's a million word novel in China, tomorrow perhaps an opinion piece on the morals of people who think it's OK to force a 10 year old to carry a rape baby.
Lameness filter encountered (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If you use the classic view around here then when you back button in FF the contents of the form are still there. But there was a period when Slashdot was super flaky, and I copied every long comment into a text editor before hitting the button.
I want a recount in English (Score:3)
Or is 1,000,000 characters.
Re: (Score:3)
There's less difference in written Chinese than in written English. Where it is standard in English to count five characters as a word, in Chinese a word is somewhere around two characters (one of the advantages of having a character set that numbers in the thousands). Even if it's English and characters, that's still 200,000 words, which makes for something on the order of a 700-page doorstopper. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was 190,637 words and one paperback edition I found in Amazon was 752 p
Re: (Score:2)
700 pages is a Saturday. Harry Potter would be done in 4-6 hours.
Re: (Score:2)
A word count of over 110,000 for a fiction novel is generally considered too long; you'd have to have some special selling point to get a publisher to pick it up (with 50,000 the minimum--under that is a novella or some even shorter format). Goblet of Fire, of course, was a Harry Potter book produced after Harry Potter became a sensation; of course the publisher was going to take it. Philosopher's Stone was 76,944 words.
"Cloud" (Score:3)
"Cloud" = "someone else's computer".
In China, "someone else"always = "the glorious Party".
In soviet China (Score:3)
Word processor really does process your words.
First lesson (Score:2)
The sticker on my computer says... (Score:2)
"There is no cloud. It's just someone else's computer".
Someone else who can take your data away whenever they like.
Cloud (Score:2)
cloud-based word processing software
Using cloud-based word processing software while living in a totalitarian regime? She's lucky her novel was the only thing she lost.
Excellent example this article (Score:2)
"All of a sudden, the }}}online word processing{{{ software tells you that you can no longer open the draft because it contains illegal information. Within an instant, all your words are lost. "
THIS! And this will also happen in America, it's only a matter of time.
Also, I'm not going to try to speculate too hard on why this guy would depend entirely on a cloud word processor in a place like China. Not even a copy/paste local backup?
You sure? (Score:2)
Sure it wasn't just a buffer overflow? Maybe the censorship software spent too long scanning and gave up...
Latex any one ? (Score:2)
See if the author was using latex on the local computer and back it up on a usb disk...it would be safe and no word stealing !
Save twice. (Score:2)
I write for fun. I keep multiple copies. One on the internet and one downloded every couple of chapters on to my home computer, in txt format.
Frankly, you should never keep just one copy, and one copy should be in txt so that it will always be readable. Formats die. Home computers get thrown away, the internet erases stuff.
Re: (Score:2)