Post-Quake, China Cuts Access to Entertainment Web Sites

thefickler writes "The Chinese Government has issued orders that all entertainment web sites and regular television programming be shut down completely for the next 3 days. Only web sites covering the recent tragic 7.8 magnitude earthquake and television stations broadcasting CCTV earthquake programming will be allowed to remain live." Can anyone with Web access in China confirm this report? From an AP story on the state of communications in the country right now, it appears at least that China is (despite ongoing monitoring) allowing freer than usual communications in the wake of the quake.

Think it's a showcase?

[Mal-2 (675116)]

Do you think maybe the government feels they are doing such a great job there's no need to clamp down? From what I've seen, they are doing about as well as anyone could under the circumstances. Maybe they think that this will lead to good enough things being said (with a few bad ones for a "reality check") that they can pretend to be wide open and still come out of this looking good.

Re:

[justicezyx (1160189)]

I'm in Qingdao, Shandong Province now. I'm also watch Jackie Chan's Drunken Master clip on *youtube.com*. Actually, Chinese government issue a "3-day" mourning, like a public momorial activity that memorate the people die in this tragedy. It's vollentary, and all media is on their own way. Of course, there is mostly quake-related news, and this must be the mainstream now. As for web sites, I can access all sites that I accessed a few days ago, and everything is find. FYI, China's out-country net-acces

Re:Think it's a showcase?

[Max Littlemore (1001285)]

Do you think maybe the government feels they are doing such a great job there's no need to clamp down?

Yeah, I think it's a way to show the world that they are a lot better at handling a humanitarian crisis than totalitarian governments like Burma's junta after the cyclone or the USAs rebublicans after the hurricane. They are doing well with this and are keen to show it - as many governments on Earth would be.

Live From Beijing: Its Monday Morning.

[fotoflo (1018618)]

and everything seems normal. A search for ææ or gaming on baidu returns a thousand similar sites: http://www.baidu.com/s?wd=%D3%CE%CF%B7 [baidu.com] , all of them working. Lesson to be learned: twitter isnt a great news source, and neither are twitter-derived news sites.

I do not have sock puppets

[twatt3r (1284850)]

Help! Help! I have been a victim of unfair moderations!

As you can see from my previous posts [slashdot.org], I am generally a trolling idiot who has nothing constructive to say.

But, but! Someone moderated me to +4 Insightful! If math serves me correctly, 3 someones!

I ask you to stop this unfair moderation and return me to my target of "-1 hopeless."

Arigatou gozaimashita!

(Besides, I don't have "sock puppets." That accusation is unfair to the world's other sufferers of dissociative identity disorder, who function just fine in society.)

Re:

[Vectronic (1221470)]

So?

Not that I agree with TwITter having multiple accounts, but 'it' does make valid comments fairly often. It may simply for the purpose of modding up his trolled accounts, or maybe just genuine comments, doesnt matter "why" it just matters what was said.

Mod down his trolls, and mod up his interesting/insightful/funny comments as you see fit, as you would anyone else.

Treating it differently just creates scepticism, more problems for the modding system. If everyone was wondering if the person had other acco

Re:monitored is not free

[smilindog2000 (907665)]

I'm going to do something dangerous, and quote my wife as a well informed person. According to her, right after the quake, the Chinese government banned all reporting in the effected areas. As usual, all the press backed off and went home. Except for two reporters from two papers. These two reporters rapidly reported on the actual situation, and the other newspapers and TV stations saw these competitors getting all the viewers and readers. Nationally, news organizations then defied the government order and reported on the situation openly.

So... the government is pissed, and is punishing the media organizations by sending them home for a while. I could be wrong, but that's more or less what I heard from my wife, and like in China, it's dangerous around here to disagree with the boss :-)

Re:monitored is not free

[Christopher Neufeld (118052)]

I'm in China right now. I was here (Beijing) the day the earthquake hit. At 6:00, I was having dinner in a restaurant, and the television was tuned to the national news service. I speak Chinese, and I understand it well. It was all-earthquake, all the time. Reporters were everywhere in Sichuan (they hadn't arrived in the worst-hit areas yet, it having been less than four hours). The premier was on TV talking about sending help. There were pictures of people carrying bodies and bandaged victims on their backs, footage of destroyed buildings, everything you would expect to see in a major disaster, with no conspicuous absences. It was the exact antithesis of news suppression.

In the days following the quake, I've turned on the television a couple of times. There is a lot of earthquake coverage, but I've also seen costume dramas, soap operas, musical variety shows, fund raisers, home-shopping-network style shows, and billiards tournaments.

