China Tech Groups Censored Information About Coronavirus (ft.com) 60
Chinese social media platforms, including Tencent's WeChat, censored keywords related to coronavirus as early as December [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source], potentially limiting the Chinese public's ability to protect themselves from the virus. From a report: Beijing has strictly controlled access to information throughout the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 3,000 people worldwide. Research by the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, one of the first reports into information control during the outbreak, say the censorship started in the early stages of the crisis. Authorities blocked a wide range of speech -- including criticism of the central government -- in a bid to control the narrative and manage public sentiment. Public anger over the outbreak, the biggest crisis Xi Jinping has faced since becoming president, has largely been directed towards local rather than central government officials. But critics allege that Beijing's response severely hampered the effort to contain the outbreak. "The broad censorship of the coronavirus we found is significant because blocking general information during a health crisis can limit the public's ability to be informed and protect themselves," said Lotus Ruan, a researcher at Citizen Lab.
People in positions of power on Slashdot? (Score:2)
People in positions of power on Slashdot? Is that how they define "troll" now?
I really can't decide which is worse: Trolls with censorious mod points or worthless ACs on principle?
Not optimal for helping? (Score:4, Interesting)
It's not intended to be.
It's intended to:
a) Protect the Communist Party from dissent
b) Implement a system for further totalitarian control
All the infrastructure is put in place. Now all that needs to be done is change the SQL query from "WHERE coronavirus=1" to "WHERE socialcreditscore 100". Chinese citizens are already getting no answers on the "why" behind their directives to self-quarantine.
Re: Not optimal for helping? (Score:4, Funny)
What didn't they know and when didn't they know it (Score:2)
I'd give you the funny mod if I ever had a mod point to give.
This is actually another one of my "memos" about what I hope to find in the discussion. Since this is a fresh story, I'm not expecting anything yet, but I'll check back later if there are many more comments after this one...
What I want to know is WHAT information the Chinese held back. If Xi directly ordered that censorship, then that's a bad thing, but to me the big question is what they knew and didn't want anyone else to know. Then we can start
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Your comment is apparently intended as a reply to my comment. But what are you trying to say?
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Still unclear references. No reason to ask again, eh?
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president for life
Speaking of dictators, things are rather bleak in Iran, too, with many senior government officials infected. And since most of them are old and smoke...
Among the sick is a close personal aid to Supreme Poobah Khamenei.
But not to fear, the government has promised that the virus is ready to "pack its bags and move on" to more or less Virtuous places.
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That the Communist leaders did the right thing and early.
All part of Communist censorship and control in China.
Doctors getting police visits to stop them talking? Memory hole. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Not letting experts in from around the world? Memory hole.
Changes to lab staff and lab standards as wuflu spread? Memory hole.
Western tech brands helping with Communist censorship... Memory hole.
Contrast that with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan the
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"WHERE coronavirus=1"
I've seen a lot of bad SQL in my life, but few times have I seen something so awful in so few chars.
"WHERE socialcreditscore 100"
at least this part isn't awful, just broken.
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Slashdot parsed out the less-than, but thanks for entirely missing the point in your pedantry.
I've got news for you (Score:2)
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They're most likely still doing it.
Of course they are 100% still censoring as much as they can within China.
But that doesn't mean they aren't also trying to contain it. Just spin it like any government does.
I have family who work in virology,
Do they have experience with authoritarian government quarantine procedures too?
I don't think people get the choice to not report it.
If your city is under lockdown they will come round to your house and check your temperatures for you. Every time they go to a shop or place of business etc, temp check. Get back to your house, temp check
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They're using forehead temperature sensors. Outdoors. In all weather. And visibly in the photos, at the wrong distance. But that part doesn't matter, because they're highly inaccurate when used outdoors, or on people who've been sitting in cars, or in almost any other situation where you're trying to screen members of the public for temperature. It is as accurate, or maybe less accurate, than placing the back of your hand on somebody's forehead. It is possible to read a person's skin temperature that way, b
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Yeah, well... I have family who work in the World Health Organisation and they say China Number One!
