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Censorship and policies for countering fake news are not the same thing in China. The former is aimed at maintaining social stability and the latter is simply i

Censorship and policies for countering fake news are not the same thing in China. The former is aimed at maintaining social stability and the latter is simply identifying the fake news and informing the public of the real situation. For censorship it is the government that decides what to censor. But for the fake news, it is mainly the fact self-organized checking groups and the news media's job, and the government is not directly involved. One popular fact checking group has a name that literally translates into "rumor shredder": http://www.guokr.com/group/40/ http://www.guokr.com/group/40/ Of course those that are found to be guilty of spreading false information are punishable by law, which is handled in the court and enforced by the police. But that's an entirely different process with very different parties involved as compared to censorship. In short, censorship works at the government level and is enforced by the ISPs directly, whereas stopping fake news works at the level of self-organized groups and the case goes through the court system.

saurik 10y ago
So, "censorship" is totally something that existed before the ability of mankind to automate enforcement: the police (the enforcement arm of the government) coming to your house to shut down the printing press you set up to distribute your underground newspaper full of "illegal" information is generally considered "censorship", and if for some reason you insist on a definition that doesn't include that, I hope we can both agree that 1) China does that (whatever you prefer to call it) and 2) we don't like that they do that.
- paradite 10y ago
  Yes and yes for you. Yes and no for me. Only the ones are subjected to the "censorship" may not like it. I am pretty sure what's going on in Chinese is also happening with CIA, FBI, MI6, etc. Ordinary people won't say that they do not like them, because it does not concern their interests and whatever operations that do can be justified as national security measures or national interest. But if you, however, do not like whatever CIA, etc are doing, then of course you wouldn't like what China is doing either.

saurik 10y ago

So, "censorship" is totally something that existed before the ability of mankind to automate enforcement: the police (the enforcement arm of the government) coming to your house to shut down the printing press you set up to distribute your underground newspaper full of "illegal" information is generally considered "censorship", and if for some reason you insist on a definition that doesn't include that, I hope we can both agree that 1) China does that (whatever you prefer to call it) and 2) we don't like that they do that.

paradite 10y ago
Yes and yes for you. Yes and no for me. Only the ones are subjected to the "censorship" may not like it. I am pretty sure what's going on in Chinese is also happening with CIA, FBI, MI6, etc. Ordinary people won't say that they do not like them, because it does not concern their interests and whatever operations that do can be justified as national security measures or national interest. But if you, however, do not like whatever CIA, etc are doing, then of course you wouldn't like what China is doing either.