Social Media in China: Another One of China’s Great Walls

By Ainur Asyiqin Bt. Zulkifeli 2009026569

China is most famous as the manufacturing capital of the world. Also famous in China for these past few years, is the censorship of the social media imposed by their government. The Chinese government have came up with their own system of censoring and blocking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube through a system in which they called, the Great Firewall and most commonly known as the Golden Shield.

But how does the Chinese communicate with each other through the Internet without the help of these social media? The Chinese government’s answer to that question is the birth of their own local social networking websites. Websites like Renren and Kaixin001 acts as their personalized version of Facebook, while Sina Weibo is used as Twitter and Youku is the main video hosting website equivalent to Youtube. Another successful social networking site is Jiepang, a Foursquare – like website which allows you to tell others your exact location. 

Other than blocking social networking websites, the Chinese government has also taken a further step in implementing heavy filter on the Internet to filter various keywords in articles such as the English word of Freedom, including those in which the government deem may bring stress to the government. As of 2010, the Chinese government have blocked up to one million articles each day.

The censorship of various social networking websites, and other resources on the Internet may be seen as a precautiounary move by the government. Many perceive the censorship by the government as a step by the government to control what the people of China would think and say about their government, not advocating democracy among its people. Jens Thraehart, the president of a China based marketing company, Dragon Trail says that the Internet is more influential in China rather than in other countries like the United States. This may be one of the few reasons why the government have imposed such abundant law.

Sources: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/15/china-censorship-social-media_n_1347297.html

http://mashable.com/2011/11/30/china-social-networking/

http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/news/international/countriesandterritories/china/internet_censorship/index.html