I proxy my internet through an SSH tunnel, so I haven't noticed any changes to website availability, but I just fired up an unproxied konqueror, and I can get to the BBC, CBC, arstechnica, and slashdot through the national firewall. If somebody wants to post URLs they think are unreachable, I can give quickly determine whether they are reachable.

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

Are you still alive now? :)

Re:monitored is not free

[schwieter (836465)]

I live in Chengdu (about 100 km from the epicenter of the initial quake), the nearest big city to the affected area, and have noticed no change in what's accessible, be they Chinese or foreign hosted sites. Information was slow to spread after the earthquake, with, according to a friend, CCTV first reporting the earthquake about 4 hours afterwards. Here, the internet (but not intranet) was down until at least 2 hours afterwards, and the radio stations were almost exclusively running one track on repeat since everyone had fled from the studios. The cell network went down too, of course, though oddly enough international calls seemed to be able to make their way in.

Re:

[Kelbear (870538)]

How would this audience know what Mandarin is.

Iron Man's arch-nemesis. ...Why?

Re:monitored is not free

[something_wicked_thi (918168)]

I couldn't resist answering your idiotic post that just asked lots of pointless, stupid questions (without a question mark no less!), that seemed to lead the reader into random circles of thought like a labyrinth with no exit.

I note with interest, over the past 6 months, the noticiable uninformed anti chinese bias of the articles on Slashdot.

Um, do you even read Slashdot? Point to one topic here that isn't covered in a biased manner.

You didn't need to dig very far to find out that China is in 3 days of mourning.

So if the government declares a day of mourning, I'm not allowed to laugh at a funny television show? That sounds completely unhealthy. I don't care what your culture is.

You guys appear intellegent but incapable of independent thought when it comes to China.

It seems that you really just don't get the cultural differences and you don't understand the inter-realtionship between responsibile reporting and control.

Ooh, this one's easy. Responsible reporting and control have nothing to do with each other. If it's controlled, it's propaganda, not reporting. Deal with it.

You flap about over freedom of the press, and yet appear to have no understanding of what that is or what it means.

Another easy one. It means the press can report whatever they like without fear of being prosecuted for it.

China is made up of 56 different ethnics groups, 800 million of which are on less than $2 a day. You want to throw into that the irresponsible, almost unaccountable, sensationalist press we have in the West?

So what? The US started off with lots of poor farmers, too. I frankly don't see how this can have anything to do with freedom of the press. Do people get docked pay every time a reporter criticizes the government?

Yeah that would really work. Reporting without responsibility great invention.

And reporting with censorship is better, how? I can think of a number of ways it's worse.

A truely free press is a dangerous thing. It allows everyone to peddle whatever truth the desire and to encourage others to believe it.

Oh, so you criticize the people on Slashdot for not thinking for themselves, then say that you need to limit the spread of opinion because people might actually believe it? Either you want people to think critically or you don't. Make up your mind.

Do you believe that any Western country allows a truely free press in that sense.

Well, no. But again, I don't see your point. Just because the west does it doesn't mean China should. If we don't have a perfect free press, then maybe China could beat us at it. As-is, though, the Western system seems quite superior.

Push a negative story a little, someone starts a rumor, and you have a blood bath on your hands.

A blood bath? Really? Where? The only blood bath I can think of is Iraq, and that wasn't the media, though you can maybe blame the media for not being critical enough. You certainly can't blame them for warmongering (well, except Fox, but that's not news).

In the UK many kinds of story are not covered here by agreement between the press and Government. There is a code of practice for journalist and editors covering what should be reported.

Well, whatever works for you. It might even make sense assuming it's a gentlemanly agreement to be civil rather than a "I'll scratch your back" thing.

The reason you have this is to try to instil some degree of responsibility into the press. Even with this totally ficticious and inflamatory stories are still run.

So it doesn't work? Go figure. Of course, you spoke of an agreement not to cover stories, not about making sure they were true, so it's an even bigger surprise that it fails to accomplish a goal it doesn't seem to have in the first

Over the top

[tsa (15680)]

I think this is a bit over the top. Many people lost relatives or friends in the quake. Some entertainment can help them get over the grief. Now they're constanty reminded of the quake by the media. That can't be good for them.

Re:Over the top

[Beijing Monster (969610)]

I think this is a bit over the top. Many people lost relatives or friends in the quake. Some entertainment can help them get over the grief. Now they're constanty reminded of the quake by the media. That can't be good for them.

