{"id":14658,"date":"2019-02-25T07:00:38","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T11:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/?p=14658"},"modified":"2019-02-19T16:46:36","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T20:46:36","slug":"chinas-social-media-crackdown-targets-twitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/chinas-social-media-crackdown-targets-twitter\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s Social Media Crackdown Targets Twitter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Image via Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

Most western social media (\u793e\u4ea4\u5a92\u4f53sh\u00e8 ji\u0101o m\u00e9i t\u01d0) in China is blocked, including Twitter (\u63a8\u7279tu\u012b t\u00e8).<\/p>\n

The Chinese government tries to control the internet, but Chinese users gain access to the blocked websites. They use circumvention tools, such as a special software called VPN (virtual private networks), to visit the websites. Most of them do so for fun, but some dissidents use the social media platform to disseminate their ideas. Lately, the\u00a0Chinese\u00a0authorities have been extending their control over Chinese netizens and censoring their publications, even those published in blocked media. They were targeting Chinese Twitter users.<\/p>\n

Guangzhou activist Wang Aizhong\u2019s Twitter, for example, was attacked. He described himself as social activist in his profile, and his tweets (\u63a8\u6587tu\u012b w\u00e9n) discuss human rights. In December he was surprised to find his feed empty and his contacts lost. He tweeted his story<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u524d\u5929\u591c\u91cc\u4e00\u70b9\u949f\u5de6\u53f3\u624b\u673a\u6536\u5230\u63a8\u7279\u9a8c\u8bc1\u7801\u3002\u540e\u6765\u4e0a\u63a8\u7279\u6765\u770b\uff0c\u53d1\u73b0\u63a8\u6587\u5168\u90e8\u88ab\u5220\u3002\u6211\u5173\u6ce8\u7684\u4e00\u5343\u591a\u4eba\u4e5f\u5168\u90e8\u88ab\u53d6\u6d88\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cQi\u00e1n ti\u0101n y\u00e8 l\u01d0 y\u012b di\u01cen zh\u014dng zu\u01d2 y\u00f2u sh\u01d2u j\u012b sh\u014du d\u00e0o tu\u012b t\u00e8 y\u00e0n zh\u00e8ng m\u01ce. H\u00f2u l\u00e1i sh\u00e0ng tu\u012b t\u00e8 l\u00e1i k\u00e0n, f\u0101 xi\u00e0n tu\u012b w\u00e9n qu\u00e1n b\u00f9 b\u00e8i sh\u0101n. W\u01d2 gu\u0101n zh\u00f9 de y\u012b qi\u0101n du\u014d r\u00e9n y\u011b qu\u00e1n b\u00f9 b\u00e8i q\u01d4 xi\u0101o\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAround one o\u2019clock the night before, my phone received Twitter verification code. Later, on Twitter, I found all my tweets were deleted. More than a thousand people I was following were removed.\u201d<\/p>\n

He concluded by blaming the Chinese authorities (\u5f53\u5c40 d\u0101ng j\u00fa) for invading (\u5165\u4fb5r\u00f9 q\u012bn) his Twitter.<\/p>\n

Wang Aizhong\u2019s Twitter wasn\u2019t the first to be targeted. Wu Gan, a 37-year-old businessman from Fujian, became a productive activist in 2009. He wrote guide handbooks for his fellow activists, encouraged netizens to take action, and assisted many human rights cases across China. He was detained in 2015 and sentenced to eight years in prison for subversion of state power( \u717d\u52a8\u98a0\u8986\u56fd\u5bb6\u653f\u6743sh\u0101n d\u00f2ng di\u0101n f\u00f9 gu\u00f3 ji\u0101 zh\u00e8ng qu\u00e1n).<\/p>\n

Wu Gan had not tweeted since 2015, until November, when an\u00a0auto-generated tweet by his name says: \u201cI just activated @Tweet_Delete on my account to automatically delete my old tweets (is.gd\/delete)!\u201d. Chinese Twitter users (\u63a8\u7279\u7528\u6237tu\u012b t\u00e8 y\u00f2ng h\u00f9), like this one<\/a>, believe the government is responsible: \u201cthe account activated a third party tool called @tweet_delete<\/a> which is banned by @Twitter<\/a>. You may wonder who did this? \u201d<\/p>\n

