Renhuai - Another Protest, Another City Disappears from Sina Weibo

Protesters in Renhuai, Guizhou

On July 23, 2012, the state-sponsored Global Times reported:

Thousands of residents of Renhuai, southwestern China's Guizhou Province took to the streets on Friday and Saturday to protest inadequate compensation offered to farmers after the local government expropriated  their land to make way for an industrial park that will turn the city into "the Liquor Capital of China."
According to a press release posted on the local government's official website, the mass gathering was incited by a dozen farmers, and government offices and vehicles were damaged by the crowd that had gathered.
Witnesses, however, said around 7,000 people gathered in front of the government building of Tanchang town in Renhuai, and thousands of armed police were dispatched in the city.

The screenshot, taken on July 23, shows that a search for "Renhuai" (仁怀) on Sina Weibo returned no results, just a notice saying: "In accordance with relevant laws, regulations, and policies, search results for 'Renhuai' have not been displayed." (根据相关法律法规和政策，“仁怀”搜索结果未予显示。)

Global Times Op-Ed: US Consulate Weibo Closure Result of Its Arrogant Tone, Harmful Influence

On July 13, 2012, the state-sponsored Global Times reported:

The official Sina Weibo account of the US Consulate General in Shanghai became "inaccessible" since Thursday morning for unknown reasons, a diplomat has told the Global Times. "We discovered our Consulate Shanghai's official Sina Weibo page cannot be accessed since the opening hour of business at 8 am on Thursday morning. We're now trying to find out why," Wylita Bell, an information officer for the US Consulate General in Shanghai, said.
. . . .
According to latest Sina regulations that took effect in May, any accounts that published more than five pieces of sensitive information that violate Chinese laws, contain rumors, or leak national secrets will be asked to delete the information and be punished by being barred from posting for over 48 hours. For those who maliciously post sensitive information, their accounts will be shut down.

This follows the recent shutdowns of the Weibo accounts for the New York Times and Bloomberg.

On July 16, the Global Times published an op-ed by "Hu Yue" (identified as a "media critic") entitled "In the Hope That the US Consulate Will Learn to be More Cautious" (希望美驻华领馆由此学会“慎独”). An excerpt:

On Weibo, people can enjoy a high degree of "freedom of speech" -- each person is a media outlet unto themselves, and when you publish information it would seem that you are not subject to any "screening" standards beyond your own moral consciousness. As a result, on Weibo one can find all manner of information, moral and immoral, true and false.
. . . .
Within this context, let us now take a look at the closure of the US Shanghai Consulate's Weibo. . . . Much of its information can be classified as "garbage" that is harmful to society. For example, before it was shut down, this Weibo once defended its opinions by using the opposite perspective of a Party newspaper paired with a somewhat "cutesy" cartoon. At first blush it appeared satirical and mocking, even a bit "innocent." In fact, it was "artfully" issuing a challenge to Chinese government authority, and in addition, the challenge carried with it a kind of "condescending" air. It was, in essence, an unintentional demonstration of the kind of arrogance one is used to seeing from America.

This kind of arrogance is no longer an issue of free speech, but rather is an matter of one country's attitude. When you add to this the influence of the Weibo platform, the harmful social influence caused by this Weibo is not insignificant. The closure of this Weibo was in fact a kind of response to its arrogant attitude, and was also Chinese society defending itself against an outside "infectious virus."
. . . .
This Weibo was shut down for spreading illegal and immoral speech online, and was simply the result of its having crossed the line.

The screenshot shows the US Shanghai Consulate's notice regarding its Sina Weibo account deletion posted on its Tencent Weibo.
 

Baidu Forum Bans Anonymous Posting, Warns Users About "Harmful Information"

On July 6, 2012, the following announcement appeared on the Baidu "Tieba Notice Board" - http://tieba.baidu.com/p/1706986305:

[Notice] Say Goodbye to the Anonymous IP Party, Anonymous Posting Functionality on Tieba to be Taken Offline

To All Bar Friends:

Owing to the fact that currently utilization of anonymous posting to engage in malicious activities such as publishing fake ads and harmful information is running rampant, to the point where it is interfering with normal browsing and discussions between moderators and users, on July 12 Tieba will eliminate online anonymous posting, clean up Tieba's discussion environment, and safeguard the interests of the majority of the Great Bar's users.

