B5 Travel Blog #4

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Question: How do countries with Internet Censorship deal with Social Media services?

In the article "China Wants to Control Internet Even More" written by Paul Mozur, it speaks of how the Chinese Communist Party believe their internet censorship program is not enough to stabilize the country's need. Specifically, social media programs, such as WeChat, poses problems on the current blueprint. The party acknowledges flaws in their system has allowed flaws to create a low effectiveness of the censors. The purpose of the censors were to keep citizens calm as many outbreaks and conflict were formed on the internet; the censors are to help stop the spread of unneeded conflict. However, how the Party will execute a counterattack against social media services is not clear at the moment.

China deals with social media service by trying to censor them to filter conflict on the internet. The Communist Party obviously wants a controlled and safe virtual environment for the Chinese to enjoy; thus, censorship helps create this ideal to become real. While this limits freedom the Chinese have in the virtual world, it still helps controlling the population from creating and getting involved with conflict. The article states how some social media services have created an obstacle for the Communist Party in order to create a suitable plan of action as they cannot just remove one product that's being used globally. What this has told me is that China has a strict environment with many rules in order to achieve control. It also tells me that China strong believes this environment is the only way to become successful.

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/11/15/china-wants-greater-internet-control-public-opinion-guidance/

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