Abstract
As the Chinese government steps up efforts to clamp down on speech, microblogs continue to be the way to get news out.
Around the world, social networking has transformed the way people communicate and share information. This has been particularly important in China, where the media landscape is vast, but the space for critical opinion has been traditionally narrow.
China’s microblogs have added a number of innovations to the basic functions of platforms like Twitter – particularly Sina Weibo, a microblog (‘weibo’) set up by the company SINA in 2009. Like Twitter, it is often the first place for news to break, and it hosts discussions about breaking news. Sina Weibo allows users to comment on any microblog entry, as they would on a normal blog post. This change was key to the exponential growth of microblogging in China, as it fit with Chinese habits of ‘piling in’ on a discussion: it’s been exciting and empowering for Chinese microbloggers to see their posts attract hundreds or thousands of comments, giving them the feeling that what they have written is being passed on, is influencing the community and may actually change things. Those posting comments are able to trade insults or cheer for their favourite microbloggers. And so a space for discussion has emerged.
That simple innovation meant Sina Weibo’s reach and impact rocketed. Without the ability to comment, microblogs would not have brought so many cases to the public eye. Charles Chao, president and chief executive of Sina Weibo, said that from the start, the company’s platform applied the ‘forward with comment’ philosophy and supported multimedia, while Twitter is unidirectional and text-only. This means that Sina Weibo is much ‘stickier’ and visitors stay on the website much longer than they might on Twitter.
For those broadcasting information, this multi-directional communication helps draw in and build connections with audiences, who can discuss matters as they occur and talk firsthand with those actually involved in the breaking story.
As Chao noted in a speech to Chinese entrepreneurs in 2011, one reason for the success of microblogging in China is that it provides an opportunity for multimedia broadcasting. China’s netizens share photos, video and music, and the country’s networks – even mobile networks – are easily able to handle multimedia content. Combining photos, videos and microblogging allows users to better express themselves. Sina Weibo also collaborated with online video sites such as Youku, Ku6 and Tudou to bring about video microblogging; Sina Weibo timeline updates feature images and video and these are often the most widely shared, demonstrating that more attention is paid to multi-media content.
In February 2010, Sina introduced music microblogging so users were able to embed music in their posts. As microblogs have become more popular, so have microblog searches, a technology that Chinese innovators are exploiting and developing all the time. These searches differ from traditional search facilities because they are conducted in real time: content can be found as soon as it is published. Traditional search engines need time to find and index new content, so the microblog search is the ideal tool for finding specific and up-to-date information. In October 2011, Sina Weibo launched a dedicated search page (s.weibo.com) allowing users to search for users, events, groups and polls and, in May 2012, it added the webpage search, providing links to sites as well as users, microblogs and groups.
Authorities have also taken notice of the popularity of these searches. Users may encounter notices that the search results they are looking for are not available for ‘legal and policy’ reasons. Sensitive keyword searches are blocked as news stories develop, such as ‘Egypt protests’, ‘Wang Lijun’, ‘Chongqing’, ‘death toll’ during any major accident or unrest in China, and ‘blind man’, ‘embassy’ and ‘consulate’ around the time the news about the detained human rights lawyer Cheng Guangcheng broke.
Chinese characters enjoy an enormous advantage in the information age and the success of microblogging in China is linked to this. Twitter limited its posts to 140 characters, as that was originally how long a text message could be. In China, a similar limit of 140 Chinese characters was applied. But 140 English letters and 140 Chinese characters are by no means the same – the Chinese version carries about three times as much information, enough space to tell the who, what, where, when and why of a news story and still have enough space for comment. This allows microblogs to be used as media in their own right for reporting and evaluation of news and, from that, public discussion is sparked.
Chinese service providers have also come up with the ‘long microblog’. This completely does away with word limits and turns microblogging into a portal to blogging and longer articles. Sina Weibo operates a strict text-filtering regime, and any post that triggers the filters will result in IP addresses, timings, locations and browsing platforms (such as mobile phone or iPad) being recorded for future reference by the authorities. Websites providing an image conversion service therefore protect users by converting the text to an image, which is then attached to a microblog entry. Currently, filters used by Sina Weibo and others are unable to read text when translated into image form, so to an extent users are kept safe and can evade censorship.