【公告】告别ip匿名党，贴吧匿名发贴功能将下线

各位吧友：

鉴于目前利用匿名发贴功能发布虚假广告和有害信息的恶劣行为日益猖獗，对吧主管理和吧友的正常浏览讨论造成较大干扰，贴吧拟定于7月12日取消贴吧线上匿名发贴，净化贴吧讨论环境，维护广大吧友权益。

On July 12, 2012, the following announcement (which originally appeared on the Baidu "Tieba Notice Board" on May 12, 2012) was bumped to the top of the board - http://tieba.baidu.com/p/1584959322:

In order to safeguard everyone's common interests, please do not post any harmful information whatsoever on Bars, in order to avoid Tieba from being shut down. At the same time we would remind all our Internet friends that, with respect to those who do post harmful information on Bars, the relevant agencies of the State will pursue you to hold you legally responsible in accordance with the law.

【公告】请广大吧友自觉维护贴吧秩序，不要发表任何有害信息

为了维护大家的共同利益，请不要在吧内发布任何有害信息，以免贴吧遭到关闭处理。同时提醒各位网友，对于贴吧内有害信息发布者，国家相关部门将依法追究其法律责任。

Sina Weibo Censors "The Truth" (Literally)

From at least June 26 through July 9, 2012, searching on Sina Weibo for "The Truth" (真相) returned no results, just a notice saying "In accordance with relevant laws, regulations, and policies, search results for 'the truth' have not been displayed." (根据相关法律法规和政策，“真相”搜索结果未予显示。)

The screenshot below was taken on June 26.

Lufeng and Daan - More Protests, More Cities Disappear From Sina Weibo

 On July 3, 2012, the Hong Kong based Oriental Daily reported:

Yesterday evening thousands of villagers in Lufeng, Shanwei in Guangdong held a large demonstration in front of the township government to express their dissatisfaction over local officials colluding with black-hearted enterprises to undertake large scale strip mining of rare earth minerals near where drinking water for nearly one million people would be polluted. They clashed with riot police on the scene, and many police cars were overturned.
. . . .
An Internet user exposed materials online pointing out suspicions that officials and business people in Daan village in Lufeng, Shanwei were colluding, and had been mining rare earth minerals upstream from the Niujiaolong reservoir for over a year, causing pollution of the reservoir to the point where schools of fish were dying, and threatening the safety of drinking water for nearly one million people in several local villages.

广东汕尾陆丰数千村民，因不满当地村官与黑心企业勾结，大肆开采山头稀土致近百万人食水受污染，昨前往镇政府发起大规模示威，与在场防暴警冲突，多辆警车被推翻。
. . . .
有网民在网上爆料指，汕尾陆丰市大安镇疑有官员与商人勾结，在牛角隆水库上游非法开采稀土逾一年，造成水库受污染致鱼群死亡，威胁当地多条村接近一百万民众饮用水安全。

The screenshot shows that searches for "Daan" (大安) and "Lufeng" (陆丰) on Sina Weibo on July 3 and July 7, respectively, returned no results, just notices saying "In accordance with relevant laws, regulations, and policies, search results for 'Daan/Lufeng' have not been displayed." (根据相关法律法规和政策，“大安/陆丰”搜索结果未予显示。).

Sina Weibo Censors "378" - Number of People Rumored to Have Died in Tianjin Fire

On July 7, 2012, the Shanghai Daily reported:

Tianjin City in northern China yesterday published a list of 10 victims who died in a shopping mall inferno in a bid to refute rumors that at least 378 people died in the fire.

The city government's list, posted online yesterday, shows that nine of the 10 victims were shop assistants working on the fourth and fifth floors of the mall. Only one customer is said to have been killed in last Saturday's blaze. The 10 women were aged between 25 and 44.

This screenshot shows that on July 7 Sina Weibo was censoring searches for "378."

Baidu Increases Censorship of Bo Xilai Family Names, Restricts Results to Own Baike

These screenshots, taken on July 7, 2012, show that for searches for Bo Xilai (薄熙来) Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜) and Gu Kailai (谷开来) Baidu claims to have found 765k, 12k, and 8.4k results, respectively. In each case, however, Baidu only returns only one result - its own Baidu Baike article.

This represents an increase in censorship from last May, when Baidu was also returning results from a white list of about a dozen websites controlled by the central government and the Communist Party.