I live in Beijing. Such sentiments as above sound so selfish and self-indulgent. Great shows of national mourning are not unusual, even in our own western countries (or at least they used to be). I am no apologist for China but, on this, please cut the Chinese a bit of slack. You have no idea how this tragedy has affected people in China and while three days of mourning might seem excessive it is not necessarily so here. Moreover, it helps focus the national mind on what has to be done next: no more hope for rescue, the need for rebuilding, fund raising, etc. BTW, I have so far not been affected in my access to the internet or TV, etc.

Re:Over the top

[digitalunity (19107)]

Just to put this into perspective, look at the raw unmitigated loss of life.

In the span of 1 minute, more people in China died than all the american lives lost in the "War on Terror" during the last 7 years.

Add it up and I dare anyone bashing China right now to respond saying this mourning isn't a natural and healthy response.

Re:

[Beijing Monster (969610)]

Agreed. That said, to put the GWOT example in perspective: the number of Chinese dead does not yet exceed the number of Iraqi dead since 2003 and America's war of aggression upon Iraq.

Re:Over the top

[RiotingPacifist (1228016)]

I live in Beijing. Such sentiments as above sound so selfish and self-indulgent. Great shows of national mourning are not unusual, even in our own western countries (or at least they used to be). I am no apologist for China but, on this, please cut the Chinese a bit of slack. You have no idea how this tragedy has affected people in China and while three days of mourning might seem excessive it is not necessarily so here. Moreover, it helps focus the national mind on what has to be done next: no more hope for rescue, the need for rebuilding, fund raising, etc.

BTW, I have so far not been affected in my access to the internet or TV, etc.

Mourning should be optional, it should not be used by any goverment to 'focus' a 'national mind', and distract it from other atrocities ( Read human rights, tibet, etc). The fact you even use the phrase 'national mind' just re-enfoces how well the patriot re-education act has worked.

p.s assuming your not brain-dead enough to think everything i write are western lies, stop to consider for a second how you can put a percentage correctness on philosophical writings? Mao would hate the Chinese government more than I do.

The real reason

[by Anonymous Coward]

No, it is a three days national mourning to honour victims in the earthquake. China is not only suspending entertainment websites, but also suspending everything from public entertainment to olympic torch relay and all Chinese flags will be flown at half-mast. There will also be a 3-minute silence everywhere in China at 2:28pm China time today.

Check out:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/olympics/05/18/bc.as.gen.china.earthquake.olympic.ap/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/1982617/China-earthquake-Rescue-teams-overwhelmed-by-disaster.html

China can't read slashdot

[fractalVisionz (989785)]

Can anyone with Web access in China confirm this report?

No they can't, since this is an entertainment website.

Re:China can't read slashdot

[by Anonymous Coward]

reading slashdot here in shenzhen right now.

Re:

[saitoh (589746)]

Well, see, they haven't blocked all the crap on the internet yet.

Re:

[Catskul (323619)]

Can you normally?

Recent restrictions

[grainofsand (548591)]

I live and work in Shanghai. The leading (popular) domestic websites are all still accessible but are dominated by earthquake-related news and stories, including calls for donations.

TV stations are the same, and again, programming is dominated by earthquake news.

I noticed over the weekend that craigslist.org is no longer accessible from mainland.

Re:

[beaverbrother (586749)]

The great firewall doesn't block slashdot?

Re:

[grainofsand (548591)]

I recall /. being blocked in China for a few months back in 2005, but not since then.

Filter news for young children..

[binaryspiral (784263)]

When 9/11 occured in the states, we had 24/7 coverage and news on just about every channel. Mr. Rogers came on PBS and said that these are aweful times, but please limit what small children are being exposed to - it could be very scary and detrimental.

Parents should act like a filter for the world - especially the hype and circus that is today's news reporting.

Other than that - what is the usefulness of an order like this? I would think having something for kids and adults alike to watch other than death and destruction would help.

National Days of Mourning

[Kaeso (1275972)]

I hear that they're suspending the torch relay for three days too: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/05/18/olympic-torch.html [www.cbc.ca] So since there are to be three national days of mourning, maybe cutting access to entertainment sites is also a part of this...

Coming this fall...

[Sentry21 (8183)]

It's QuakeTV! Live, unedited, uncensored footage from earthquakes all over the world! This is the quake lover's dream channel!

See earthquakes from exotic, foreign lands like Peru and Canada on our premiere programming, QuakeWatch! Or, tune in Thursday nights for a special episode of Classic Quakes, featuring a different home-grown American quake every week!

