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China The Internet

China To Cleanse Online Content That 'Bad-Mouths' Its Economy (bloomberg.com) 79

China kicked off a two-month campaign to crack down on commercial platforms and social media accounts that post finance-related information that's deemed harmful to its economy. From a report: The initiative will focus on rectifying violations including those that "maliciously" bad-mouth China's financial markets and falsely interpret domestic policies and economic data, the Cyberspace Administration of China said in a statement late Friday. Those who republish foreign media reports or commentaries that falsely interpret domestic financial topics "without taking a stance or making a judgment" will also be targeted, it added. The move is aimed at cultivating a "benign" online environment for public opinion that can facilitate "sustainable and healthy development" of China's economy and its society, according to the statement. It followed a draft proposal issued earlier Friday by the cyberspace regulator to regulate algorithms that technology firms use to recommend videos and other content. Commercial websites and platforms will be ordered to clean up financial information posts and shut accounts deemed in violation, under the supervision of authorities including the cyberspace administrator, the finance ministry, central bank as well as securities, banking and insurance regulators.
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China To Cleanse Online Content That 'Bad-Mouths' Its Economy

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  • This just keeps getting better.

    But no, they're just speaking out against the evil oppressor that is the entire West, right?

    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by alvinrod ( 889928 )
      Nah, they're just combating misinformation online. Just like some want to do here in the U.S.
    • I'm surprised that in such a populous country, with so many citizens that have PhDs from foreign schools, that they don't educated persons in the loop on these sorts of policy decisions.

      If their own people perceive or simply believe that their government has outlawed or persecutes speech that is critical of their economy... those same people will no longer believe any positive statements about the economy! It sucks the business value out of economic discussion.

      • You're reading it wrong. People who like dictators always assume, due to their position, that they'll be the ones mostly dictating. They never imagine that hammer will come down on them.
        • You didn't catch my point. At all.

          Assuming that somebody loves the dictator, if they're educated in business they should recognize that nobody trusts positive statements if they think positive statements are required. You can no longer create trust through words.

          There is no "hammer" in this particular story, it is about passive censorship.

  • I bet Powell & Yellen would love the same thing here.
  • by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Monday August 30, 2021 @12:38PM (#61745337) Journal
    The tighter you squeeze, the more slips through your fingers.
    • by DarkOx ( 621550 ) on Monday August 30, 2021 @12:50PM (#61745381) Journal

      I am starting to wonder if that might be a very 20th century view point. In the panopticon of the 21st century here its looking increasing like you can in fact just keep squeezing.

      • I think its a very 21st century viewpoint to get your philosophy from a space western movie.

      • If a healthy economy only requires warm bodies, sure. No country has ever succeeded at the economic side of that, even when succeeding at the political side.

        It is clear that as long as they can keep the trains running they can prevent political dissent. But that was true in the Soviet Union, too, using a human panopticon. But the economics rotted in the hiding of blame. People were left without anybody else to blame, and knew they would personally take any blame, regardless of whose fault they thought it re

    • by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      Indeed. It's calling reverse "wolf". If you tell everybody everything is wonderful when they see it's not, they'll stop believing you after a while, magnifying the power of rumors and conspiracies, eventually leading to mass riots.

      I'm sure Xi and co think they are good stewards of news, but without scrutiny and political competition, their bad habits and bias will self magnify over time. Egos left unchecked grow like weeds.

      • eventually leading to mass riots.

        Or even just, leading to cynical economic behavior, and a willingness to passive-aggressively watch things fail and then throw up your hands, "There was nothing I could do to stop it!"

        • by Tablizer ( 95088 )

          Chinese workers are already passive aggressive. They've been beat down by authoritarianism. However, they will burst and riot if pushed far enough, as history shows.

          • Maybe, maybe not. I don't think their government expects themselves to have to care about the workers. But they should at least be able to see that they need the business owners to cooperate, their whole economy is built to require it.

            They have socialism bolted onto Confucian Merit-based trade, where possession of money proves the Merit of a business-person. If these people become passive-aggressive, the government loses their ability to control the economy. It's not that different from what happened to the

    • The tighter you squeeze, the more slips through your fingers.

      That depends...

      Is the populace like sand? Many individuals who all think different things, in which case yes, more would slip through the fingers.

      Or is the populace a body which is fed the air of information through social media, in which case choking the throat that feeds you that air is very effective indeed and the tighter they squeeze, the less air the people get...

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by guruevi ( 827432 )

      Really, but your sig is about keeping California blue, insinuating the GOP is racist while the biggest GOP contender currently in California is the only black guy on the ballot.

      Doing your job trying to keep your party ran by the rich white guy I guess.

  • by wakeboarder ( 2695839 ) on Monday August 30, 2021 @12:50PM (#61745383)

    the Chinese government is so good at regulating the economy no one needs to say anything bad about it.

  • they hack US servers: they're cleansing the badmouthers. That figures.

  • by dasunt ( 249686 ) on Monday August 30, 2021 @01:07PM (#61745467)

    The danger to China is that by stifling such speech, they may lose touch with what is actually happening.

    What will happen in the future when China's economy is developing structural cracks, but because everyone fears publicizing it, it's not on leaders' radar?

    • Unlikely, China with all its terrible problems and bad government yet will overtake USA, and continue to grow its middle class. USA middle class slightly better off than in 1980s... but we could have done so much better without wasting trillions on wars of choice against those that didn't attack us.

    • If you define the truth you don't need to worry about losing touch. To quote a famous strategist:
      "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality."

    • if government officials don't notice they will be executed...that's the carrot.
    • If taken to the extreme, North Korea is essentially what you get. To some degree I wonder how much the leadership there drinks their own Kool-aid, but it's not as they can ever get voted out so I suppose they don't really need to care.
  • Your economy sucks, and is based solely upon slave labor and theft of IP from other nations.

  • The Chinese economy is rubbish. Chinese companies only provide low-quality products and services. Chinese government officials are mentally handicapped with weapons. I wake up every day and point my naked ass in the air and wave it in China's general direction while singing "Please, Xi Jinping, lick my asshole, so I can shit all over your faaaace - you dumb mother fucker."

    I encourage all to practice this.

  • The headline makes it seem like they're going after everyone who talks shit about them. But it's really an internal thing, which shouldn't surprise anyone.

  • China does not "cleanse" anything for fun, there must be a smoking gun.

    But it is a good indicator to start stocking gold, shotgun ammunition and canned food.

    • by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

      Just looks like another paranoid dictator to me, Xi is scared of his people and tries to take more and more extreme measures to mind control them. Ironically he's probably pushing Chinese people closer and closer to some kind of breaking point where more and more of them will hate the Chinese system enough to want to change it.

  • and the targets are social media and tech companies, both of which are seen as having too much direct control over people without enough oversight by the government. The news has been relentless, with new purges almost daily and it is expected to continue for months. Xi is making sure social media is under his control and that tech companies conform to his ideals. It will hurt Chinese GDP, but they don't care, the State comes first. Something similar is happening in the USA and EU.
  • by PPH ( 736903 )

    Fourtenth Amendment, Section 4:

    The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payments of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.

    • by xalqor ( 6762950 )

      It's obviously a guarantee to lenders and not a limit on anyone's free speech protected by the first amendment. It means that the debt incurred by the federal government is will always be paid, and that the government (for example a future Congress dominated by a different party) cannot try to get out of paying past debts by questioning their validity.

      It was written hundreds of years ago, so it should be read with some tolerance for things not being worded the way they would be today.

Some people manage by the book, even though they don't know who wrote the book or even what book.

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