China Uses US Concern Over Fake News To Push For More Control Of The Internet
from the literally-any-excuse-will-do dept
All this talk of fake news and the public's apparent inability to be trusted with the task of sorting the real from the bogus has now led to China introducing even more censorship. #MakeSuppressionGreatAgainAlso.
China's ambitions to tighten up regulation of the Internet have found a second wind in old fears - terrorism and fake news.
Chinese officials and business leaders speaking at the third World Internet Conference held in Wuzhen last week called for more rigid cyber governance, pointing to the ability of militants to organize online and the spread of false news items during the recent U.S. election as signs cyberspace had become dangerous and unwieldy.
As if China needed any more shoves in the direction of a more oppressive internet experience for its citizens. Following on the heels of a new "cybersecurity" law that did little to address anything more than the security of the government's self-image, China is now using the garbage-fire-on-wheels that was the 2016 presidential election to criminalize the dissemination of whatever news the government feels is "fake."
Ren [Xialing], number two at the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), recommended using identification systems for netizens who post fake news and rumors, so they could "reward and punish" them.
In the context of this sentence, "reward" and "punish" both sound like they have the same definition. Unless the government official is hinting that those spreading fake news stories more aligned with the government's aims will be given… something for their assistance in pushing the party line.
The United States has long been looked to as a free speech ideal, something other countries can strive for in their own governance. But countries opposed to those ideals are watching much more closely, looking for anything that belies the ideals the US government claims to hold dear. So, when President Obama suggests fake news is an actual threat to democracy, countries like China are going to use this to justify further control of citizens' communications and stricter regulation of news sources -- for the "good of the nation."
Fortunately, our own government seems extremely hesitant to get into the "fake news" regulation business, but that's not going to stop other governments from cherry picking dubious claims or statements originating from the "leader of the free world" to support their censorious actions.
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Filed Under: censorship, china, fake news
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Any excuse works when you don't answer to anyone
Not to say that China or other countries using US fearmongering to further their own goals isn't a real issue, but let's be honest, this is China we're talking about, they'd use the sun rising or someone sneezing as excuses to push for more control of their citizens and/or the internet.
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Re: Any excuse works when you don't answer to anyone
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Any excuse works when you don't answer to anyone
Those that espouse such silly regimes usually end up with a civil war on their hands. Not to worry, that is a grand opportunity to enrich ones self with the "foreign aid" graciously sent by other dictatorships across the globe.
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China really hates free speech - period
Facebook has quietly built a tool to enable monitoring and suppression of posts based on location, to get back into China; Zuckerberg defended effort
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Any news I disagree with is obviously fake!
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Re: Any news I disagree with is obviously fake!
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This may be what you would like to believe but it is simply incorrect as there are plenty of fake news sites out there - are you disputing this well established fact?
Example: Breitbart is propaganda or yellow journalism and as such is not real - or fake news.
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Re: Re: Re: Any news I disagree with is obviously fake!
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Rachet
See, it's like a ratchet: it only works one direction.
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Re: Rachet
Agreed.
...and your reference couldn't be more appropriate.
Noam Chomsky - Manufacturing Consent
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Re: Rachet
Fake news exists because some humans are bullshitters and because other humans believe the bullshit without any question or attempt at verification.
I find it interesting that many who refuse to accept a "proof" about one item claiming that all such endeavor is elitist and made up lies while at the same time proudly presenting "proof" about some another item - and they do not see it.
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Control is a bigger threat to democracy than fake news. But fake news, more generally bullshit in its wider context, certainly is a threat to democracy. I see nothing controversial about that. But picking on fake news specifically doesn't even rise to the sense (which is like, none) of legislating specifically against phoning/texting while driving.
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Yeah, WMDs in Iraq was a real doozy.
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Oh, you mean *those* fake news reports.
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https://theintercept.com/2015/04/10/twelve-years-later-u-s-media-still-cant-get-iraqi-wmd-story- right/
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Not surprising
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Re: Not surprising
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'Fake News' Give me a break!
The funny part about this entire ‘fake news’ debacle is that no one cared about it until the most corrupt and criminal establishment candidate in history, Hillary Clinton, lost because of a grassroots movement to expose her connections to the unscrupulous elite.
Now, the "establishment" has seen the power of the alternative media and its ability to inject questions into the mainstream narrative — and they are acting on it by attacking so-called ‘fake news.’
While it is undeniable that people will consume and spread false news and unproven conspiracy theories, the very idea that the mainstream media is attempting to silence the fake news conspiracy theorists — with their very own fake news conspiracy theory — would be the ultimate comedic act, if it wasn’t so dangerous.
Because, as many of you might have heard, President Obama declared “fake news” — the problem that never was — a grave threat to democracy.
Now we have a war on dissenting opinion with censorship and suppression hot on its heels, and an elected leader of the so-called free world touting the most undemocratic tactic in existence, censorship of the press — by essentially saying a free press threatens democracy.
No one should be fooled by such totalitarian rhetoric — the only threat to democracy, to the leftover remnants of liberty we can still clutch, is a government attempting to control the boundaries of allowable thought.
Our dear leaders in the US have exactly the same motivations for controlling 'fake news' as do China's dear leaders; censorship of dissenting opinion.
Source/Source
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Re: 'Fake News' Give me a break!
No one cared to inform you of their concern ..
ftfy
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Whaaaaatt???
How could we ever had seen this coming???!!!!
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Re: Whaaaaatt???
I call bullshit - who?
It is the corptocracy calling for iron fist response to any resistance.
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Fakebork is the badguy here
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This whole fake news controversy seems like a hysterical attempt to invent a cause to explain how people "voted the wrong way."
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Last weeks news.
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