But online censorship has been stepped up over the last two years. The rise of microblogging has led to guerrilla warfare between censors and users and microblog users have suffered two major setbacks. On 16 December 2011, Beijing announced new rules for the management of microblogs, requiring users to register their real identities. Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Shenzhen followed suit.
On 18 January 2012, Wang Chen, director of the State Internet Information Office, said that real-name registration would be implemented nationwide, to prevent ‘certain irrational voices, negative opinions and harmful information spreading quickly’. In early February, China’s four largest microblog providers – Sina Weibo, Sohu, Netease and Tencent – announced they would implement real-name registration from 16 March. Existing users who did not verify their identity would be prevented from publishing or forwarding updates and would only be able to browse the site. Given the censorship already imposed on microblog providers, many observers believed the system would be used to identify and punish critics of the government and, as such, reduce users’ freedom to publish their views.
The second setback was the temporary ban on comments. On 15 March, about the same time the registration system was coming into effect, Bo Xilai was removed from his post as leader of the Communist Party in Chongqing. A tide of rumours about a coup followed. In late March, six people were detained in connection with claims the army was on the streets of Beijing; ‘rumour-spreading websites’ around the country were ‘punished according to the law’ and 16 websites were closed for ‘creating rumours and having a negative social impact’. Comments on Sina Weibo and Tencent microblogs were closed for three days, from 31 March to 3 April, in order to allow for a ‘clean-up of illegal and harmful information’. The measures were severe, but also showed that the impact of the real-name registration system had been limited. Despite the monitoring of online debate and the threat of punishment, internet users were still keen on talking about politics. This running battle between Chinese internet users and the authorities means that any topic can be used as either a reason to criticise the government or as cover for doing so.
Outcry over the sale of Diaoyu Dau territory to Japan was mocked by a shopkeeper and reported widely on Sina Weibo, September 2012
Credit: David Chang/EPA
During anti-Japanese protest and outcry over the sale of the Diaoyu Islands territory to Japan in September 2012, one elderly shopkeeper posted satirical jingles on a blackboard outside his store. Sentiments included the tongue-in-cheek comments ‘I’ve no healthcare, no welfare, but it’s Diaoyu I really want’; ‘even if the government pays no pension, they should still get Diaoyu back’; ‘No property rights, no human rights, fight on Diaoyu for sovereign rights’; and ‘can’t afford a house, can’t afford a grave, won’t give Japan an inch’. Photographs of the jingles were widely circulated on microblogs – and deleted just as quickly.
Many microblog users have found their accounts removed after directly criticising the government, though many re-register, adding ‘the 2nd’, ‘the 3rd’, and so on to their usernames, creating a group of microbloggers reincarnated, clinging to their online identities. Users have learned to react quickly, publishing comments on topics before the authorities can respond. They challenge would-be censors with intelligence, creativity, using homonyms and analogies to dodge filters and turning turgid officialese into the butt of jokes and mockery. Every official attempt to guide online debate just provides both target and ammunition for the critics.
The government’s traditional methods of controlling information have been run ragged by the internet. Monitors come up with new measures, but no sooner have they patched one hole than another appears. No matter how fast they work, they cannot change the fact that the internet has broken down their control over information. Microblogs have given internet users more room to speak – and given the monitors a new and even bigger headache.
Since July 2010, the microblogging platforms belonging to Sina, Sohu, Netease and Tencent have been required to carry ‘beta’ labels, a move that sends the warning that they could be closed at any moment. And ever since microblogging emerged in China people have worried it may be banned. But the incredible growth of microblogs – the latest figures show that Sina and Tencent have over 800 million registered users – has provided very real optimism and hope. Zhu Huaxin, head of opinion monitoring at People.com.cn, a subsidiary of Party newspaper the People’s Daily, echoed many people’s thoughts: ‘microblogs have become a fundamental part of society, like air or sunlight. It is impossible to think that one day it will be announced that we must all sit in darkened rooms. In a way, doing away with microblogs would be like imposing a military government and the rulers will not choose such a poor option.’