BLOGS USED POLITICALLY; ACTIVE CENSORSHIP FOLLOWS

BLOGS ARE USED FOR OPEN POLITICAL DISCUSSION:

In April 2005, the Chinese public became outraged by the alleged “historical revisionism of some textbooks that whitewashed” atrocities the Japanese did in China during World War II (36).

To organize action against allowing Japan into the U.N. Security Council, China used short message services (SMS), bulletin board services, and forums; “‘Strong Nation Forum,’ which happens to be hosted by the state-run People’s Daily” is an example of one such forum. Blogs were used more for discussion and less to organize events (37).

REACTION TO POLITICAL DISCUSSION ON BLOGS: ACTIVE CENSORSHIP:

By late Spring 2005, probably due to the fear that action and discussion occurring within the blogosphere may turn against the Chinese State, bloggers and all others hosting “non-commercial websites” had until June 30, 2005 “to register their identities and domain names and obtain a registration number which must be displayed on their site” (French 2005; OpenNet Initiative 2006).

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR A BLOGS' CONTENT?

Just as hosts of bulletin board systems were responsible to monitor and censor their content, so the companies running the blog hosting services were responsible (to the government) for the content on their users’ blogs.

Therefore, commercial blog hosting companies, such as MSN spaces and Bokee (formally BlogChina) and Blogbus, a blogging service based in Shanghai, agreed to monitor and censor the blogs on their services; if the hosting companies didn’t, the understanding was that there would be fines, revocations of business licenses, and other consequences (37).

If a blog hosting service finds information that “authorities might take particular interest in,” the service is “expected to hand over user information” (37).

MacKinnon, Rebecca. “Flatter world and thicker walls? Blogs, censorship and civic discourse in China.” Public Choice 134.1 (2008): 31-46.