5 ms·

>Peng's social media post was quickly deleted by government censors. Her social media account disappeared hours after her post. China's state media outlets have

>Peng's social media post was quickly deleted by government censors. Her social media account disappeared hours after her post. China's state media outlets have not mentioned her accusations at all. >Screenshots of Peng's original post continued to circulate widely on the Chinese internet even as censors scrambled to delete any references to her allegations within group chats and blogs, a sign of the immense public interest in her allegations. The speed with which her post was deleted also reflects the extreme sensitivity of her remarks, which come just as Communist Party leaders convene in Beijing for the Sixth Plenum, an important political meeting during which the state is on high alert for any sign of discord. Chinese internet censorship is insane. How many people work as censors?

yftsui 5y ago
Byte Dance (TikTok’s parent company) has about 10k content moderator (excluding contractors) from the 2019 reports, should be much more by now.
unityByFreedom 5y ago
Everyone was informing on everyone during the "revolutionary" days. Time will tell. Social credit + 1
bobthepanda 5y ago
The State Department estimated that tens of thousands are directly employed by the state: https://share.america.gov/chinese-censorship-is-global-problem/ https://share.america.gov/chinese-censorship-is-global-probl... There are also censors within companies since media is expected to be vigilant about it as well, so probably thousands more on top.
rabite 5y ago
> Chinese internet censorship is insane. How many people work as censors? Far less people are working as censors in China than in America. America has censored far more of its citizens than China. China is absolutely the least censorious of the major world powers. The vast majority of people do not have their Internet experiences affected by censorship at all. This is in direct contrast with America, where millions of people have been banned from Facebook and Twitter for supporting the policies that the last (and most popular of our lifetime) President was elected on.
- endymi0n 5y ago
  ^^ q.e.d. Really a lot of them, in places you wouldn't expect to.
- amloaz 5y ago
  Did Trump rape someone and have all the news about it removed from the internet? Dont get carried away by your own bullshit. The US media and social media is highly dysfunctional, partisan and polarising. But there is no dearth of Americans pointing it out. The fact that it has not led to change has more to do with how complicated making change is. Meanwhile we have seen listening to randos and talking heads ends up with the storming of the area 51.
  - bellyfullofbac 5y ago
    Amazingly he's allegedly assaulted 20 women, but society seems to be fine with it/resigned to the fact nothing will happen.
    - fallingknife 5y ago
      That's because it's almost certainly not true. If there were credible allegations do you think the rabidly anti Trump media outlets ever would have let us hear the end of it? Remember they dragged Russiagate on for 3 years until the anticlimactic Muller report finally put an end to it.
      - epakai 5y ago
        You are misconstruing the Mueller report which did no such thing. It pointed out clear examples of wrong doing and suspicious behaviour then declined a proper conclusion because of political actions within the DoJ.
        Chris2048 5y ago
        > It pointed out clear examples of wrong doing That matched the allegations?
archibaldJ 5y ago
Just recently I posted about looking for a lawyer on my WeChat (I wanted to file a lawsuit against the quarantine hotel I was in). Right after I posted it, my WeChat started to take longer to load incoming messages, and my messages took longer to be sent. (I did a test with a phone logged into another account in the same wifi environment.) This phenomenon disappeared a few days later though. I still wonder if I'm now in some watchlist or something.
- LurkingPenguin 5y ago
  In a surveillance state like China, technically everyone is on a "watchlist".
baybal2 5y ago
> Chinese internet censorship is insane. How many people work as censors? Literal armies of them https://theglobalobservatory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Mar-22-China-e1553279101138.jpg https://theglobalobservatory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/...
true_religion 5y ago
It’s not really that people work as censors, but that the government is the media. No one has to be told to take down material that is anti government, because everyone’s team lead is a communist party member and those are the obvious rules.
- mensetmanusman 5y ago
  This is not true, they have censors as you describe and those that censor all citizens who communicate digitally with anyone.
mensetmanusman 5y ago
An interesting stat I saw is that they spend, as a percentage of GDP, about as much on their internal looking police state as the US does on their military…
- stickfigure 5y ago
  Do you have a reference for this? It seems hard to believe. But if it's true, it's mind-boggling.
- dirtyid 5y ago
  No, the meme claim is PRC spends roughly the same on domestic security as military (sub 2%). Which relative to GDP is about how much US spends on policing and homeland security without considerations of special budgets. US and PRC has comparable police state expenditures, US just also spends vastly more on military.
seoulmetro 5y ago
Just reminds me of Google, Facebook, etc. censors. Lots and lots of people work on those. I'd guess it's probably a similar amount given that Facebook and Google are worldwide, Chinese sites are not.