Tune in for the best documentaries about earthquakes, the latest quake news and reviews, and more! QuakeTV is the only channel a quake-watcher will ever

Fascism idiocy

[unity100 (970058)]

thats the way with fascism. they move on perceived necessities. not realities. cutting access to entertainment RIGHT at the time when their country totally needs it. only happens in fascist governments.

someone would have listened to a song from a website that someone s/he lost liked very much, and remember, and find some solace in good remembrance or similar.

but no. not happening with cold war derelict dinosaurs and a fascist party at the government.

Re:

[arthdo (1291694)]

You got it wrong. It's the cutural differences hat shocked you. In Chinese culture, "mourning" is a serious process that few people would even think of seeking "entertainment". It is to show the deep respect for the dead and the families that are suffering. The government is simply suggesting to stop recreational activities during national days of mourning. Internet is certainly not being cracked down ...

Re:

[Moridineas (213502)]

First posts huh? A shill for the Chinese government? I didn't realize they were so desperate...

Anywhere, your attempted argument is nonsense, it's got nothing to do with "culture shock." You actually defeat your own argument--if "few people" would even think of seeking entertainment now, why does the Communist Party have to crack down? That doesn't make any sense, you need to consider motives when actions don't make sense based on your assumptions. Mourning is good and solidarity is good. Is enforced mourni

Re:

[unity100 (970058)]

what does 'entertainment' word mean in china if not songs.

"National Mourning Days" they say

[prof.nemo (1291686)]

I am in Hong Kong, all I heard from the the official news from mainland is that there will be 3 days of "mourning for the victims of earthquake". All entertainment facilities (casino, clubs etc.) in mainland are supposedly to be closed for these 3 days, and all mainland citizens are supposed to dress "less colorfully" as well. Didn't realize that includes entertainment websites though. Of course over here in Hong Kong we find it a bit strange and obviously the local government won't follow suit. Most Hong Kong locals don't understand the logic too, but maybe it's kind of cultural difference thing again.

I'm in China

[sjb2016 (514986)]

I'm in China, have been for a few years. I can confirm that there doesn't seem to be much shutting down of websites. I can still go to the websites I normally go to view the latest episodes of Lost (hosted inside China, they stream rather well). As far as television, last night (Sunday night Shanghai time) I was watching the only not completely state run English station. The content was complete shit, but not earthquake related. I don't watch Chinese language stuff as it is shit propaganda or shit period soap operas or a cheap knock of "The Price is Right". Can still access all the websites I normally do, except for wikipedia, which is always hit or miss. Will keep things updated as I can.

China is opening

[religious freak (1005821)]

China is opening, and I think it's apparent by the way they are covering the quake. No, they will not be a fully functioning democracy tomorrow, but this coverage of the quake is big news.

To the Chinese natural disasters were, in the past, covered up and silenced. They are embracing not only independent local coverage, but independent FOREIGN coverage as well (foreign access is truly amazing).

I think despite some obvious failings even today, China is truly moving forward into a more open society. Give credit where credit is due...

-------
-1 nonconforming opinion

Is just a test for Olympic web access control and

[Joe The Dragon (967727)]

Is just a test for Olympic web access control and to move off the Tibet issues

Its regional

[Demonicat (1291710)]

Before I launch into opinion, let me first state the facts jack. China's Internet censorship (the great firewall part of golden shield) is regionally based. Similar to the US radio having locality based censorship. In February for example, the university I teach at(Inner Mongolia Uni of Tech/science), could not access wikipedia- but could access flickr. In Beijing, it was the opposite- its locality based and gladder for firefox kills it anyway. That said, I still have full internet. Yesterday the DNS kept crashing out, but internet is rolling along fine and dandy...or as close as we get here at 100kbs on a pppoe. All sites are behaving normally. Now opinion. While I am a firm believer and activist for Freedom of Information, in this case I believe shutting down a bit of commuications may be needed. Many people in China are a bit on edge currently, with the olympics, the protests, the whole t1b3t thing- and the earthquake moved them right to the edge. Rumours are circulating around the country here about radiation dangers, the government not acting, the goverment causing the earthquake like some kind of James Bond Villian...lots of BS. The end result of this is that people are too panicked and nervous to help out with reconstruction or aiding survivors- not good. The limiting of information until the area is secure and survivors helped is very important at this time.

Most Chinese TV down in Shanghai

[Mr Europe (657225)]

This morgning here in Shanghai I noticed that the hotel TV did send western channels such as CNN but almost all Chinese channels were down. Abt three channels showed quake clearings. Somewhat leaned towards showing heroic soldiers in clean suit saving people. And the president himself directing the work. But at least this time the TV has shown a lot of quake damages.
Death toll now 33000 verified. Will rise above 40000 since now 9500 verified to be beried under rubble. 220000 injured.