They were counting a large amount of Chinese money at the time. But they assured me that the two things are completely unrelated.
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They already closed the miracle "hospital" that they built in a few days. And a bunch of the other temporary "hospitals."
What does that mean? Who knows. Could be good, could be really bad. I'm leaning towards "dark side" level bad, but censorship does that to my cynicism.
Sue Chinese government (Score:2)
So the Chinese government basically tried to cover up the virus outbreak rather than be honest and deal with it.
Opens up the possibility to sue the Chinese government in western courts for damages for anyone effected. They have plenty of assets under western control that the courts could seize to force payment...
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Yes, I am sure that would really show them who's boss. Make it for eleventy-quintillion yen- you'll bankrupt them!
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If they had announced it, say, two weeks earlier, it is certianly conceivable that there would have been enough time to ramp up testing outside of China to contain the international spread, but I think this is ultimately only a conjecture.
The fact that the international spread with no obvious connection to China started so much later than China's announcement however leads me to think that unless immediatelly after China divulged knowledge of the coronavirus, other countries had then started testing abso
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Absolutely. There is no reason to believe that it would have been possible to "contain" this flu bug, any more than any of the others that came before it.
People have a lot of trouble believing that some things, like the spread of wh
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If China had reported the severity and breadth of the disease as soon as they realised then I doubt as many foreign countries would have accepted people from China through their borders as readily as they did.
I mean there's a big difference between "some people got through the quarantine" and "we let five million people leave the area which we could have stopped but didn't because we were lying about this to save face."
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They had to keep the lid on it until Chinese New Year so the rich could flee the country.
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Again, owing to how much time had passed since the announcement until the realization that it could apparently be spread by people who did not look sick or otherwise have any noticeable symptoms, and that it would have always been infeasible to detain absolutely every arriving passenger from the area until you have tested the most suspect ones for the disease means that otherwise apparen
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They probably underestimated the severity of the disease, and wanted to avert the loss of economic output and national reputation.
Misuse of term (Score:3)
Xi Jinping has faced since becoming president
I object to dictators for life using the title "president" since that is supposed to be for chief executives in republics.
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I object to dictators for life using the title "president" since that is supposed to be for chief executives in republics.
I agree- just call them what they are: dictators (which are usually for life).
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Agreed. Something like "Maximum Leader" sounds a lot more appropriate.
The phrasing of these articles tends to, and is probably intended to, soften the harsh truth - the Chinese government is a brutal dictatorship-for-life, about halfway between communist and fascist, with a notable disregard for human suffering.
Trying to see them through the eyes of Western democracy is deluding yourself. In the time of their existence, a mere 70 years, they have intentionally killed (through action or
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Xi Jinping has faced since becoming president
I object to dictators for life using the title "president" since that is supposed to be for chief executives in republics.
I object to leaders with unchecked absolute power being called President.
All hail King Trump, long may he reign.
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Not even that. When the title was first used for the President of the United States, it didn't have the connotations of power it has now. It was used in the same way as 'President of the committee.' Not the person in charge of making decisions, but the person in charge of keeping some sense of order, breaking ties, and acting in extraordinary circumstances. It was supposed to be a humble title, for a humble public servant. Instead the position was so powerful and so prestigious that it changed the meaning o
Xi Jinping Aka Winnie the Pooh (Score:2)
Who would have thought that Winnie the Pooh would be that evil. Perhaps he had his sweet honey stolen one too many times.
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You're not wrong.
And here in 'Murica the President* conveniently has an "opposing party" to blame everything on, no matter what it is or how outlandish his claim.
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How can you say that? Anyone in the "opposing party" are clearly traitors to His Orangeness. In fact, over 1/2 of the voters in the 2016 election were traitors. They're everywhere.
