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China announces new rules, forbidding unidentified netizens from posting anything on internet platforms

Chinas internet censorship is getting tougher and more comprehensive every day. On August 25, Chinas top internet regulator announced new rules to manage internet forums and communities, forbidding unidentified netizens from posting anything on internet platforms. The new rules will become effective on October 1.

As The Diplomat has been following, since Chinese president Xi Jinping took office, China has been systematically increasing online control, and 2017 has witnessed the most fierce wave of internet censorship yet: Banning VPNs and independent multimedia contents, demanding international publishing houses such as Cambridge University Press remove specific content, punishing Chinas top three internet giants for failing to manage their online platform properly, to name just a few.

The Cyberspace Administration of China, the top internet censor, just gave Chinese netizens further bad news. On August 25, the administration issued Management Regulations on Internet Forum and Community, in order to promote the healthy and orderly development of online community and safeguard national security and public interests.

The new regulations cover all online forums, communities and any other platforms that provide interactive communication.

According to the regulations, all internet companies and service providers are required to strictly manage all the content their registered users are going to post, and verify the identities of all users before they can post anything on their platforms. As for those users who refuse to provide their real names, the internet companies should not allow them to post anything at all.

An official of the Cyberspace Administration also specified the content that is banned from publishing or disseminating online:

The contents that (1) opposing the basic principles in the Constitution; (2) harming the national security, revealing state secrets, subverting state power and undermining national reunification; (3) damaging national honor and interests; (4) inciting national hatred, ethnic discrimination and undermining national unity; (5) undermining the states policies on religion or promoting cults and feudal superstitions; (6) spreading rumors or disrupting social order; (7) spreading obscenity, pornography, violence, terror or abetting the crime; (8) insulting or slandering others and infringing upon the lawful rights and interests of others; (9) violating any other laws and regulations.

Obviously, the forbidden items are so broad and vague that any criticism could be included in the categories.

In addition, the regulations also require all internet companies to fully record their users information and promptly report their illegal behavior to the regulators.

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China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for ... - The Diplomat

Well, thats one way to show your gratitude.

A nude blogger whose self-described body positive Instagram page was shut down for violating the social-media networks nudity policy has celebrated her return to the site by posting a nude photo of herself partially obscured by a placard reading: F*ck you Instagram.

Australian Jessa OBrien, 28, who posts under the handle The Nude Blogger, has built up a following of more than 45,000 fans since she launched the page, which majors on non-pornographic and non-sexual images of herself naked (think yoga poses on the beach, sensitively backlit images of a girl in a tree, cartwheels on the sand) since its launch in October 2016.

The page was reactivated this week after it was shut down six weeks ago, and OBrien celebrated with the post targeting the social-media giants often-confused messaging on appropriate content in no uncertain terms.

OBrien said in a post that the picture with the placard was the first time she has shown her face on the site.

In a blog post on her website, excerpts of which she also posted on Instagram, OBrien described the move by Instagram to reinstate her account as a step in the right direction for Instagram, social media, and society, and said her victory serves as a reminder to never give up on our message, even when were going up against Goliath.

I went up against Instagram, and I actually came out victorious. I feel such a sense of fulfillment. My determination to expose these hideous double standards and Instagrams contradictory and blurred guidelines has kept me up a lot. I have felt a sense of responsibility to speak out against the social-media giants.

OBrien said the closure of the account had actually proved to be one of the best things to happen for my message about body-positivity because of the attention she has received in mainstream media.

However Instagram may have opened a can of worms for itself by reactivating the Nude Blogger account.

The community guidelines published by the site say: We know that there are times when people might want to share nude images that are artistic or creative in nature, but for a variety of reasons, we dont allow nudity on Instagram. This includes photos, videos, and some digitally created content that show sexual intercourse, genitals, and close-ups of fully nude buttocks. It also includes some photos of female nipples, but photos of post-mastectomy scarring and women actively breastfeeding are allowed. Nudity in photos of paintings and sculptures is OK, too.

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Nude Blogger Wins Censorship War With Instagram - The Daily Beast - Daily Beast

The Chinese government under president Xi Jinping is continuing to make life on the internet difficult for its potential detractors. Yesterday (Aug. 25), the countrys highest internet regulator released new rules (link in Chinese) that govern who can post what online. The upshot: anonymity on the Chinese internet is just about dead.

The new rules are the most recent instance of the Cyberspace Administration of Chinas (CAC) efforts to enforce real-name registration, which aims to severely limit internet activity for users who do not provide identifying information. There are already rules in place that require using your real name to register for WeChat, mobile phone numbers, Weibo, and other services for a few years. But the latest rules target the relatively unruly world of online communities and discussion forums.

For users who have not given identifying information, platforms for and providers of online communities may not allow posting of any kind, the announcement declares. It adds that, on these platforms, no content may appear that is prohibited by national regulations. (Those are my translations; I tried to keep intact the confusing language often used in these Chinese government announcements.) The CAC announcement also requires these platforms to investigate thoroughly any users they think may be using fake names and retain all user data for government inspection.

With the major online platforms like WeChat and Weibo already censored and operating under real-name registration rules, forums provide some of the few remaining places where it is possible to be anonymous on the Chinese internet. Tiebathe largest of such forums and often the origin of nationalist political activismwas given the real-name treatment by its parent company, Baidu, just a few months ago. The new rules will extend those controls to smaller forums.

Under Chinas previous leader, Hu Jintao, expression on the internet flourished in spite of censorship. Now, under Xi Jinping, the censors appear to be winning. These latest regulations follow a crackdown on VPNslong the easiest way to browse the web uncensoredand the announcement that the countrys three largest internet companies were under investigation for not adequately controlling what users say on their platforms.

