Between 50,000 and 75,000 Chinese Internet censors work in the economy, Harvard researchers estimate.
A Harvard professor has created a social network in China to study the internet censorship from close to. He has discovered a highly competitive market for censorship tools.
nine years ago that Mark Zuckerberg his studies at Harvard University broke to build Facebook. These days will now start out a new social network from the Harvard campus – but its founder, the political science professor Gary King will not enter into Zuckerberg’s footsteps and make charcoal. The scale on Chinese network will serve as a research tool for the Chinese Internet censorship. URL under which the power is to reach King reveals why not – also to protect people who are involved in the project
Kings social media lab is significantly different from previous studies.. The persecuted existing social networks and recorded, which status messages had removed the censors. There were also some rare interviews with people who are actively involved in the censorship and were willing to give information.
King, however, the network is operated by a large Chinese provider, can now pursue the censorship at close . Especially curious: The customer service of the provider advises it also helps to use the censorship tools properly. “We just have to call him,” King says, “He is getting paid to help us.” With his own service and investigations established networks King has revealed that the Chinese censorship much more on automatic filters based than previously thought. Messages from users are blocked before ever the eyes of managers can take a look. Particularly piquant. In China, a vibrant, highly capitalist market for censorship tools has been createdThe software about who shopped the Harvard researchers at King turned out to be an amazingly complex program. And the manufacturers supported the researchers forces to bring the software up and running optimally. “The options were really amazing,” says King.
So it is not only possible, retaining messages using certain words for an editorial sighting. You may also be treated differently depending on the length, after the publication in the network or on their importance in a discussion. Selected users can be more censored by their IP address than others, but also as a function of when they have published something the last time or what is their reputation in the community. this, the manufacturer offered various plug-ins for censorship software that refine the filters. Discussions with the customer service also gave an indication of how many censors the middle kingdom really busy. The firm advised King to schedule two to three censors per 50,000 users. Converting them to all social networks operating in China is high, a number of 50,000 to 75,000 censors results in the Internet economy. In a parallel experiment Kings Group hired several dozen people in 1200 to 100 different messages should publish networks. The researchers wanted to find out what is censored. Result: 60 percent of the messages were transmitted by the censorship tools. Of the individuals detained some appeared with one or two days late, others never. Using identical messages in different networks, the Harvard researchers that different censorship tools could also observe are used. China has created a highly competitive market for censorship, Kings is knowledge. What tools constituted the operators, they remain essentially up to you. You need only ensure that certain statements are reliably prevented. The better the operator can do that, the better for their profits, because they get no additional requirements. Jason Ng of the University of Toronto who studies censorship in China, Kings keeps working ! for a milestone. “The authorities seem to have realized that the government is the most suitable censor is not,” said the political scientist. “When private companies take over these tasks, which is good not only for innovation but also for the use of resources.” However, hanging over the market censorship resistant the Damocles sword of state sanctions, says Ng. After the scandal surrounding the politician Bo Xilai last year were two Twitter-like services, Tencent and Sina Weibo, set by the authorities for three days. Some minor services closed completely. “A report by the Chinese news agency Xinhua stated that the company had not done their job properly,” says Ng. While working Kings have confirmed that Internet censorship in China is not uniformly proceeds, but it is but targeted, as they had previously thought, says Ng. It should come out about that the Censors not so much suppress criticism of the government, but many more are behind her utterances in which it comes to collective action. The ceiling with the political observers that it’ll definitely located the Beijing government, if people can vent their anger. “When people write about corrupt officials, the government can use this information,” says Ng. The fact that the research results of King persuade China to change course, the political scientist considers unlikely. But they could contribute to the controls on online statements are loosened. “They will have an impact on the deliberations of the powerful, as they balance the public good and free expression,” Ng expected. <- AUTHOR MARKER DATA BEGIN -> ( Tom Simonite ) / <- RSPEAK_STOP -> (nbo)
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