Lifting the Veil on Corporate Censorship
How corporate entities are controlling what you (don #39;t) see on the InternetFrom:Jausl00sViews:25 0ratingsTime:07:10More inNonprofits Activism
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Lifting the Veil on Corporate Censorship - Video
Campus censorship, chilled speech and #39;Unlearning Liberty #39;
Looking for a challenging debate that includes an abundance of diverse opinions? If so, going to college isn #39;t your best bet. On today #39;s college and university campuses, students are repeatedly being punished for expressing the "wrong" opinion on just about any controversial topic. Greg Lukianoff President, FIRE Read more: dailycaller.com unlearning-liberty/#ixzz2CJ87mGImFrom:2EyesnEarsViews:2 1ratingsTime:05:22More inNews Politics
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Campus censorship, chilled speech and 'Unlearning Liberty' - Video
For China #39;s Netizens, Political Discontent Breeds Irony
One of the forms of ironic dissent that has become common on Chinese social network services, such as the Twitter-like Sina Weibo, is a type of vocabulary list. But it doesn #39;t contain terms that you #39;d find in any university language course. Rather, the lists have terms that are minor tweaks on words that are commonly heard in official political discourse, "government", "freedom", "harmony", but made to convey a certain sense of, well, call it skepticism. So, web users might repost lists containing words like "Goverruption", combining government + corruption. "Freedom" becomes "freedamn". Other terms include "Smilence" which means to "Smile without saying anything", indicating the idea of self-censorship. Many of the puns on these lists have both English and Chinese versions, equally ironic in each language. While internet users have been composing such compact political commentary for years, there #39;s been a resurgence in their spread during the current leadership transition. Some political observers have noted that a new generation of Chinese youth, too young to remember previous leadership transitions, have reacted with surprise and disbelief at how out-of-touch the ongoing Communist Party Congress seems with the society with the modern, wired society China has become. For more news and videos visit #9755; ntd.tv Follow us on Twitter #9755; http Add us on Facebook #9755; on.fb.meFrom:NTDTVViews:4 0ratingsTime:01:47More inNews Politics
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For China's Netizens, Political Discontent Breeds Irony - Video
"Communist Party", "Coup d'etat" and "Democracy and Freedom" are just some of the long list of search terms blocked on the Twitter-like microblogging site Sina Weibo in China. But a new service, FreeWeibo, is trying to pull back the government's control over Internet content by providing unfiltered searches on the microblogging site.
China is well-known for its widespread online censorship, which has already blocked access to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in its attempts to clamp down on user-generated content critical of the government. Sina Weibo, which has more than 300 million registered users, offers its own similar social networking services, but strictly observes government rules on censorship.
Blocking user searches for sensitive topics is one way Sina Weibo has controlled its content. But in response a new site, FreeWeibo, launched last month allowing users to make uncensored searches on the microblogging site.
FreeWeibo was started by a foreigner living in China who goes by the alias Martin Johnson. For security reasons, he declined to give out his personal details in an interview on Thursday, and only said he was a Web developer opposed to China's online censorship. In addition to FreeWeibo, Johnson also founded GreatFire.org, a site that monitors the country's censoring of sites and reported the block on Google services in China last week.
The small group of foreigners and Chinese behind FreeWeibo has ambitious aims. "We want to make it into another alternative to using (Sina Weibo's) official search. We'll offer you everything, plus all the things they didn't want you to find," Johnson said. "With FreeWeibo, it's not just about studying censorship. I want to show what it could be like if it's not censored."
The service works by tracking and storing search results on Sina Weibo, so that even if the site later decides to block the queries, FreeWeibo still has the information stored. Data is also taken from "Weiboscope", a service from the University of Hong Kong that was also designed to track censored posts on Sina Weibo.
The difference in search results between FreeWeibo and SinaWeibo can be stark. Whereas a search for "Communist Party" on Sina Weibo will show it blocked because of government policy, FreeWeibo on Thursday offered a long list of posts using the term, some of which were critical of the party.
"It's totally true. After abandoning Mao Zedong thought, China's Communist Party no longer stands for 'communal', the People's Republic of China no longer stands for 'the people'," said one post.
FreeWeibo, however, is already blocked by Chinese authorities after only a month online. Despite the censorship, the site is gaining traction and has more than a thousand visitors per day, the majority of which come from China. To access the site, these users are likely relying on virtual private networks (VPNs), which usually cost money, but can bypass the country's online censorship systems.
The hope is that FreeWeibo's user will repost the censored content onto their own official Sina Weibo accounts, Johnson said. "We are looking at things like being able to slightly change the words of those messages so that they won't automatically be deleted when posted," he said. "In that way we can make a difference, not just for the minority of people able to access the site, but for a majority of the people so that they can see these posts."
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New site tries to free China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo from censorship
New Delhi, Nov 16 (IANS) Underlining his commitment to freedom of the press, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday said censorship was not the answer but journalists must curb sensationalism and ensure that objectivity is promoted.
In a message on National Press Day, the prime minister ruled out restrictions on the media, but warned against the perils of irresponsible journalism.
"As a country, we believe in complete independence of the media from external control," he said. However, he also added: "It is true that sometimes irresponsible journalism can have serious consequences for social harmony and public order, which the public authorities have an obligation to maintain, but censorship is no answer."
"It is for the members of the Fourth Estate themselves to collectively ensure that objectivity is promoted and sensationalism is curbed. It is for them to introspect how best they can serve our country and society and advance their well being."
"A free and fair media has been an essential pillar of our democracy. Since our struggle for freedom, media has been guiding social change, informing readers of their rights and contributing to the nationbuilding process by spreading awareness," he said.
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Censorship no answer, but media must be responsible: PM