Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What's not allowed on China's version of Twitter

blockedonweibo.tumblr.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 29 posts

Re: What's not allowed on China's version of Twitter

#11

Post by MobWalk »

mhurron wrote: post #6
MobWalk wrote: post #2

I feel like this is proof that America has sold out. I understand China's role in the global economy and I understand why we've become dependent on them, I'm just ashamed we let it happen in the first place. In my eyes, the beauty of the internet is that it literally makes the sum of all human knowledge to date available to anyone with a connection. To restrict the internet is to restrict knowledge, and restricting k…

The US is not the worlds police. No one but the Chinese let China do anything. It is the height of arrogance to believe noting in the world happens unless the US lets it happen.

You are calling me arrogant for something I did not say. I did not claim that the US is the world's police. My point is that if we were as morally bound as we claimed to be, we wouldn't deal with the Chinese in the first place. We live in a world where corporations are the new countries. Years ago, companies felt a loyalty to the country they were based. Now, companies do whatever is necessary to achieve the highest possible profit margins. Do I blame them? No, not really. If I were in their position, I don't know how I would do it. There's definitely something to be said for trying to make as much money as possible. Greed is what makes the world go round, whether we like it or not. Do I think it's right? No, not really.

I just think it's a shame that companies are so willing to sell out for short-term profit without thinking about the long-term consequences of their action. I believe that if the US wants to sit on its' moral high horse and play world police that we should at least hold ourselves to the standards we expect the world to follow.

Re: What's not allowed on China's version of Twitter

#12

Post by memetichazard »

wangjiahua wrote: post #7

I tried several words, they are not blocked. Maybe it's because the government is loosing some of the restrictions, which seems to be true in the last few months. Usually political sensitive contents on Renren (RENN) were blocked within a few hours, but now they are "allowed" to be there, for now. My favorite blocked word was "Tomorrow", which was blocked during Feb 2011 when "Arab Spring" spread to China, so that pe…

One of the posts down the page references "The Great Weibo Unblocking of late-January 2012", and many of the posts show separate block statuses from November and February.

Re: What's not allowed on China's version of Twitter

#13

Post by GiraffeNecktie »

MobWalk wrote: post #11
mhurron wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is not the worlds police. No one but the Chinese let China do anything. It is the height of arrogance to believe noting in the world happens unless the US lets it happen.

You are calling me arrogant for something I did not say. I did not claim that the US is the world's police. My point is that if we were as morally bound as we claimed to be, we wouldn't deal with the Chinese in the first place. We live in a world where corporations are the new countries. Years ago, companies felt a loyalty to the country they were based. Now, companies do whatever is necessary to achieve the highest…

However, history has shown that the best way to change another country is to engage with them on as many levels as possible.

Re: What's not allowed on China's version of Twitter

#14

Post by icebraining »

MobWalk wrote: post #11
mhurron wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is not the worlds police. No one but the Chinese let China do anything. It is the height of arrogance to believe noting in the world happens unless the US lets it happen.

You are calling me arrogant for something I did not say. I did not claim that the US is the world's police. My point is that if we were as morally bound as we claimed to be, we wouldn't deal with the Chinese in the first place. We live in a world where corporations are the new countries. Years ago, companies felt a loyalty to the country they were based. Now, companies do whatever is necessary to achieve the highest…

http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/smokey.html

Re: What's not allowed on China's version of Twitter

#15

Post by roryokane »

allcapz wrote: post #3

This is a list of words blocked on http://www.weibo.com/ which has nothing to do with Twitter.

Weibo is a competitor to Twitter. Twitter was mentioned in the title probably so that readers unfamiliar with Chinese websites could understand the context of this blog.

Re: What's not allowed on China's version of Twitter

#16

Post by seanmcdirmid »

moreorless wrote: post #8

Why do authors like to use headlines like "China's version of Twitter" or "China's version of Facebook"? What is wrong with just simply calling it "What is not allowed on Sina Weibo" or "What is not allowed on Chinese microblogs"?

Even China Daily used to call micro-blogging "Twitter" before they were rebuked by government censors. The simple fact is that Weibo is and always has been a clone of Twitter with Chinese characteristics.

The government's move to enforce Real IDs will probably basically lock out all foreigners or anyone without Chinese ID numbers (including even citizen overseas Chinese), making Weibo even more obscure outside of China.

Re: What's not allowed on China's version of Twitter

#17

Post by seanmcdirmid »

roryokane wrote: post #15
allcapz wrote: post #3

This is a list of words blocked on http://www.weibo.com/ which has nothing to do with Twitter.

Weibo is a competitor to Twitter. Twitter was mentioned in the title probably so that readers unfamiliar with Chinese websites could understand the context of this blog.

Weibo is not a competitor to Twitter since Twitter does not work inside China without jumping the wall. Weibo is completely protected by the Chinese government from competition with Twitter.

Re: What's not allowed on China's version of Twitter

#18

Post by seanmcdirmid »

GiraffeNecktie wrote: post #13
MobWalk wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are calling me arrogant for something I did not say. I did not claim that the US is the world's police. My point is that if we were as morally bound as we claimed to be, we wouldn't deal with the Chinese in the first place. We live in a world where corporations are the new countries. Years ago, companies felt a loyalty to the country they were based. Now, companies do whatever is necessary to achieve the highest…

However, history has shown that the best way to change another country is to engage with them on as many levels as possible.

Living in China for almost 5 years now, I am beginning to wonder if this is actually true. China was much more open before 2008 Olympics than after, its basically been downhill for the last 3 years. Engagement alone doesn't bring results, there also needs to be an explicit push for progress.

Re: What's not allowed on China's version of Twitter

#19

Post by rsynnott »

MobWalk wrote: post #11
mhurron wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is not the worlds police. No one but the Chinese let China do anything. It is the height of arrogance to believe noting in the world happens unless the US lets it happen.

You are calling me arrogant for something I did not say. I did not claim that the US is the world's police. My point is that if we were as morally bound as we claimed to be, we wouldn't deal with the Chinese in the first place. We live in a world where corporations are the new countries. Years ago, companies felt a loyalty to the country they were based. Now, companies do whatever is necessary to achieve the highest…

> Years ago, companies felt a loyalty to the country they were based. Now, companies do whatever is necessary to achieve the highest possible profit margins.

By 'years ago', you mean centuries, yes? Or are you indulging in nostalgia about the Imaginary Past? There seems to be a tendency to go on about how wonderful things were back in the day, but really they were not. Take the 60s, for instance; the US and its companies interacted with countries substantially nastier than China today, and, well, the domestic picture was hardly rosy either.

Re: What's not allowed on China's version of Twitter

#20

Post by mulation »

As a weibo user, sometimes I delete message because typo, or it may hurt my friends' feeling.

When you see other people's message got deleted, you have no way to know whether it is deleted by the user himself or censored (at least not until just a few weeks ago).

I am not defending Chinese gov here. But I am curious how can those researchers figure out whom has deleted the message?

Post reply on HN