Pros And Cons Of Sina Weibo

The Internet has been changing the world since it is created. As a part of new media, social media is a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. It has been helped to create a digital global village that 26% of the world’s population is using social media and the number is keep increasing. (Qualman, 2013) This essay will attempt to discuss how has the social media changed the public sphere, mainly focus on the improvement of public participation, social relations and information dissemination. Also Mainland China is taken as an example to show that social media enabling democracy in a developing country. Social media is also being used in good ways to spread information. There are some disadvantages to be analyzed, too. The issues like lack of privacy, social media violence and social media out of control will be discussed in this essay.

Their system of filtering and censorship is acknowledged as the most advanced and effective in the world. The Chinese internet system includes about thirty-thousand censors, as well as having web browsers, such as Google and Yahoo, censor their results.10 For an average citizen to publish their opinions without either an elite free speech patron or a willing government publishing house, the safest method is to publicize their thoughts through an internet bulletin board system run by the Chinese government.11 However, these electronic bulletin boards are required by the law to be licensed, the posts monitored constantly, and any posts which are found to be “inappropriate” are removed. Any forums that are free from government censorship are forbidden, since the Chinese authorities refuse to recognize the rights of the citizens to publish their uncensored opinions. Furthermore, if debates over political or other issues begin to take a life of their own, they are commonly silenced by Chinese authorities.12 The Chinese authorities only permit these monitored bulletin boards both for their own benefit and because they recognize that there must be outlets for the average person to express their dissatisfaction with the government.13 Allowing the citizens to speak their mind functions to lessen the political tension, by acting as a release for their discontentment. These boards also serve as an excuse to deflect criticism by other countries, who complain that people in China do not enjoy freedom of expression. Additionally, they allow government authorities to monitor the mood of their people and to find weaknesses, both in the government and in their support. Finally, the bulletin boards allow government authorities to track those who express discontent, keeping their expressions visible, so the authorities can trace these

When one uses the internet in China, the person must always understand… he or she is being watched. In China, over 100,000 government enforcers work to censor or block unwanted information from Chinese and foreign websites. Much of this information being shot down includes talk of democracy, the very opposite of the Chinese Communist Party’s ideas. Censorship of internet and media in China has been brought by its Communist government who have wanted to shield the Chinese people from undesired ideas, such as democracy, that could start a large revolt of citizens demanding government reforms. On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong founded the People’s Republic of China after he and his Communist supporters defeated the nationalists, beginning a new era for China of strict totalitarian rule. When Mao died in 1976, the country was left in ruins from Mao’s failed plans. A new leader, Deng Xiaoping, emerged and made reforms allowing open-market capitalism in the economy that changed China into a powerful country. Yet, Deng stayed with a totalitarian government that still had harsh crackdowns such as the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Massacre and today censorship law. Some may argue that it is necessary the Chinese government continue to censor foreign websites and information in order to ensure the public’s safety and trust. Although the Chinese government states that censorship is necessary to ensure citizens’ safety, it will threaten the country’s future success because it constricts

Modern Chinese immigrants decide move to the US looking for freedom and safety place to live. They feel unsafe in a society where government has the power to control everything. Most people in China do not know about the existence of Google, Facebook or YouTube. Branigan (2009) stated that China government had used Great Firewall software to block those websites for no reason. The truth is that China government does not want those American companies impact on people thoughts. Google, YouTube and Facebook provide vast information outflow and will affect people thoughts immediately. As reported by human rights organizations, there are about 400 protests that happen all over the country every day. Chau Lee -a Chinese immigrant studying at San Jose City- shared that she left China and came to America because she wants to live in a society where government protect and listen to people. “Every human being should be protected by laws and everybody committees to obey laws. Everyone is equal, no matter who you are," said

Nonetheless, the popularization of the internet enables the Chinese to get in touch with the Western values. Thus, activism for human rights has appeared online. This essay will argue how online activism has influenced Chinese understandings of human rights; formed the attitude toward the authoritarian regime; and shaped the Chinese society. Two cases are selected namely 1) Shanxi black brick kiln slave scandal; 2) Lei Yang incident. At the same time, I will illustrate how the authority response to the two incidents which are positive and negative respectively. The positive is that the social welfare has been improved, while the negative is that the government tightened the cyber control.

Lorentzen, Peter. "China's Strategic Censorship." Ebscohost.com. American Journal of Political Science, Apr. 2014. Web. Nov.-Dec.

