Self-Censoring 'Chinese Wikipedia' Launched 429
Billosaur writes "New Scientist is reporting that Baidu, China's largest search engine, is launching its own version of Wikipedia. The site, Baidupedia, differs from the more well-known Wikipedia in that it is self-censoring." From the article: "Unlike Wikipedia, which allows anyone to create and modify entries, Baidupedia is censored by the company to avoid offending the Chinese government. Entries to the encyclopaedia must first pass a filtering system before being added to the site. Baidupedia bars users from including any 'malicious evaluation of the current national system', any 'attack on government institutions', and prevents the 'promotion of a dispirited or negative view of life'."
Orlowski would love this (Score:5, Interesting)
I guess this post is kinda flamebaity, but well...
Re:I Love Articles Like This (Score:4, Interesting)
It's the wall for you. Smile. Your children will be with you. Only one of them will have a real bullet.
KFG
Re:I Love Articles Like This (Score:5, Interesting)
That it's not okay to speak out against the values of the culture you are in?
Somebody mod this guy down!!!
Er... wait...
Re:evil (Score:2, Interesting)
Seriously, you can't honestly believe that the reason that this is being censored is in no way related to China's policy regarding information dissemination? Granted the company is choosing to go along with it, a morally repugnant stance IMHO, but the Chinese government IS responsible.
Re:In communist china... (Score:5, Interesting)
-Rick
Didn't hackers solve this years ago? (Score:3, Interesting)
Side note: This brings up an interesting discussion a chineese friend and I had the other day.
There are some things in America that simply won't work in China. One, he claims, is all you can eat restaraunts. People will just move in until you kick them out. When they have a salad bar, people will build 3 foot high salads (Search for it on Flicker--it's a pretty amazing sight to behold).
This also came up when we were discussing selling a house. He was wondering why we clean the house when we leave. We don't have to clean the carpets or drapes, but you just do--often spending quite a bit of money that we don't have to.
Apparently there are many other examples, all coming down to, he claims and I paraphrase: Chineese people are much less likely to look out for the "Common Good" unless forced to by law.
With this concept in mind, I kind of wonder if open source concepts (including the contents of the wikipedia) will work in China, or will it all be like our whitehouse/wallmart where everyone is only adding entries when it helps themselves personally.
ps: I wouldn't even consider that this might be a racial issue, it's obviously cultural (if it existis at all--if not please correct me!)
Cultural Relativism, Universal Declaration of Huma (Score:5, Interesting)
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights [wikipedia.org] is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, outlining the organization's view on the human rights guaranteed to all people. Chief amount these rights are:
* The right to life, liberty and security of person.
* The right to an education.
* The right to participate fully in cultural life.
* Freedom from torture or cruel, inhumane treatment or punishment.
* Freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
* Freedom of expression and opinion.
It is interesting to note that China, being a permanent Security Council [wikipedia.org], should feel obliged to follow these declarations, but does not.
Re:The beginning of the "Wiki Wars" (Score:2, Interesting)
You aren't a troll... (Score:2, Interesting)
We do have to recognize that in spite of the fact that there have been a tremendous number of governments that have arisen which claim to have primary roots in Marxism, there has never been a single one of these governments which has not become horribly oppressive. It really tends to suggest that Marxism is not a valid model for creating utopia.
But beyond all that, it is clearly obvious that any government that either declares itself to have total power over it's subjects such as the old Soviet Union or China, or governments which have held democratic elections to give themselves total control over their citizens, such as Nazi Germany, will always devolve into oppresssion. It isn't the roots of the totalitarian government, it's the totalitarian government itself.
And Marxism does require a totalitarian government to be established. Even Marx accepted that.
Re:Didn't hackers solve this years ago? (Score:5, Interesting)
This isn't to suggest that in China there isn't a value for the public good. Quite the contrary. Just a few years ago if you went to the Temple of Heaven the big steps that lead into the temple weren't fenced off at all. Specifically, there is a huge relief carving that goes up through the center of the stairs, and people had enough respect and common sense not to abuse that privelege by walking on it, or vandalizing it. All through Beijing there are landmarks that weren't protected at all from the people, because they didn't need to be. Of course, a lot of this has changed recently, and in the past few years some of these things have started to be fenced off.
On the Linux note, her parents view Linux with a kind of mild amusement. They find it somewhat humorous that people would spend so much time and effort to write free software, and think I'm kind of crazy for choosing a career with Linux.
Vietnamese Wikipedia (Score:3, Interesting)
censorship can cut down on spam (Score:5, Interesting)
mostly, the portscan and connect attempts (break-ins) are from
I'm perfectly happy to ban all of
but how about this for a pro-active idea? put photos of tienenmen sq. (the REAL photos - you know what I mean) on your home page. that, alone, should get your IP blocked by the chinese gov.
end result: you've just installed a spamblock closer to the source than you could ever accomplish without their 'help'.
I think I'm going to try this. (what is there to lose?)
Ah, but the reason is simple... (Score:3, Interesting)
China is a 1,300,000,000-strong giant with immense military capability. Now, I would have gladly fought for an actual, worthy ideal, say, liberating China from an oppressive government; however, those that lead my government are not so eager to take on someone their own size, or bigger. Suddenly, logic and reasoning re-enter the equation when confronted with an adversary so behemoth, the logic and reasoning that say war is actually supposed to be a last resort, and diplomacy is a much better idea.
Shades of Radio Moscow (Score:3, Interesting)
So, China now manufacture pretty much everything we buy or own due to outsourcing.
Has anybody else noticed what's happening? Where are we heading?
"The protests of 1989 resulted in the killing of Chinese protestors in the streets to the west of the square and adjacent areas. Some sources (Graham Earnshaw and Columbia Journal Review) claim that none died on the square itself. Opponents of the Chinese democracy movement object to the Western Media's labelling of the Tiananmen Massacre, the event known to the Chinese simply as the June Fourth or June Fourth movement, and June Fourth Incident. However, Chinese expatriates that escaped the tyranny after the killing said that the numbers ended up being in the thousands. This was a combination of the hundreds killed on the spot and the miniature purge that followed. These stories are confirmed by intelligence in the country as well. [edit]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianamen_square [wikipedia.org]
Re:evil (Score:3, Interesting)
Isn't that analogous to saying jumping is not too terribly different from flying because your feet are off the ground in both cases? My guess is that you know much more about the FCC than I do, but for example it doesn't keep media from criticizing the government. In general, it can't keep the media from discussing any particular idea, although I suppose it can limit the way that the media can discuss the idea (for example, by not allowing curse words in the discussion.) This seems to me quite different what what is discussed in this article.
Re:Cultural bias and other stuff (Score:2, Interesting)
B: To keep the vampires away.
A: But there are no vampires...
B: Then it must be working!
The vast majority of 'normal' Chinese I know (not politically active) have no idea how much control there is.
When I mention a couple of things, they put it down to the Western conspiracy they were taught about in school - and ask the question, "How do you know that isn't your propoganda speaking".
Re:It's not censorship, it's distortion of truth. (Score:3, Interesting)