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John Oliver is erased from Chinese internet following segment on China

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Re: John Oliver is erased from Chinese internet following segment on China

#21

Post by rm_-rf_slash »

anoncoward111 wrote: post #5
lavazon wrote: post #4

Is John Oliver any more important than all the other things that China has banned? Or is this just something that happens to be popular which creates outrage even when it's not nearly as bad as other things that China censors?

The interesting thing is that because John Oliver is not really a big deal, the Chinese government shouldn't waste its time silencing him. And yet they did!

In a way his segment is a big deal.

The Chinese can censor anything they like. During the Arab Spring, which inspired Chinese protests and at the time was sometimes referred to as the “Jasmine revolution”, the word “jasmine” was effectively banned from the Chinese internet. From the rice itself to the Disney character, “jasmine” disappeared overnight.

The implication of such a strict censorship system is that any uncensored content is endorsed by the Communist Party. So if anybody says anything that China doesn’t like, into the censorship bin it goes.

This comment would probably get censored.

Re: John Oliver is erased from Chinese internet following segment on China

#22

Post by corysama »

lavazon wrote: post #4

Is John Oliver any more important than all the other things that China has banned? Or is this just something that happens to be popular which creates outrage even when it's not nearly as bad as other things that China censors?

Do you want people to invest the effort in even being aware of the "important" things? You first need them to be aware of the things that clearly affect them.

Lots of people are aware of John Oliver. He affects them through his show. China banning things is "ambiguous stuff happening to ambiguous people literally on the other side of the planet" for most people. Showing them how someone like Oliver can be erased makes it real.

Re: John Oliver is erased from Chinese internet following segment on China

#23

Post by AFNobody »

jen729w wrote: post #14

Does it count as ironic that I can’t watch the segment here in Australia because “the uploader has not made this available in your country”?

Yeah it kinda is but you know it exists and could "acquire" it if you wanted.

In China, you wouldn't have that option.

Re: John Oliver is erased from Chinese internet following segment on China

#24

Post by FussyZeus »

toyg wrote: post #7

The "ephemeralness" of the internet is still a huge, huge problem. We've only started to scratch the surface of the issue, and between censorship, "right to be forgotten" and linkrot, it's already a complete shitshow. We need a distributed and censorship-resistant conservancy system, because the Wayback Machine can only do so much (and it can trivially be censored). Unfortunately, it's not a money-making enterprise.

This is probably going to attract a lot of hate: why is conservancy such an important idea? I mean for a lot of websites, sure, I'd very much like to see that sort of thing backed up someplace but I've never once treated an Internet-based source as permanent. If I felt like it was something that would go away someday and that I would sorely miss, I downloaded it.

I just don't understand and am curious where this idea comes from that the Internet must be archived. I don't necessarily disagree with it, but it seems like an expectation that's at odds with reality.

Re: John Oliver is erased from Chinese internet following segment on China

#25

Post by coliveira »

stcredzero wrote: post #10
DINKDINK wrote: post #2

The Ministry of Truth has no record of one "John Oliver"[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_hole

[flagged]

George Orwell was against all kinds of authoritarianism. A large portion of the left has always disavowed authoritarianism as well, so there is no conflict here.

Re: John Oliver is erased from Chinese internet following segment on China

#26

Post by SimbaOnSteroids »

bdamm wrote: post #9

That's entirely predictable given that was explicitly John Oliver's objective. The real question now is when will this experiment implode? Isn't there a theory that totalitarian states must inevitably collapse?

All states must inevitably collapse.

Re: John Oliver is erased from Chinese internet following segment on China

#28

Post by AznHisoka »

anoncoward111 wrote: post #5
lavazon wrote: post #4

Is John Oliver any more important than all the other things that China has banned? Or is this just something that happens to be popular which creates outrage even when it's not nearly as bad as other things that China censors?

The interesting thing is that because John Oliver is not really a big deal, the Chinese government shouldn't waste its time silencing him. And yet they did!

Yep, Mr. Bean, for example is a much bigger deal in China than John Oliver.

Re: John Oliver is erased from Chinese internet following segment on China

#29

Post by everdev »

bdamm wrote: post #9

That's entirely predictable given that was explicitly John Oliver's objective. The real question now is when will this experiment implode? Isn't there a theory that totalitarian states must inevitably collapse?

I think the theory is more that everything ends eventually.

Even democracies can produce political and economic collapse. And there are examples of long-lasting dictatorships (Cuba, North Korea, etc.) that are still surviving with economies and technology far less advanced than China.

I think the scary reality is that throughout history a small percentage of a population has frequently been able to hold power over even millions of people for multiple generations. And unfortunately, there does seem to be "economies of scale" in this where only adding technology and a few more people to the power structure can dictate power over an increasing number of people.

That said, it's easy to see the faults in other countries and I'm sure the diverse group of readers at HN can find similar instances of this power structure in their own countries.

Re: John Oliver is erased from Chinese internet following segment on China

#30

Post by zeth___ »

AFNobody wrote: post #23
jen729w wrote: post #14

Does it count as ironic that I can’t watch the segment here in Australia because “the uploader has not made this available in your country”?

Yeah it kinda is but you know it exists and could "acquire" it if you wanted. In China, you wouldn't have that option.

[[citation needed]]
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