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China moves to block unruly bloggers
New York Times - August 27, 2011
In messages, the operators of Sina.com's Weibo microblog detailed the suspensions of the bloggers. The announcements provoked a torrent of online protest, some of which was directed at the government on the assumption that it was behind the punishments.
If so, it was the clearest expression yet of the government's growing concern about its inability to curb free expression on the Internet – particularly searing criticism of official acts – despite a sweeping and extremely sophisticated censorship regime.
On Monday, a member of the Politburo, the nine-member Communist Party committee that acts as China's collective leadership, visited Sina.com officials and said that they should "resolutely put an end to fake and misleading information."
The official, Beijing's party secretary, Liu Qi, said they should employ new technology to better manage the microbloggers, whose numbers have grown explosively in the past year.
The company's notices stated that two bloggers who had spread false rumors on Weibo would lose their right to post messages or to add followers for a month.
One stated that a blogger had been suspended after posting a false report that the accused killer of a 19-year-old woman had been set free after his politically powerful father intervened. Another notice disclosed the suspension of a blogger who accused the Red Cross Society of China of selling blood at a profit.
Some Weibo users sardonically applauded the punishments, writing that the notices of the suspensions spread the detailed rumors more effectively than the original bloggers. "I didn't know about the story till now. How tragic!" one blogger wrote.
Others expressed simple outrage. "How does Weibo know what's true or not?" one user wrote. "Who gives Weibo the right to silence its users?"
Still, one official of a Chinese Internet service, speaking on condition of anonymity about a matter of concern to authorities, predicted that the notices would have a chilling effect.
Sina.com is not the only company feeling pressure. The operator of China's other major microblog, Tencent, received a July 19 visit from another Politburo member, Zhou Yongkang, who oversees public security. In a speech to Tencent employees, Zhou called for "greater self-discipline" to ensure that the Internet promoted social harmony.
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