"Relevant Agencies" Demands Forces Website Provider to Terminate Free Website Hosting

Last month the following announcement appeared on the Jimdo website:

Owing to restrictions imposed by China's laws relating to the Internet and the demands of relevant agencies, on June 27 Jimdo will officially cease all free website services for the mainland China region. We express our heartfelt apologies to Jimdo users for any inconvenience and difficulty that this may bring you. As of July 27 all free Jimdo websites will no longer be accessible. If you are a Jimdo free website customer, you may:

1. Between June 27 and July 27, you may make a one time payment of 99 renminbi to retain your website's operation and accessibility on a permanent basis.

2. Between June 27 and July 27, you may upgrade you website to a professional or business edition, and retain your website's operation and accessibility on a permanent basis.

鉴于中国互联网相关法律的约束及有关管理部门的要求，Jimdo将于6月27号正式停止在中国大陆地区的所有免费建站服务。对于由此给您带来的不便与困扰，我们在此向所有Jimdo用户表示由衷的歉意！
所有Jimdo的免费网站将于7月27号正式停止访问。如果您是Jimdo的免费网站用户，您可以：
1、从6月27日至7月27日，您可以通过支付99元人民币的一次性费用来保留您网站永久免费运行和访问。
2、从6月27日至7月27日，您也可以升级自己的网站到专业版或商业版，以保留网站的运行和访问。

According to the Jimdo website:

Jimdo puts the power of website creation in the hands of ordinary people. Anyone can share their passions and interests on the Internet -- on their own website -- simply and easily. Jimdo is free, and you don't need to know how to code or run a server to have a website. And not just any old website! You can start an online business, write a blog, send a newsletter, add your tweets, embed YouTube videos, link your Facebook Page, and embed almost any kind of widget you can imagine. Jimdo is a website creator for today's web.

Our motto is "Pages to the People!" -- because we are empowering every single person on the planet to make their voice heard. Whether you're young or old, coffee connoisseur or tea aficionado, Twitterati or literati, shutterbug, musician, student, crafter, or entrepreneur, there's a place for you at Jimdo.

Sina Weibo Censors Journalist's Call to Reassess Tiananmen

On July 1, 2012, the Associated Press reported:

A Hong Kong reporter briefly threw Chinese President Hu Jintao's tightly scripted visit to the semiautonomous city off course Saturday by asking about the 1989 military crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square. 

The reporter for the Apple Daily newspaper said he was detained for about 15 minutes after the incident by three to four security officers, who told him he was too noisy and had broken rules. Other reporters also shouted questions to Hu, but they weren't detained.
Hu was touring a new cruise ship terminal when the reporter shouted out a question to him from behind a security cordon. 

"President Hu, have you heard that Hong Kong people hope to reverse the verdict of June 4?" the reporter, Hon Yiu-ting, asked. "Have you heard?"

The screenshots show that searches on Sina Weibo on July 2 for:

"Hon Yiu-ting" (曾健超) returned no results, just a notice saying "In accordance with relevant laws, regulations, and policies, search results for 'Hon Yiu-ting' have not been displayed." (根据相关法律法规和政策，“曾健超”搜索结果未予显示。)

"Hong Kong Reassess" (香港 平反) returned no results, just a notice saying "In accordance with relevant laws, regulations, and policies, search results for 'Hong Kong Reassess' have not been displayed." (根据相关法律法规和政策，“香港 平反”搜索结果未予显示。)

"Reassess" (平反) by itself returns over 1 million results.
 

 

Sina Censors Hong Kong March Information

On July 1, 2012, the New York Times reported:

Huge crowds of protesters thronged the streets of Hong Kong on Sunday afternoon, hours after President Hu Jintao of China swore in a new chief executive and cabinet for the territory.
Surging down broad avenues between high-rises in a central shopping district, the protesters marched toward two government office complexes carrying a variety of banners. A wide range of causes were represented, including greater democracy in Hong Kong and calls for better state pensions and day care.
But the most common theme was derision toward Hong Kong’s new chief executive, Leung Chun-ying. Democracy activists contend that he is “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” whose sympathies for the Chinese Communist Party may lead him to roll back some of the city’s cherished civil liberties — although Mr. Leung has denied that.

This screenshot shows that a search on Sina Weibo on July 2 for "July 1 take to the streets" (七一 上街) returned no results, just a notice saying "In accordance with relevant laws, regulations, and policies, search results for 'July 1 take to the streets' have not been displayed." (根据相关法律法规和政策，“七一 上街”搜索结果未予显示。)