Page 62 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Feasibility Study of New Media Technology
on Constructing Online Public Sphere

traditional methods of information control inoperable in the online environ-

ment. For example, forcing a publisher or programme producer to self-censor
content is less effective on the internet.
A number of researchers have explored the current situation of internet control in
China. An empirical study led by the Open Net Initiative showed that ‘China’s inter-
net filtering regime is the most sophisticated effort of its kind in the world’ (Bambauer

et al., 2005, p.3). King, Pan, and Roberts (2013) found that each website is secretly
supplied with up to 1,000 censors who abide by the government’s rules, and around
20,000 – 50,000 internet police and monitors are engaged in the huge effort of internet

surveillance, plus numerous ‘50 cent party members’ to direct the information flow or
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disseminate government-oriented information (Chen and Peng, 2011).
King, Pan, and Roberts (2013, p.328) found that expressions are censored on Chi-
nese social media in at least three ways:
• The Great Firewall of China. This disables the connection to certain websites

from China, foreign sites in particular. It is an obvious problem for foreign
internet firms, and for Chinese users who wish to interact with the outside
world through these services. However, it does little to limit access to foreign

information and the expressive power of Chinese netizens as people can use
VPNs (virtual private networks) to cross the Firewall or find other sites to ex-
press themselves in similar ways.
• Automated keyword blocking prevents netizens from publishing text that
contains a banned word or phrase, thus limiting freedom of speech. However,

a range of countermeasures have been developed to outwit the automated pro-
grams. Analogies, metaphors, satire and other evasions are used to avoid the
blocking.

• Manual censoring is a complementary mechanism to the first two barriers.
Once information has passed the Firewall and automated blocking and been

8 The term ‘50 cent party members’ (wumao dang) refers a large-scale censoring and information guiding
mechanism. It is a group of people who are supposedly paid 50 Chinese cents for every praising post on
government and party-related topics, quickly criticising or removing content on politically-sensitive issues
such as corruption and negative acts of government officials (Hassid, 2012).

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