Why bulletin boards?
Even though blogs became much more popular, forums and bulletin boards were used more often because it is easier to “hide in the large crowd of fake user-names and cloak their anonymity more successfully” than it is to hide one’s identity on a blog.
Even though anonymity is an option on a blog, more technical skill is required to cover one’s tracks and hide from the authorities on a blog than is required in the “crowd” of a forum (36).
According to a Chinese Internet usage study performed by CASS, "by late 2005 44.8% of users surveyed used [the bulletin board system], while only 29.5% used blogs (Guo et al. 2005)” (36).
According to a Chinese Internet usage study performed by CASS, "by late 2005 44.8% of users surveyed used [the bulletin board system], while only 29.5% used blogs (Guo et al. 2005)” (36).
Censorship on bulletin boards:
Companies or academic institutions host bulletin board systems, and even though they’re supposed to monitor and censor what’s written on the boards, as long as sensitive keywords are avoided, topics that would otherwise get caught can slip through the board’s automated filtering software.
This means that politically sensitive information and opinions can get posted and left up for hours or even days before they are detected by a human monitor; the volume of postings can be so great that such sensitive information may not be instantly detected (36).
Government Crackdowns on Bulletin Boards:
This freedom is why, in 2004, the bulletin boards and forums became “the target of a government crackdown that deepened throughout 2005.”
One popular forum was known as “SMTH,” hosted at Tsinghua University (China’s equivalent of MIT); in the fall of 2004, any non-Tsinshua university students were blocked from posting.
Furthermore, anyone who wanted to post on the forum had to register their real names, which saw the end of the SMTH community, because most users were posting anonymously from outside the university. Similar crackdowns were happening on forums across Chinese universities.
How the Government Crackdowns lead to Blogging:
“Many [Bulletin Board System] users needing a new home for their online conversations turned to blogs.” Therefore, in late 2004, blog hosting companies such as Blogchina saw a drastic increase in new user registrations. (36).
MacKinnon, Rebecca. “Flatter world and thicker walls? Blogs, censorship and civic discourse in China.” Public Choice 134.1 (2008): 31-46.
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