Party and State: WeChat

Showing posts with label WeChat. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Chinese Declare Internet Victory

If you've every wondered what your dad would sound like if he was put in charge of cleaning all the porn off the Interwebs then take a look at what Ren Xianliang had to say when his office issued forth a proclamation that the Internet is now like Disneyland, with barely a bad word to say about the CCP.

A study by an Internet opinion monitoring service under the party-owned People's Daily newspaper showed the number of posts by a sample of 100 opinion leaders declined by nearly 25 percent and were overtaken by posts from government microblog accounts.

Using his Jedi powers, Zhu Huaxin, general secretary of an Internet opinion monitoring service (such a thing does exist, apparently) weighed in, assuring us that positive energy (The Party) has regained control of the Intertubes, defeating negative powers (everyone else on planet Earth).

"The positive force on the Internet has preliminarily taken back the microphone, and the positive energy has overwhelmed the negative energy to uphold the online justice,"

The impressive statistics mean nothing, as was pointed out by a number of overseas analysts. The mere fact that people aren't stupid enough to go public with their dissenting views means that they're being unpatriotic on more secure platforms, being driven underground and ultimately radicalised. But then, the politicians in Beijing have already thought of that, right...?

China claims victory in scrubbing Internet clean

CCTV Producer Says He Was Dismissed for Questioning Coverage

Friday, August 30, 2013

Seven Baselines For a Cleaner, Safer Internet

CMP, The Chinese Media Project takes a look at the Seven Baselines (七条底线)that were proposed at the China Internet Conference earlier this month.

Evidence, if evidence were needed that Chinese officials don't actually understand the Internet, the seven principles are supposed to give internet celebs a rough idea of the way that they might create a positive influence through their posts. A meeting was held earlier this month with a group of the most influential tweeters and bloggers on the Chinese Internet, and high profile arrests of online rumor mongers were made.

The seven baselines are:

1. The Base Line of Laws and Regulations
2. The Base Line of the Socialist System
3. The Base Line of National Interests
4. The Base Line of Citizens' Legal Rights and Interests
5. The Base Line of Public Order
6. The Moral Base Line
7. The Base Line of Information Accuracy

Luckily for the good folks at Xinhua, and other esteemed Chinese news outlets, accuracy is bottom of the list.

August has seen the tightening of several Internet controls, with officials clamping down on the spread of unauthorized information on social media sites like Weibo. Last week, authorities announced plans to target WeChat users gossiping in chat rooms. With voice chat apps in the firing line, Chinese netizens can only speculate as to were the crackdown on gossiping about the political elite will end.

Despite Censorship, Chinese Social Media Blossoms

First impressions: Sina releases WeChat competitor, WeMeet

WeChat - Not Weibo - Is the Chinese Social Network to Watch

Spreading rumors on WeChat is a crime, say Chinese internet police

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Despite Censorship, Chinese Social Media Blossoms

Say It Social has an overview of the Chinese social media landscape (and why Facebook should care) noting that without the influence of major players like Twitter and Facebook, the industry has blossomed. With 564 million users of it's 1.3 billion population already online, the Chinese represent 51% of the Asian audience, spending 3 hours a day online on average.

The impressive stats continue:

This acutely attractive market is home to countless major players including Tencent’s Qzone, Tencent Weibo and Pengyou making up 56% of the country’s active social media users. A platform gaining great international reach, Sina Weibo, hosts 287 million active monthly users and more than 250,000 company pages. This is taking the international scene by storm, such that 25% of Fortune500 companies now possess a Sina Weibo page. In addition to Sina Weibo, more and more U.S. companies, such as Nike and Starbucks, are flocking to WeChat (Weixin in China), an instant messaging platform with video, photo sharing and status capabilities. Its current growth curve is appreciating on average by 25 million new members per month.

Although America may possess the title of being the ‘Golden Shoppers’ of the Internet, Asia is a source of unbelievable potential. China accounted for over $160 billion in online transactions during 2012. On top of that, 67% of China’s social media users interact with brands online averaging 8 each. As a global brand with loyal customers on an international scale, it is imperative to globalize your social footprint to maximize your customer engagement across all borders.