China has unfurled a vigorous new campaign to “clean up the internet”; to purge it of everything from pornography to “rumors” that might undermine Communist Party rule in a renewed attempt to silence grassroots voices and stifle dissent.
While censorship of the media and internet is routine in China, controls on freedom of expression online have been steadily strengthened since Xi Jinping took over as president last year. The new campaign is part of a bid to bend the Web to the will and values of the Party in order to ensure that Party official organs and not grass roots have the loudest voice on the Internet.
Central authorities hope to clamp down, clean up and suppress any so-called “harmful information” that is critical of their dictatorship. The drive to “sweep out porn, strike at rumors” will run until November according to Seeking Truth, the Party’s news portal.
Chinese-American investor and blogger Xue Manzi embodies the twin evils of moral degeneracy and dissent and the dangers of Western values, in the Party’s eyes. Xue, whose posts had one more than 12 million followers, expressed regret about causing losses to a fish farm by posting that its water contained mercury. Months of “education” and reading in a detention center has “brought him to his senses”.
Since Xi took power, journalists and bloggers have faced greater censorship and scrutiny. the crackdown also includes criticism by journalists and fiction writers. In one city in Southern China, 21 journalists were found guilty of extortion last week in what authorities called their “iron fist” response to “fake news” and negative media coverage. Journalists are routinely handed “red envelopes” stuffed with cash from the state in return for favorable coverage.
Thanks to Simon Denver of the Washington Post, and
Thanks for “listening”
Howard
The Neu Facebook