In the article entitled “China Congress: How authorities censor your thoughts,” it evaluates how the Chinese government has high control over the thoughts and actions of their citizens. In other words, China, being the communist country they are, authorizes the control of the media and does not allow certain things to be expressed, such as “a message featuring the name of this country's ever-more-powerful leader and his sometimes-used nickname Winnie the Pooh” would not go through. This censorship does not only affect social media platforms but extends almost everywhere, from Tv programs to texting, acting and to the press. Citizens in China aren't even safe with their very own texting device, WhatsApp, as it is monitored and “reported to relevant authorities due to new regulations”.

Ai Weiwei held a campaign sought to expose the Chinese government attempt to cover up a tragedy after an Earthquake of 2008. He recorded, related information through social sites about the police actions towards him about his concern. He was beaten by police and harassed by the government for his “art” and public statements through photographs he took. Weiwei’s artwork is an example of how the economy and political system shapes the art world in ways of support, challenging and promoting them. Governments will at times suppress art and artists who challenge them, as we have seen with the Chinese government and Weiwei. Since art is a powerful medium of communication, it critiques society of political and economic institutions.

The “golden shield” is for domestic use that there are two major strategies. First, the Chinese Government employs a complex system of regulations, surveillance, and punitive action to promote self-censorship among the public. Second, the government uses technology and human monitors to physically filter unwanted content (International Debates 2010). Content-filtering is a big part of Chinese Internet surveillance. In China, routers are programmed to channel URLs through proxy servers, which look for politically sensitive words and send back an error message to the Internet user who requested the page (International Debates 2010). To prevent escaping from the content filtering, Chinese government further strengthened its surveillance by employing human monitors who are paid to regularly check the online contents and to delete any materials that are considered “politically

Michael Anti is another person has a different perspective of censorship but the anti-censorship. Anti made a TED video explains the censorship of the Chinese’s internet, and how their firewall is like the Great Wall of China protecting their people. Anti described the situation of the Chinese’s internet as the cat and mouse game. The cat is the Chinese’s internet as in the government and the mouse as the citizens using the internet (TED video). He explained that all the social websites that the United States of America have and other countries like Twitter, Facebook, etc., the Chinese have their own version. The video continues to give detail on the Chinese’s government and how it prevents citizens to access the global internet and inaccessibility

Embassy’s blogs and micro-blogs begins to address the question of how nations can best use social media. The authors examined a blog series called “My Hometown - Introduction to the U.S. Cities.” The blog posts talked about housing in the United States. The entries received some negative reaction from the audience in China. The authors said “some Chinese accused blog posters of understating the cost of living in the U.S.” (Zong & Lu, 2011, p. 546). The authors noted that the entries were made when housing prices had sharply increased in China and had “become the hottest topic among ordinary Chinese people.” (Zong & Lu, 2011, p. 546). Although the posts garnered a lot of attention, the authors declared that “attention does not equal a favorable impression.” (Zong & Lu, 2011, p. 546). I believe we could learn more from this example by asking additional questions of the embassy leaders. Did they consider the possibility that the blog audience would react critically? Did they hold any discussions about the reaction? And did those discussions guide their future blog posts in any

While speaking out against the People’s Republic of China may have its consequences, the words that someone may speak carry much more weight and meaning than many of the marches or movements in America, largely in part of it is a right in the United States to be outspoken. When a group of people speak out against their government in China, it causes waves all across the media and the country itself. When a group of people speaks out against the American government, no one cares. No one cares, because that is 75% of social media content in the United

Programs like Youtube citizens many of us have spent hours watching videos or just listening to music but In China they have a unique alternative to youtube Youku and Tudou where most of their videos are more professionally done, and so many companies use it and some consider it a platform similar to Hulu as the videos, as to facebook china has Renren which is used to Speak with peers your own age because it matches your age and graduation in consideration to allow for a meaningful connection. and the thing about the platform is that its members usually meet up for similar activities.(Social Media in China: The Same, but Different. (n.d.). Retrieved February 06, 2017, from

The 2011 uprising in Egypt was in many ways a traditional brick-and-mortar revolution, but with a cyber-twist to it: based on their statistical analysis of a large body of tweets related to the 2011 uprising in Egypt, Starbird and Palen (2012) observed that activists used Twitter as an important tool to share ideas and information with like-minded people, because Twitter allows a high number of activists interact using its retweet and other mechanisms. In this case, Twitter was used among participants and supporters of a traditional mass movement to bypass government controlled

In today’s century social media is the main way to communicate with people with people all over the world. It has become very popular... even more popular than a text or video message. Social media is a computer technology that facilitates the creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via communities and networks. The variety of social media services that are currently available can help benefit businesses, introduce an event, or even help you find a friend, family member, or long lost soulmate. Some social sites even help you find love. However, there are many positive things that can come out social media but there are many negatives too.