Winnie the Pooh ban and the troll army: how censorship works in China

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

"The Internet has been familiar to the Chinese for over twenty years, but has not yet made them freer."

Censorship of online communication in China has three key characteristics. Firstly, messages and posts containing forbidden words are blocked. Some of these words are permanently banned, such as "democracy" and "opposition". Some words are blocked only for a while, if it is necessary to muffle the discussion that has erupted around them. For example, when Xi Jinping got the opportunity to rule China for the rest of his life, if he wanted to, the phrases "my emperor" and "lifelong control" fell under the temporary restriction. On the web, you can't even say "I am protesting." And the number 1984 cannot be mentioned because the Chinese government does not want to draw parallels between life in the country and George Orwell's dystopia, in which the state watches over every citizen.

The Chinese have learned to masterfully circumvent taboos with the help of euphemisms. Often they replace one hieroglyph with one that is consonant with the forbidden, but completely different in meaning. When the Chinese verb for "to sit on the throne" was banned in connection with Xi Jinping's new powers, the Chinese began to write "take a plane", which sounds exactly the same in Chinese. Soon this turnover was also banned, which probably surprised the tourists who just wanted to share their impressions of the trip. The character for river crab also means censorship in online slang, because the spoken word sounds like

party slogan for a harmonious society.

One of the most ridiculous bans concerns the publication of the name and images of Winnie the Pooh: because of the resemblance to a bear cub, Xi Jinping was nicknamed this way on the Web.

One of the Chinese Internet memes is "cao ni ma". In 2009, this phrase began to symbolize the struggle for free speech on the web. Cao ni ma is a mythical animal, a horse made of grass and clay, which is often depicted as looking like an alpaca. If these three words are pronounced with a slightly different intonation, it turns out "… your mother." Opposition artist Ai Weiwei made a nude portrait of himself on

which covered his genitals with a plush alpaca. He called his work "A horse made of grass and clay, covering the center." The Chinese immediately deciphered the message: "Communist Party, I … your mother." Members of the Chinese government are masters at guessing these charades.

The second feature of Chinese censorship is that companies that own websites and forums are responsible for restrictions on the Internet. To moderate the content, they are forced to hire a huge number of employees: it is impossible to automate this process, since people not only use certain forbidden words and expressions, but also write messages that do not suit the authorities in tone or content. A human eye is still needed to identify such texts.

For example, mentioning Taiwan in the correct political context or as the purpose of the trip is fine. But if you talk about Taiwan as an independent state, the message will quickly disappear: China considers Taiwan to be its province.

Moderators receive training manuals from the authorities, but they themselves quickly begin to realize where the border of what is permissible lies.

Many Western experts and journalists misunderstand the meaning of Chinese censorship. How it actually works was found out by Juha Vuori and Lauri Paltemaa from the University of Turku, who analyzed lists of words prohibited from use on Weibo. These lists were obtained using crowdsourcing: users of the social network selected their messages that did not pass moderation. Of course, there is no publicly available list of these words and expressions.

Previously, it was believed that the reason for the deletion of the text was criticism of the party and its decisions, but it turned out that this is precisely what the moderators look at relatively calmly. At the same time, it turned out that almost a third of the blocked posts contained references to the party and the names of its leaders. Even the name of Xi Jinping, and not just a nickname, is often impossible to use. At first glance, the idea of a blacklisting of names seems silly, but Vuori and Paltemaa have found a logical explanation: it is a clever way to prevent the emergence of a cohesive opposition. If you can't use the leader's name, then criticism will be much more difficult to express.

Not everyone remembers that on the Chinese Internet, nudity and sex are prohibited, as well as any mention of drugs and gambling.

The party strictly observes the moral character of its citizens, the Chinese segment of the global network will be, in this sense, cleaner than the western one.

In 2017–2018, officials took gossip, obscene anecdotes and “nudity” on the Internet in earnest. For example, the Neihan Duanzi application, which specialized in obscene jokes, memes and videos, was closed, and the largest generator of celebrity gossip, the news portal Toutiao, was temporarily banned. The CCP was probably angered not only by the frivolous content, but also by the fact that the news feeds rarely contained official party propaganda. The owners of Toutiao have made their deepest apologies, promised to increase the number of censors to 10,000 and ennoble their content.

What is a censor's job, boring or exciting? Journalism professor Heikki Luostarinen of the University of Tampere describes the work of porn censors in his book The Great Leap Forward in Chinese Media. Among other things, they should know by sight all the stars of adult films and be well versed in the legislation that regulates this area.

If in the photo a woman in a bikini is walking along the beach, this is permissible, but if she is posing in the bedroom, then it is no longer.

In addition, senior moderators should know Japanese, since porn from Japan is popular in China, and understand Western art so that there is no embarrassment with rubbing the genitals of characters in famous paintings. A similar thing happened once on state television, when Michelangelo's sculpture of David was shown in a "censored" form.

The third characteristic feature of the Chinese censorship is the presence of the so-called "50 cent army", or Umaodan Literally - the Party of Five Mao. Mao is the colloquial name for a 10 fen coin. 1 yuan = 100 fen. - Approx. scientific. ed. … For a long time, it was believed that these are ordinary citizens who, at the behest of their hearts or for a small reward, direct network conversations in the right direction with their comments. In fact, they turned out to be a real troll factory.

In 2017, Gary King, Jennifer Pan and Margaret Roberts examined the leaked correspondence of the local Internet propaganda office in Jiangxi and analyzed the activities of the 50 Cent Army based on a huge amount of material. Suddenly it turned out that it consists of government officials who write their messages free of charge and in their free time. At the same time, it was noticed that posts often appear in bulk, which speaks of a centralized go-ahead. The goal of the “fighters” of this bureaucratic army is not to stop the discussion or get involved in an argument, but to shift the focus to something more positive and not allow people's dissatisfaction from words to deeds.

