Twitterers defy Chinese censorship, break silence on Tiananmen Square's 'Tank Man'

[china]

[SIZE=+1]Twitterers defy Chinese censorship, break silence on Tiananmen Square's 'Tank Man'[/SIZE]
China National News
Thursday 4th June, 2009
(ANI)

​

Beijing, June 4 : Pictures of the lone man standing with two plastic bags confronting several tanks in Beijing's Tianamen Square in June 1989 are still etched in the memories of most humans, but the "Tank Man's" (as he was known) efforts and other information about the crackdown are still officially censored in China.

But now, 20 years on, modern technology and the wide reach of social networking sites like Facebook are providing curious students with the information they were previously denied.

"In this, 20 years ago, China strove for democracy and freedom. The government killed our compatriots, university students and citizens," wrote a woman identifying herself as Bonnie Wong on the Facebook fan site Tank Man, one of several forums that have popped up ahead of the 20th anniversary of the crackdown.

"For 20 years, more than a few have entered the political arena who are the real villains, hypocrites who put on a false show of great peace and bury their consciences in a fiery pit. They control the government, they control media, they hold on to education, they control writing," wrote another Facebook member who calls himself Jonathan Siew.

The vast majority of Chinese youth show no outward knowledge of what happened 20 years ago, a fact that pains the still-mourning relatives of those who were killed.

"This is a cruel reality - young people do not know the truth," said Ding Zilin, a retired professor whose 17-year-old son was shot dead that night.

"The government hides the truth from children and keeps it as a sort of forbidden zone. It isn't taught in classrooms," he adds.

But in the anonymity of the online world, Internet-savvy youths use mirror sites and proxy servers to explore alternative versions of the official history and to discuss their own frustrations with their government's clumsy efforts at censorship.

China this week blocked access to Twitter, Bing.com, the photo-sharing Web site Flickr and, briefly, Hotmail. Other sites, including YouTube and blog providers like Blogspot and Wordpress, are routinely barred.

But frequent Twittering and Facebooking from Chinese users on the eve of the June 4 anniversary proved there are many ways around the censors' efforts.

 

[china]

China this week blocked access to Twitter, Bing.com, the photo-sharing Web site Flickr and, briefly, Hotmail. Other sites, including YouTube and blog providers like Blogspot and Wordpress, are routinely barred.

I,m glad they did not get around to blocking the important sites , like CCF .....right?

 

[Scott Free]

Why doesn't anyone talk about how Canadians are banned from music sites, US TV sites and trackers like Demonoid?

While the world complains about China we have a fair bit of our own censorship going on too.

It seems we should get off our high horses and deal with the sh*t going on right here, right now.

 

[china]

While the world complains about China we have a fair bit of our own censorship going on too.
It seems we should get off our high horses and deal with the sh*t going on right here, right now.

Thanks SF for a very sober observation .

 

[DurkaDurka]

Why doesn't anyone talk about how Canadians are banned from music sites, US TV sites and trackers like Demonoid?

While the world complains about China we have a fair bit of our own censorship going on too.

It seems we should get off our high horses and deal with the sh*t going on right here, right now.

The reason Canadians are blocked from US streaming media sites has nothing to do with censorship, it is due to licensing agreements between publishers and broadcasters in the US. That is why if you try to watch "LOST" from nbc.com for example, it will return an error telling you it is only available in the US but provides a link to CTV.ca as that is the Canadian company with the broadcasting rights for the show in Canada.

No need for a conspiracy where there isn't one.

 

[china]

The reason Canadians are blocked from US streaming media sites has nothing to do with censorship, it is due to licensing agreements between publishers and broadcasters in the US. That is why if you try to watch "LOST" from nbc.com for example, it will return an error telling you it is only available in the US but provides a link to CTV.ca as that is the Canadian company with the broadcasting rights for the show in Canada.
No need for a conspiracy where there isn't one.

Thanks DD for a very sober observation .

 

[DurkaDurka]

Censorship on a whole though via the web is a joke, any Chinese blogger, dissident etc would knows dozens of ways to bypass any content restrictions the Chinese government has enacted. The restrictions will deter the casual surfer from seeing non approved media, that's about it.