So what exactly constitutes forbidden topics on the Chinese internet? An unnamed CAC official told a journalist the following when asked about the new rules (first translated by The Diplomat):

Good luck avoiding all of those.

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In China you now have to provide your real identity if you want to comment online - Quartz

YouTube continues to censor more and more content.

At least as far back as 2014, YouTube began engaging in active censorship of content. This does not mean censorship of obviously profane material, such as pornography and hate speech. The censorship applied a narrow band of content, such as ISIS recruitment videos, that were deemed dangerous.

You Tube has begun a broad censorship campaign, silencing many content creators.

LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) - It is one thing to ban pornography or ISIS recruitment videos. It's understandable that videos produced by terrorists could contain secret messages and inspire domestic terrorism. However, the censorship did not stop with ISIS and porn. Today, major content producers are being silenced because YouTube doesn't like their message.

This censorship is hurting the revenue streams of many content providers including now, news and media outlets.

You Tube now keeps the lion's share of revenue from your content, and will delete or suppress it if it even mentions terrorism, Islam, or violence. Suppression also applies to daily Bible readings.

That's right, You Tube finds daily Bible readings offensive.

Recently, Jihad Watch's Robert Spencer was labeled "offensive" and censored. Spencer shares news and information about militant Islam on his You Tube network and website. Or at least he did.

The militant left is on the march. They know most people now get their news from social media. But social media is where the censorship is the strongest. This is resulting in an uninformed public whose perception of reality is incomplete.

The consequences of this should be obvious to any thinking person.

On the Jihad Watch website Spencer shared this message and screencap from a reader:

This is not the Jihad Watch YouTube channel, which still remains (so far); nor was it an account I had any association with. This was simply a collection of some of videos featuring me that this man had made for his own reference.

YouTube user "NoNo Boddy" sent me this screenshot, and explained:

As far as I recall it was just your stuff. Nothing crazy

I don't actively use the channel at all really just was using it to bookmark stuff.

I'd actually forgotten I made it. I didn't actually know if it was public or not. To be honest I didn't know they come in public and private.

As I said when PayPal reinstated Jihad Watch's account, the Left's war on the freedom of speech is by no means over. They are determined to cut foes of jihad terror off from all means of communication.

---

Pope Francis Prayer Intentions for AUGUST 2017Artists. That artists of our time, through their ingenuity, may help everyone discover the beauty of creation.

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YouTube censors Jihad Watch, Daily Bible readings, and more - Catholic Online

Beijing (AFP) - Just days after the world's oldest publisher briefly caved in to Chinese censorship demands, international publishing houses are courting importers at a Beijing book fair, with some admitting they keep sensitive topics off their pages.

The censorship controversy that hit Cambridge University Press (CUP) sent a chill along the stands staffed by publishers from nearly 90 countries at the Beijing International Book Fair, which opened on Wednesday.

But some acknowledged their companies have already resorted to self-censorship to ensure that their books do not offend and are published in China.

CUP had given similar arguments when it initially complied with a Chinese import agency's demand to block articles from its China Quarterly journal, before reversing course on Monday after coming under fire from the academic community.

Terry Phillips, business development director of British-based Innova Press, was candid about it as he prepared to meet a Chinese counterpart at the fair's section for overseas publishers.

"We frequently exercise self-censorship to adapt to different markets. Every country has different sets of requirements about what they consider appropriate for education materials," Phillips told AFP.

"But as authors, I think we also have a responsibility to find ways to teach good citizenship and human rights," he said.

John Lowe, managing director of Mosaic8, an Asian educational publishing specialist based in Tokyo, said the authorities govern the distribution of the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) that companies need for their books to be sold in China.

"So it is in publishers' interest to not publish something that would anger authorities," Lowe said.

"You don't mention the three 'Ts': Tiananmen, Tibet and Taiwan. But it's usually fine to discuss human rights issues generally," Lowe said.

- CUP quiet -

The 300 articles that were temporarily removed from China Quarterly's website in China included texts on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, the status of Tibet, the self-ruled island of Taiwan and the Chinese democracy movement.

CUP had said last Friday that it wanted "to ensure that other academic and educational materials we publish remain available to researchers and educators in this market".

In an about-face, the publisher announced on Monday that it was restoring access to the articles after international academics criticised CUP for succumbing to Chinese pressure and launched a petition demanding that it reverse course.

But the US-based Association for Asian Studies revealed this week that CUP had received a request from China's General Administration of Press and Publications to remove 100 articles from another publication, the Journal of Asian Studies.

Cambridge University officials said they would discuss the censorship issue with the importer at the book fair, which runs until Sunday, after expressing concern about "the recent increase in requests of this nature".

Rita Yan, a CUP coordinator at the publisher's booth, told AFP that the censorship issue "wasn't affecting our activities at the book fair."

Yan declined to comment further and said CUP's managing director of academic publishing was unable to speak with the press because she was occupied with meetings.

- Censorship: 'A selling point' -

Other publishers participating in the fair said the uproar has created an atmosphere of anxiety about censorship.

"Currently, we don't have any problems, but in the future, we don't know," said Ding Yueting, a marketer for Wiley, an educational publisher and research service based in New Jersey.

A representative of a large American publishing house, who requested anonymity because she was not authorised to speak to the press, said: "We're nervous about whether there will be increased censorship requests from Chinese agencies in the future."

But a representative of another major American publisher, who also requested anonymity, said that a factor influencing self-censorship decisions is that there would be "no point" in producing books that will likely get banned.

"It would be embarrassing to go through the trouble of translating a book from English to Chinese, and then being unable to publish in China," he said.

"On the other hand, books that are censored in China often sell better abroad," he said.

"It's usually a major selling point."

Originally posted here:
At Beijing book fair, publishers admit self-censorship - Yahoo News