It is possible that on the Internet the state influences the Chinese in other ways, but there is no evidence of this yet. The discussion about the 50 Cent Army clearly shows how little we know about the work of the Chinese Communist Party, which is so used to keeping everything secret. Be that as it may, we are talking about a huge troll factory, according to the estimates of the mentioned American researchers, they publish about 450 million posts on social networks every year. The "50 cent army" can be considered part of the state propaganda machine.

Censorship and propaganda go hand in hand: some delete, while others create a new picture of reality.

Has the level of access to information in China become comparable to that in the West after the Internet appeared in the country? Yes, no one canceled the censorship, but the Chinese still got access to vast sources of new knowledge.

In the West, many believe that the Internet can bring China closer to democracy, because it is easier for like-minded people to find each other thanks to the exchange of information. But Professor Juha Vuori, with whom we communicate in his office at the University of Turku, thinks differently:

"The Internet has been familiar to the Chinese for over twenty years, but has not yet made them freer."

Moreover, he is convinced of the opposite effect: in fact, because of the Internet, the Western model is beginning to resemble the Chinese one. In China, which is ruled by the communists, the top leadership has always remained in the shadows, since there is no free press in the country and the leaders are not obliged to account to the people. At the same time, the actions and statements of ordinary citizens are recorded both at work and at home, with the help of “quarterly committees”. In the West, however, rulers have always been in the spotlight, and ordinary people have the right to privacy. The internet has changed everything: the internet giants collect so much data about us that privacy will soon turn out to be nothing more than an illusion. Social networks and applications know who we communicate with, where we are, what we write in emails, where we get information from. Credit and bonus cards keep track of our purchases. It turns out that we are moving towards an authoritarian Chinese system in which everything is known about every person.

In principle, in terms of control over the population in China, nothing has changed since the onset of the digital era: supervision was strict before that. The shield covering the power of the party was simply removed when the system began to use new tools. During the Mao campaigns, the communists sought to influence the minds of the Chinese, and everyone had to swear allegiance to the party. Now anyone is free to think what he wants, the main thing is not to rebel against the authorities. The Internet has made surveillance of protesters and instigators even easier and more effective. “The internet has broadened the minds of the Chinese people, but any activity on the web leaves a mark,” says Wuori.

The Chinese authorities can easily access social media correspondence, call lists, purchases and inquiries on the Internet. Even a personal meeting can be found out by identifying the location of two phones.

So the authorities can decide whether they should intervene in some social processes. In addition, with the help of digital traces, they can easily gather evidence if they want to, say, imprison a person for an anti-state conspiracy.

Vuori also reminds that it is easy to set a trap on the Internet - to publish prohibited content and to monitor who will fall for it. Such "pots of honey" in China have been invented for a long time - it used to be that university libraries as bait put banned books on the shelves.

The difference between Western countries and China is also in the fact that its authorities, apparently, have access to all the data of the largest Internet companies. In the West, only companies that collect it have the right to use personal information. Nevertheless, with our level of information protection, you shouldn't turn your nose up in front of the Chinese. In recent scandals, we've learned how Facebook user data leaked to those who used it to manipulate elections. What will happen to our data if the homeland of some network giant suddenly turns into an authoritarian state? What if Facebook was based in Hungary, where everything is heading in that direction? Would Hungarian authorities take advantage of data access?

And if the Chinese buy Google, will the Communist Party be able to find out all our search queries and the content of any correspondence? If necessary, most likely yes.

Wuori calls the surveillance of the Chinese the most sophisticated and comprehensive surveillance system in the world. Soon, the authorities intend to move even further in this matter: China is preparing to introduce an electronic system for identifying citizens by voice. The country is already using a face recognition system, and every year it is becoming more widespread. In the winter of 2018, special correspondent for the Finnish TV and radio company Yleisradio Jenni Matikainen wrote about the many services available through this system. Using this function, you can withdraw money from an ATM, the doors of campuses and residential complexes swing open by themselves, an automatic machine in a public toilet rewinds paper, and a cafe takes payment directly from a mobile account.

In general, it is convenient for the consumer. But this especially plays into the hands of the police, who, with the help of special glasses, find the wanted offenders in the crowd. The use of technology for monitoring citizens is virtually unlimited. In one metropolitan school, this is how they find out how interested the children look in the classroom. So far, the system is working intermittently, but the authorities intend to bring the accuracy of face recognition to 90%. The future in China will soon begin to resemble Orwell's reality - in the largest cities of the country there are no corners left without surveillance cameras. In addition, the authorities have passport photos of all residents of the country, as well as photographs of tourists taken at the border: most likely, it will soon be impossible to travel anonymously in Chinese cities.

In the near future, China plans to introduce a system of social rating of residents, which will allow you to award points for impeccable behavior and deprive benefits for misconduct. It is not yet clear by what criteria the actions of citizens will be assessed, however, social networks will definitely become one of the areas of control. It is possible that the system will turn out to be public, and then, for example, friends and life partner can be selected based on their rating. The idea is reminiscent of one of the most intimidating episodes of Netflix's Black Mirror, in which people continually rate each other through mobile apps. A person with a sufficient number of points could get housing in a prestigious area and go to parties with the same lucky ones. And with a bad rating, it was impossible even to rent a decent car.

Let's see if Chinese reality surpasses Western fiction.

Finnish journalist Marie Manninen lived in China for four years and based on personal experience and interviews with experts, she wrote a book in which she analyzed the most popular stereotypes about the Chinese people and culture of the Middle Kingdom. Is it true that the Chinese are ill-mannered? How does the One Child Policy work? Is Beijing really the dirtiest air in the world? From Mari's book you will get answers to these and many other questions.