Another Twitter user by the name Rain, vanished late November. Her Twitter friend was worried<\/a>. She tweeted:<\/p>\n

\u201c@Rain8909<\/a> \u5df2\u4e00\u5468\u4e0d\u89c1\u3002\u3002\u3002\u65e9\u65e5\u56de\u6765\uff01\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRain8909 y\u01d0 y\u012b zh\u014du b\u00f9 ji\u00e0n … z\u01ceo r\u00ec hu\u00ed l\u00e1i! \u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRain8909 haven\u2019t seen for a week, hope she\u2019ll be back soon! \u201d<\/p>\n

Rain tweeted again in December and told her followers she was detained for ten days. She was beaten and interrogated by the police. Her crime (\u7f6a\u884czu\u00ec x\u00edng), she wrote<\/a>, was publishing her opinions regarding the state system and leaders online:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u7f6a\u884c\u662f:\u7f51\u7edc\u53d1\u8868\u8a00\u8bba\u6d89\u53ca\u5230\u4e86\u56fd\u5bb6\u9886\u5bfc\u4eba\u548c\u56fd\u5bb6\u4f53\u5236\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cZu\u00ec x\u00edng sh\u00ec: w\u01ceng lu\u00f2 f\u0101 bi\u01ceo y\u00e1n l\u00f9n sh\u00e8 j\u00ed d\u00e0o le gu\u00f3 ji\u0101 l\u01d0ng d\u01ceo r\u00e9n h\u00e9 gu\u00f3 ji\u0101 t\u01d0 zh\u00ec\u201d<\/p>\n

More and more<\/a> incidents of deleted tweets and detained Twitter users have piled up in recent months. It seems the government is trying to remove present and past criticism from the network (\u7f51\u7edc w\u01ceng lu\u00f2). Chinese human rights activists believe it\u2019s not a coincidence. They believe it\u2019s a well-planned national crackdown (\u9547\u538bzh\u00e8n y\u0101) on Twitter users.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Text vocabulary<\/u><\/p>\n

\u793e\u4ea4\u5a92\u4f53 sh\u00e8 ji\u0101o m\u00e9i t\u01d0 = social media<\/p>\n

\u7f51\u7edc w\u01ceng lu\u00f2 = network<\/p>\n

\u63a8\u7279 tu\u012b t\u00e8 = Twitter<\/p>\n

\u63a8\u7279\u7528\u6237 tu\u012b t\u00e8 y\u00f2ng h\u00f9 = Twitter user<\/p>\n

\u63a8\u6587 tu\u012b w\u00e9n = tweet<\/p>\n

\u5f53\u5c40 d\u0101ng j\u00fa = authorities<\/p>\n

\u5220\u9664 sh\u0101n ch\u00fa = to delete<\/p>\n

\u622a\u53d6 ji\u00e9 q\u01d4 = to intercept<\/p>\n

\u5165\u4fb5 r\u00f9 q\u012bn = to invade<\/p>\n

\u717d\u52a8\u98a0\u8986\u56fd\u5bb6\u653f\u6743 sh\u0101n d\u00f2ng di\u0101n f\u00f9 gu\u00f3 ji\u0101 zh\u00e8ng qu\u00e1n = inciting subversion of state power<\/p>\n

\u7f6a\u884c zu\u00ec x\u00edng = crime<\/p>\n

\u9547\u538b zh\u00e8n y\u0101 = crackdown<\/p>\n

\u3000<\/strong>
\n\u597d\u597d\u5b66\u4e60\uff0c\u5929\u5929\u5411\u4e0a\uff01<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\u200d\u200d\u200d\u200d\u200d\u200d<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Most western social media (\u793e\u4ea4\u5a92\u4f53sh\u00e8 ji\u0101o m\u00e9i t\u01d0) in China is blocked, including Twitter (\u63a8\u7279tu\u012b t\u00e8). The Chinese government tries to control the internet, but Chinese users gain access to the blocked websites. They use circumvention tools, such as a special software called VPN (virtual private networks), to visit the websites. Most of them do…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":14659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14658","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14658"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14661,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14658\/revisions\/14661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}