Page 183 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Chapter 6. The Xiamen PX plant event

company registered in Shenzhen’s Network Security Office. If there is any illegal infor-

mation on QQ, the network police will find out who is in charge of its dissemination.
Other QQ members and administrators can also report illegal or dangerous content to
the authorities. In the Xiamen PX plant case, the only consequence was that the group
leader or administrator Wu Xian was detained by the local police. The group was not
forced to shut down. From the business perspective of Tencent, QQ is merely a medium

that carries information between general netizens conveniently and efficiently.
In the Xiamen PX plant case, the government had no right to shut down QQ and
the only approach was to investigate and assign responsibility to the group leader,

which had no further influence on the functioning the group. This implies a form of in-
teraction between the government and the media market. It also confirms the objective
of the government, which is that no illegal information should be disseminated through
any application or platforms of new media.
The group leader was detained for organising an unauthorised assembly as the or-

ganisation of a parade or an assembly needs permission from the public security office.
Therefore, in this case, there is no punishment of the commercial company which pro-
vided the medium. Interviewee 2 explained that:

‘Commercial companies have the ability to balance the considerations. We are all
working to incorporate an approach that addresses commercial interest, ethical
codes for media professionals, government regulations and policies, supervision
and guidance of users’ behaviour. The relationship between internet companies
38
and government is not absolute antagonistic’ .

Mutual benefit for the government and the media company: seeking common
grounds while maintaining differences

Shao, Lu and Wu (2012) found that there were two major problems that had long

plagued civic engagement in Chinese society: civic disengagement and civic disorder.
The former refers to citizens’ indifference to public affairs, and the latter to various
forms of disturbance led by certain groups of people such as illegal parades, sit-ins,

38 Translation provided by the author.

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