Thursday, April 3, 2014

State Media Says Reports of Tanks Bound for Maoming False, Baidu Censors "Maoming Tanks"

In its April 2, 2014 edition, the Maoming Evening News published an article entitled “There Are Many Online Rumors, Citizens Viciously Attack Rumormongers” (网上谣言不少,市民痛斥造谣者). According to the article:
In the last few days there have been many Internet users who have reposted a picture showing several tanks on the road to their Weixin, QQ, and Weixin and QQ groups. . . . But it has been confirmed that this picture was actually of a military exercise from several years ago.
前天,不少网民在自己的微信、QQ 以及微信圈、QQ 群等疯转一张照片,照片上显示的是几辆坦克车行驶在公路上(见图①)。. . . . 然而,经证实,这张图片只不过是前几年部队训练在公路上行进的照片。
These screenshots were taken a few hours after the Maoming Evening News posted its story, and show that Baidu was censoring searches for “Maoming Tanks,” (茂名 坦克) but not for “Maoming” or “Tanks.”



Translation: Sun Daluo's Court Judgment for Sharing Books and Articles

The PRC government sentenced Sun Zhiming (孙志明, who wrote under the alias Sun Daluo (孙大骆)) to one year imprisonment for the crime of "di...