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Yeah, who would want to mention China when talking about a massive virus outbreak spreading from China. Which China keeps trying to cover up. And with China brutally repressing any legitimate reporting being done on it in China. Which is where the virus came from.
No, you're right. The real issue here is orangeman bad. It's like the way I goto hospitals and shout at the doctors trying to give people their diagnosis: "SHUT UP YOU! ADDRESS THE REAL ISSUE: ORANGE MAN BAD!"
so did American tech companies (Score:2)
Point that finger (Score:1, Offtopic)
China quarantined large swathes of the population and uses data to assess individual risk. China is manufacturing masks and test kits at an unprecedented rate. What is the US doing? Yes, China fucked up in the early stages of this outbreak, but the US is not one to point the finger. What exactly is the US doing to prevent COVID-19 from becoming an outbreak in the US? Free testing, voluntary quarantine (with food and supplies delivered to homes)? No, the US is not doing shit. So keep pointing fingers elsewhe
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Given the mortality rate of coronavirus vs the common flu I wonder why this is being hyped so much ?
The panic of coronavirus is much more detrimental than the actual disease
https://www.livescience.com/ne... [livescience.com]
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Actually, the mortality rate of the coronavirus is more than 20 times that of the flu. A little more than 2% vs 0.1%.
More people die annually from the flu than have died from the coronavirus because more people *GET* the flu than have yet caught the coronavirus. You're talking multiple orders of magnitude difference here.
Now it's one thing to not be worried because you think it's unlikely you'll come into contact with someone who is carrying the disease (bearing in mind, however, that the disease ca
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High transmission rate, one to two week incubation period. Only a 1-2% mortality rate. The worry isn't about what the virus has done, the panic is over what it may do. People are planning for the worst case, the one in which millions of people die as the healthcare system collapses, though it probably won't be that bad.
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Given the mortality rate of coronavirus vs the common flu I wonder why this is being hyped so much ?
One reason was because there was a chance to stop it.
People with your attitude dropped the ball on that though.
The second is that it's much worse, just hasn't had enough time to infect as many people yet.
The third is that unlike flu there isn't a vaccine and likely won't be in time (despite what Trump keeps claiming).
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Are you *SURE* about that?
Bearing in mind that the disease can be carried and transmitted by people who do not appear or feel sick.
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Not shit. Pence is having prayer seances to pray the disease away, just like HIV.
It is comical to see the alleged administration bring in the scientists and whine about them having no vaccine when they've denigrated science for years and the orange pasty declared before the last election that he was a vaccination skeptic. And then they had the "courage" to go after the ACA as socialism when if they had properly expanded it, they'd have a better handle on corralling the new virus.
However, once this virus get
Re: Point that finger (Score:1)
Why do you completely make things up and report them as fact? Is it because you think we will believe your fantasies?
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While I'm sure Pence personally is praying furiously as his contribution, he did immediately delegate to somebody qualified as soon as he was put "in charge" of the response.
It sounds crazy, but he's the most reasonable person in executive leadership right now.
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The experts got police visits in Communist China for talking about wuflu.
Try it yourself? (Score:2)
I'm an active WeChat user. I have had no problem sending/receiving some of the keyword listed in this report. I just sent the word "coronavirus mutating" 5 minutes ago, went through.
Seriously, do you think the platform can censor words like "coronavirus" at this time?
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I'm an active WeChat user. I have had no problem sending/receiving some of the keyword listed in this report. I just sent the word "coronavirus mutating" 5 minutes ago, went through.
Seriously, do you think the platform can censor words like "coronavirus" at this time?
Send one to me and I'll check
Username: realEmperorXi
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That isn't how it works. Somebody gets a notification that you said something. They read it to see if you're being naughty.
Since you're Russian, and you're saying you used English, they probably ignored you because you didn't make any sort of clear statement.
Say more words, give them something to go on, and they'll at least spend a bunch of time trying to figure out if you have friends or family in China that they can go after. If not, maybe you have work connections they can attack. If not, they might even