China censors online chatter about its World Internet Conference on 'openness'
China's 4th World Internet Conference came to a close in the scenic watertown of Wuzhen on Tuesday with praise from state news outlets, but little discussion on Chinese social media.
China Digitial Times has published a leaked directive revealing why that may be. The directive orders censors to "intercept, find, and delete content attacking the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen on interactive platforms such as Weibo, blogs, public WeChat accounts, forums, and bulletin boards."
While this order is hardly surprising, it does at least make the annual event even a bit more ironic, particularly considering that the theme of this year's conference was "Developing digital economy for openness and shared benefits -- building a community of common future in cyberspace."
However, our favorite thing about the directive was the list of keywords that censors were told to keep an eye out for: "World 404 Conference, World LAN Conference, World Satire Conference, Low-level Political Party Conference, New-era United Front Meeting, Low-level Organization Conference, Beggars’ Conference, World Spenders’ Conference."
In its post, CDT helpfully explains all of those references:
China censors online chatter about its World Internet Conference on 'openness': Shanghaiist