Disgusted

[ChameleonDave (1041178)]

The sort of reactionary and racist anti-Chinese attitudes that are commonplace on Slashdot really sicken me.

A short period of mourning is declared, with very little enforcement, and all you want to do is seize the opportunity to make it look like censorship, in particular censorship of the disaster. It is the exact opposite. Frivolous entertainment is being scaled down a bit for a mere three days, and the TV networks are saturating the public with quake information. Never has the Chinese government been more open. With previous tragedies we saw secrecy and a desire to save face, but this regime is clearly much more modern. The contrast with the terrible Burmese regime is very clear.

I don't actually agree with the declaration of mourning, and I wish that this government could be replaced with one truly chosen by the people, but this doesn't mean that the non-stop stream of slurs and vilification is OK.

In particular, I find the concept of a period of mourning to be much less offensive than Bush's 16 Sept official day of prayer for hurricane Katrina. Separation of church and state, please!

Closure of Channel BT.

[scum-e-bag (211846)]

Translation: close all torrent sites.

All non essentials, ie p2p, will be shut down. All resources are to go into humanitarian relief.

Be prepared to wait a while for your latest episodes via Channel BT.

I'm really starting to hate China.

This is no reason to hate China... What did the rest of the US do when Cyclone Katrina hit? Oh, thats right, they sat on their bums and continued to watch Channel BT as they didn't want to know about their fellow citizens people drowning.

Re:Closure of Channel BT.

[SanityInAnarchy (655584)]

This is no reason to hate China... What did the rest of the US do when Cyclone Katrina hit?

Whatever they wanted, which is the point.

didn't want to know about their fellow citizens people drowning.

Some did, some didn't. Why is it alright for the government to force everyone to know about it?

Re:Closure of Channel BT.

[TubeSteak (669689)]

Some did, some didn't. Why is it alright for the government to force everyone to know about it?

Because the Chinese Government can

Because it's a national disaster and the Chinese Government will eventually use it for propaganda purposes. Something along the lines of 'there was a tragedy, we rebuilt, see how awesome the Communist Government & Chinese people are'.

I expect some people will take exception to this, but you hear the exact same type of language surrounding the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The Chinese are already flying banners saying "fight the earthquake" [google.com].

Re:Whats the point?

[cyfer2000 (548592)]

I hope you understand what "national mourning" means and at least understand what the title means.

Re:

[Gavagai80 (1275204)]

Because people thousands of miles away are really likely to come help if you take away their TV?

Re:Whats the point?

[clragon (923326)]

What the hell is it supposed to do?

I would think that after a tragedy, it would better to OPEN the internet as much as possible.

I think this is part of the 3 days of mourning [google.com] going on in China right now, to raise even more awareness of the quake.

Also, sites regarding the earthquake will stay up. So the websites created by people to track missing relatives, or to gather donations, will stay online. Was this absolutely necessary? probably not. But I don't think this move will hinder the rescue effort at all, but rather raise more awareness of it since earthquake related info is all the Chinese people will get in the next 3 days.

Re:Whats the point?

[by Anonymous Coward]

What the hell is it supposed to do?

I would think that after a tragedy, it would better to OPEN the internet as much as possible.

I'm really starting to hate China.

-Red

But China has been more open and receptive about this than they ever have. Look at their history.

If you want to see real government relief effort problems, look at Burma. China pales by comparison.

Re:Whats the point?

[sydneyfong (410107)]

Well, let's presume your view of "they are trying to exploit this for nation building" is valid (which I don't agree).

Then, by US standards, China is doing just fine. The USA used 911 for nation building, fueled the fear of terrorists, and made Americans approve two invasions, one of which is viewed as a stupid war everywhere around the world.

You saw a bit more free speech in China after the quake. You saw less free speech in USA after 911.

So, what standards are you proposing to hold China to?

Re:

[ShieldW0lf (601553)]

I'm really starting to like China

Re:Whats the point?

[name*censored* (884880)]

It's possible that America isn't the only place with a Ted Stevens in high places, claiming that the information regarding relief effort and coordination "got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially.". From there, it's a short logical (logic? hah!) bound to say that cutting off all unrelated content will speed the recovery effort up (although there might be a grain of truth to this thought, if you could prove that Chinese pirates are taxing the infrastructure to the limit, which I highly doubt).

Re:

[grainofsand (548591)]

youtube.com is currently accessible in both Shanghai and Beijing. The previous blocking of uk.youtube.com has also been lifted in the last few days.