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Amid government censorship and controls, are Internet service providers in China actually resisting the propaganda authorities?

China is famous not only for its cultural heritage and newfound economic power. While the country boasts of the biggest number of Internet and mobile users to date, the so-called Great Firewall of China is also enforced to filter and control the flow of information both within the countrys borders and across a practice that authorities say is meant to prevent illegal activities and to enforce its jurisdiction within geographic borders.

For instance, in recent news, we have learned that China is now enforcing a real-name requirement for any person accessing the Internet. Propaganda authorities are also quick to order the deletion of any Internet posting, censoring of keywords or banning of entire accounts altogether when the information is deemed sensitive or illegal. Both users and service providers usually have no recourse but to comply. Some enterprising individuals would usually resort to workarounds, which can include the use of VPNs, code-words, encryption, and the like.

Is Sina deliberately delaying its censorship?

But whats quite surprising at this point is that some service providers seem to be employing some delaying tactics in filtering or censoring content, giving time for the message to spread out before being removed from the source.

Global Voices Online has shared a translation of a purported leak from a Sina Weibo employee , which tries to explain the rationale behind the companys deletion of posts and accounts. According to the poster, this practice stems from the need to find a balance between providing a medium for users to voice out, while also complying with state regulations for content filtering.

We need [Sina] Weibo to deliver voices. But a hand is manipulating us. Someone is doomed to be sacrifice[d] in this game. We live in a country full of special and sensitive barriers and we have to operate within a set of rules.

Interestingly enough, the supposed employee suggests that Sina may be intentionally letting erring content slip out into a wider readership before it eventually pulls the plug.

You guys keep posting messages like machines You can see the messages before they are deleted, right? You still have your accountfunctioning, right? You are all experienced netizens, you know that the technology allows us to delete messages in a second. Please think carefully on this.

There is no confirmation at this point, as how genuine_Yu_Yang is actually connected with Sina. But whats clear at this point is that, indeed, information does get out to some extent, before being extinguished at the source. By then, the supposed damage would have been done. Content would have been re-tweeted or shared with tens of thousands of other users.

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Are Chinese internet service providers quietly resisting propaganda and censorship?