yftsui 5y ago

Byte Dance (TikTok’s parent company) has about 10k content moderator (excluding contractors) from the 2019 reports, should be much more by now.

unityByFreedom 5y ago

Everyone was informing on everyone during the "revolutionary" days. Time will tell. Social credit + 1

bobthepanda 5y ago

The State Department estimated that tens of thousands are directly employed by the state: https://share.america.gov/chinese-censorship-is-global-problem/ https://share.america.gov/chinese-censorship-is-global-probl... There are also censors within companies since media is expected to be vigilant about it as well, so probably thousands more on top.

rabite 5y ago

> Chinese internet censorship is insane. How many people work as censors? Far less people are working as censors in China than in America. America has censored far more of its citizens than China. China is absolutely the least censorious of the major world powers. The vast majority of people do not have their Internet experiences affected by censorship at all. This is in direct contrast with America, where millions of people have been banned from Facebook and Twitter for supporting the policies that the last (and most popular of our lifetime) President was elected on.

endymi0n 5y ago
^^ q.e.d. Really a lot of them, in places you wouldn't expect to.
amloaz 5y ago
Did Trump rape someone and have all the news about it removed from the internet? Dont get carried away by your own bullshit. The US media and social media is highly dysfunctional, partisan and polarising. But there is no dearth of Americans pointing it out. The fact that it has not led to change has more to do with how complicated making change is. Meanwhile we have seen listening to randos and talking heads ends up with the storming of the area 51.
- bellyfullofbac 5y ago
  Amazingly he's allegedly assaulted 20 women, but society seems to be fine with it/resigned to the fact nothing will happen.
  - fallingknife 5y ago
    That's because it's almost certainly not true. If there were credible allegations do you think the rabidly anti Trump media outlets ever would have let us hear the end of it? Remember they dragged Russiagate on for 3 years until the anticlimactic Muller report finally put an end to it.
    - epakai 5y ago
      You are misconstruing the Mueller report which did no such thing. It pointed out clear examples of wrong doing and suspicious behaviour then declined a proper conclusion because of political actions within the DoJ.
      - Chris2048 5y ago
        > It pointed out clear examples of wrong doing That matched the allegations?

archibaldJ 5y ago

Just recently I posted about looking for a lawyer on my WeChat (I wanted to file a lawsuit against the quarantine hotel I was in). Right after I posted it, my WeChat started to take longer to load incoming messages, and my messages took longer to be sent. (I did a test with a phone logged into another account in the same wifi environment.) This phenomenon disappeared a few days later though. I still wonder if I'm now in some watchlist or something.

LurkingPenguin 5y ago
In a surveillance state like China, technically everyone is on a "watchlist".

baybal2 5y ago

> Chinese internet censorship is insane. How many people work as censors? Literal armies of them https://theglobalobservatory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Mar-22-China-e1553279101138.jpg https://theglobalobservatory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/...

true_religion 5y ago

It’s not really that people work as censors, but that the government is the media. No one has to be told to take down material that is anti government, because everyone’s team lead is a communist party member and those are the obvious rules.

mensetmanusman 5y ago
This is not true, they have censors as you describe and those that censor all citizens who communicate digitally with anyone.

mensetmanusman 5y ago

An interesting stat I saw is that they spend, as a percentage of GDP, about as much on their internal looking police state as the US does on their military…

stickfigure 5y ago
Do you have a reference for this? It seems hard to believe. But if it's true, it's mind-boggling.
dirtyid 5y ago
No, the meme claim is PRC spends roughly the same on domestic security as military (sub 2%). Which relative to GDP is about how much US spends on policing and homeland security without considerations of special budgets. US and PRC has comparable police state expenditures, US just also spends vastly more on military.

seoulmetro 5y ago

Just reminds me of Google, Facebook, etc. censors. Lots and lots of people work on those. I'd guess it's probably a similar amount given that Facebook and Google are worldwide, Chinese sites are not.