 

[Scott Free]

The reason Canadians are blocked from US streaming media sites has nothing to do with censorship, it is due to licensing agreements between publishers and broadcasters in the US. That is why if you try to watch "LOST" from nbc.com for example, it will return an error telling you it is only available in the US but provides a link to CTV.ca as that is the Canadian company with the broadcasting rights for the show in Canada.

No need for a conspiracy where there isn't one.

The government controls the licences.

I don`t care how censorship is dressed up it`s still censorship.

I`m surprised you`d fall for that Durka.

 

[DurkaDurka]

The government controls the licences.

I don`t care how censorship is dressed up it`s still censorship.

I`m surprised you`d fall for that Durka.

What licenses, Scott? Please enlighten me.

The government controls licenses for broadcast over the air, that is it.

The fact that you confuse licensing agreements with censorship is pretty scary.

 

[DurkaDurka]

Censorship eh?

News - Internet Geoblocking: How It Works And Why It's Done - MPIII.com : An Electronic Music Community Inside a Big Orange Box - v4.173

"When would-be viewers are denied access to mainstream audio or video content such as TV shows being streamed online, legal issues are usually involved too. But in this case the issues surround the way rights to such content are sold.

For instance, the CBC bought from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) the rights to broadcast the 2008 Summer Olympics on television, along with digital rights to stream video of the events online. But those rights applied only to Canada. The IOC sold similar rights to NBC in the U.S.

'We as the Canadian rights holder are privy to certain digital rights,' explains Bob Kerr, director of business development at CBC, 'but we have to make sure we don't leak into the States.'
How it works

To plug those types of leaks, the CBC and other online broadcasters employ software that can determine a website visitor's location by looking at his or her computer's Internet Protocol (IP) address. This is a numeric code assigned to every computer connected to the internet, whether it's an individual user's laptop or a large corporation's web server."

 

[Scott Free]

The fact that you confuse licensing agreements with censorship is pretty scary.

The fact that you don't is even scarier.

 

[DurkaDurka]

The fact that you don't is even scarier.

Scott, quite frankly, you haven't a clue what you are talking about.

 

[Scott Free]

Scott, quite frankly, you haven't a clue what you are talking about.

Lol :lol:

Your funny.

 

[DurkaDurka]

Lol :lol:

Your funny.

and you're an ignorant fool. Read the article snip I kindly posted for you.

 

[L Gilbert]

[FONT=Geneva, Arial, Helvetica]Censorship -- the control of the information and ideas circulated within a society[/FONT]

[FONT=Geneva, Arial, Helvetica] - What is Censorship?

License usually applies to ownership of the information and ideas. Kind of odd to confuse the two.
[/FONT]

 

[Scott Free]

and you're an ignorant fool. Read the article snip I kindly posted for you.

Really, name calling?

Whatever the reason for the censorship it doesn't change that its censorship. Do you really think the Chinese censors, at the end of the day, aren't motivated by greed and power too?

 

[DurkaDurka]

Really, name calling?

Whatever the reason for the censorship it doesn't change that its censorship. Do you really think the Chinese censors, at the end of the day, aren't motivated by greed and power too?

Quit changing the topic, Scott. You are swearing up and down that geoblocking media is censorship, which it is not.

The Chinese censor for many reasons, and yes some of that is due to greed and money. Comparing Canada to China in regards to censorship is nonsensical. Censorship in China is Government policy where Geoblocking in North America is an industry policy to protect licensing agreements, not to deny the people South Park because it is considered lewd etc.

 

[Scott Free]

[FONT=Geneva, Arial, Helvetica] - What is Censorship?

License usually applies to ownership of the information and ideas. Kind of odd to confuse the two.
[/FONT]

The RIAA claims it owns all American music and legally radios that play unsigned artists have to pay a royalty for that music.

 

[Scott Free]

Quit changing the topic, Scott.

I didn't - you did.

 

[L Gilbert]

So? Does the RIAA own all the music in the USA? Does it have license for it?