5 ms·
Why China Silenced a Clickbait Queen in Its Battle for Information Control
- threatofrain 8y ago> But late last month, Ma Ling, a blogger who commanded an audience of more than 16 million people, went conspicuously silent. > In the battle for control of the Chinese internet, the authorities had designated Ms. Ma a threat to social stability, pointing to an article she published about a young man with cancer whose talent and virtue were not enough to overcome problems like corruption and inequality.
- throwaway8864e 8y ago> Soon, however, internet users pointed to factual errors and said the piece had been invented. > Ms. Ma had to apologize.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- nutcracker46 8y agoNote that there was no redress or due process before the accounts were deleted. All of you who love the efficiency of authoritarian government, enjoy your world without Western liberties or justice. Media queens today, you tomorrow.
- fancyfantasy 8y agoThen explain, my friend, why it says """Western""" in your stupid comment... see how it doesnt sound so good what I write in the next paragraph: "all of you who love the degenerate liberality of alowing, In the social nets, the free wild old west of people Enslaving minds, brainwashing others for a little scam profit or for who knows what for, creating misconception and misleading people into all kinds of things" in my humble opinion... free speech is good, like freedom is good... So why you dont talk about problems of privacy on internet in the western countries... in my opinion... thanks...
- taobility 8y agoSo enjoy your great western liberties and chaos.
- nate_meurer 8y agoThanks, I do. I value the ability to criticize my government whenever and wherever I please, with no fear of reprisal whatsoever. I value the ability to rip on large corporations and the powerful people who run them. I can express my opinions, insult powerful people, and question the authority of the state using whatever language I please. These are things that would get me killed or put in prison in many countries, including China. I suspect that you value these freedoms too, even if you're not fully aware of it.
- drharby 8y agoI'm sorry, i missed the memo where westerners began to champion authoritarian efficiency. My desire to know my intensifies
- dang 8y agoPlease don't take HN threads into ideological flamewars. They're all predictable, therefore boring, therefore off topic here. Edit: we've had to warn you about this before already. Continuing to do it will eventually get your account banned, so please don't! https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- woodandsteel 8y agoI feel sorry for the Chinese people. Xi Jinping wants to suppress all discourse doesn't praise him and the government's policies. That might have worked in ancient China, but it simply doesn't work in the modern industrial era. Society is too complicated and so you need free discourse to find out what is going on and discuss policy alternatives. Xi's policies may work for a while, but in the long term they are going to make things more and more dysfunctional.
- naniwaduni 8y agoAncient China does have a pretty interesting interpretation of its occasional revolutions...
- woodandsteel 8y agoQuite true. Confucianism was a remarkably successful political philosophy, and it even included a positive place for revolutions. The problem with Confucianism today is that it was designed for an earlier technological era.
- zachguo 8y agoIs there any discussion on HN about how to handle these kinds of for-profit fake news factories? Edit: I found one here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16774129 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16774129
- tgragnato 8y agoPlease don't do this: criticism and false information are different things. > But the government did not relent. People’s Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party, accused Ms. Ma of manipulating public opinion. Her social accounts were deleted on Feb. 21. The overlapping of the concepts of misinformation and false news are already quite worrying without censorship being confused with "policing the internet".
- chillacy 8y agoCan you elaborate? This seems like a fake news operation: you make up a story and people share it because it resonates with some truism they believe in. > The article was widely circulated online and prompted debate about China’s wealth gap, surging medical costs and the value of education — common complaints of China’s middle class. Soon, however, internet users pointed to factual errors and said the piece had been invented. I remember awhile ago someone got criticized for doing the same thing, getting people riled up over some fake immigrant violence or something.
- tgragnato 8y agosee answer to the OP
- zachguo 8y agoThe government is definitely suppressive and has zero tolerance on 'rumors'. https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/09/06/chinas-lessons-for-fighting-fake-news/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/09/06/chinas-lessons-for-figh... But this particular shop definitely falls into the category of fake news factory. Sensational stories with clickbait titles are invented to drive up viewership.