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Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

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Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#61

Post by schoen »

Something that might be comparably shocking is the extent to which Chinese investors and government representatives influence the content of Hollywood movies that depict or refer to China. There were some news reports about this in the last couple of years; I sat next to a Hollywood studio executive on a flight last month and (rather than arguing about copyright policy) commiserated about this issue. He confirmed that there are organized systems in place with representatives sent to monitor film content to ensure Chinese market access and avoid upsetting investors.

This has been reported quite a bit for several years; see, e.g.,

http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/05/18/407619652/h... http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/15/business/media/in-hollywoo... http://origin.www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Research/Dire...

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#62

Post by hackuser »

eternalban wrote: post #53
hackuser wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your demonstration is one incident. Just look at the NY Times homepage daily; you will find continual challenges to those in authority in the U.S. Perhaps they should do more or differently, but they certainly do it. And regardless, my main point was they challenge U.S. authority more than Chinese authority, which also seems hard to debate if you look at their website.

> Your demonstration is one incident. Are you telling me that if the equivalent of /The Patriot Act/ was created in China, or Russia, or take-your-pick-enemy-dujour, and passed unread by the legislature of that nation The New York Times would not skewer them in print and run multipage spreads in the Sunday Magazine detailing every questionable aspect? Remind me: How did The New York Times cover that event.

I can't really answer, and I'm not interested in, what happens in a hypothetical world. Can you provide some links to real-world info that answers your last question?

Here are some facts: The Times broke, and heavily reported the NSA illegal surveillance story under Bush, Snowden's leaks, Hillary Clinton's email server, Trump's tax non-payment, and much, much more.

I'm not here to be their defender, but it doesn't help advance knowledge or our world to bash them.

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#63

Post by analog31 »

hackuser wrote: post #51
olalonde wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I recall correctly, the NYT website was blocked a few months ago when it published an unflattering (e.g. allegations of cronyism) article on Xi Jinping. The NYT is also pretty heavy on "China-bashing" though that's not really unique to them[0]. [0] http://www.overcomingbias.com/2010/01/china-bashing.html

> The NYT is also pretty heavy on "China-bashing" though that's not really unique to them I don't see it at all. The Times' reporting is equally critical, and in much greater volume, of the U.S., U.K., and probably others. The job of journalists, to a great extent, is to inform the public about problems; afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted . It's not bias against China, it's the same journalism practice…

Ironically, these are among the "working class" issues that the liberal establishment press is accused of ignoring. And the Chinese government are not the only people threatening the New York Times.

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#64

Post by seanmcdirmid »

mbgaxyz wrote: post #2

Looks like the Chinese government would like to ensure that its citizens do not fall victim to 'fake news' and has thus taken on the responsibility of 'fact checking'.

It actually sends the opposite signal: news sites, books, etc...aren't taken seriously until they are banned. The communist party hasn't heard of the Streisand Effect yet.

If Wen Jiaobao's family didn't accumulate so much wealth, why would they have blocked nytimes in the first place? It must be true, they never even tried refuting the facts presented in theat seminal article.

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#65

Post by seanmcdirmid »

hackuser wrote: post #14

Why are other publications (the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times are mentioned) doing to keep Chinese authorities happy? This should be a badge of honor for any news source. The NY Times doesn't publish anything about China that they don't publish about many other countries. Certainly coverage of the U.S. and U.K. is much more challenging to those authorities.

They are all blocked. Even WSJ, which was mostly pro China, or Bloomberg, which is seriously pro China. Economist fell last year, there aren't many news sources left....maybe CNN and Fox News that don't do much serious reporting (ironic I started reading nytimes in china in 2002 because CNN was blocked).

Note even if the app is in the App Store, it isn't necessary that it will work. Nytimes app needs a connection to nytimes.com get news. So the app is useless without a VPN, and you can also get the app if you set your region to the USA (I have both Chinese store and USA apps on my idevices, some apps like didi and xiami aren't on the USA store).

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#66

Post by jwtadvice »

dmix wrote: post #31
mbgaxyz wrote: post #2

Looks like the Chinese government would like to ensure that its citizens do not fall victim to 'fake news' and has thus taken on the responsibility of 'fact checking'.

The US congress recently funded a mild version of Ministry of Truth. So they aren't the only one. > Introduced by Congressmen Adam Kinzinger and Ted Lieu, H.R. 5181 seeks a “whole-government approach without the bureaucratic restrictions” to counter “foreign disinformation and manipulation,” which they believe threaten the world’s “security and stability.” http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-24/obama-signs-counter.…

Please note here that the designers of the legislation intended for domestic propaganda protections to receive a new executive interpretation - that they argued current interpretation of domestic propaganda is taken "too literally".

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#67

Post by [deleted] »

jessriedel wrote: post #49
argonaut wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give an example of gatekeepers blocking fake news. Reply to below: I am not talking about government censorship, which is obvious, since I just talked about it. I am talking about companies using fake news as an excuse to block what they believe is fake news.

what they see as fake news. Are the things censored by China not good examples? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_China Or are you talking about in the West? (Why ask for extant examples for things that are being proposed, but not yet enacted, regarding fake news?)

[deleted]

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#69

Post by xiaoma »

argonaut wrote: post #27
mbgaxyz wrote: post #2

Looks like the Chinese government would like to ensure that its citizens do not fall victim to 'fake news' and has thus taken on the responsibility of 'fact checking'.

If you're trying to make fun of fact checking fake news, that is a totally facetious comparison. The whole point of fact checking is that the fact check / rebuttal is put side by side or preceding the original claim, with evidence and its own citations. You're not prevented from seeing the original claim, even if statistically fewer people see the original claim. If the Communist party decided to replace all online c…

More likely the gp was making fun of the way people tend to jump into discussions about Chinese free speech, pollution, racism or military aggression against its neighbors with "but America does it too!" comments.

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#70

Post by seanmcdirmid »

olalonde wrote: post #18
hackuser wrote: post #14

Why are other publications (the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times are mentioned) doing to keep Chinese authorities happy? This should be a badge of honor for any news source. The NY Times doesn't publish anything about China that they don't publish about many other countries. Certainly coverage of the U.S. and U.K. is much more challenging to those authorities.

If I recall correctly, the NYT website was blocked a few months ago when it published an unflattering (e.g. allegations of cronyism) article on Xi Jinping. The NYT is also pretty heavy on "China-bashing" though that's not really unique to them[0]. [0] http://www.overcomingbias.com/2010/01/china-bashing.html

It was Wen Jiaobao and much earlier than Xi Dai. Economist and Time were recently blocked because of Xi jinping articles.

"China bashing" is simply a euphemism for being critical on china, any kind of criticism is applied the term. The CPC just cannot accept criticism from anyone in any form, so they block it all out. Only low value news sources like CNN and Fox remain.

Chinese are incredibly self critical in china but do not like it when foreigners are. Face is a huge deal in Chinese culture.

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