China Removes Four News Apps From Smartphone Stores To Tighten Control (scmp.com) 52
The mobile apps for four popular news apps in China, including the most popular aggregator, Jinri Toutiao, were removed from a number of Chinese smartphone app stores following reports of a crackdown by the country's media watchdog, local media reported on Monday. From the report: Toutiao, with about 120 million daily active users, was not available on the app stores of smartphone manufacturers Xiaomi and Meizu on Monday afternoon. The apps for Tiantian Kuaibao, Netease News and Ifeng News were also not found on Xiaomi. China's authorities have asked several of the country's smartphone app stores to remove the four apps by 3pm on Monday as part of efforts to "regulate order in the broadcasting environment," according to Chinese news portal Sohu.com. The apps will be removed for between three days to three weeks, with Toutiao being offline for the longest period, according to the Sohu report. [...] China has shut down more than 13,000 websites in the last three years as Beijing sought to tighten its grip on the internet.
Re: Dumb americans (Score:2)
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> Protectionism is a GOOD thing.
Only cowards censor.
In an enlightened society it is NOT the government's job to determine for me what news I should or should no be allowed to see. Maybe China should try joining the 21st century instead of repressing people's free will.
> Americans think they're free
We actually have a choice in what to watch. If I want to watch China Uncensored [youtube.com] then I can.
Maybe China's government should try fixing the root problem instead of knee-jerk reaction to the symptom.
At least i
just give me internet browser... (Score:1)
why? (Score:2)
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How can any Chinese person stand to live in China? I would think they would be revolting or committing suicide by the millions.
Funny you are asking this while the Americans are asking for their government to punish Facebook
You can't have it both ways, can you?
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Perhaps if they knew what they were missing, they might.
On the other hand, they might not see the level of freedom we take for granted as either necessary or desirable.
Do note the number of people here who spend time trying to abridge the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth Amendments (usually with some variant of "For the Children" as their rallying cry). So it's not like we don't have a similar impetus to regulate the lives of strangers....
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On the other hand, they might not see the level of freedom we take for granted as either necessary or desirable.
I have first hand experience (anecdotal, I have to add) with what you suggested. Some years back, while I was still in university, I ended up sharing a flat with a Chinese. And throughout the period we lived together, we talked about this. And he said something along the lines of: "You can't have full freedom, if you want a country of 1.5 billion to work." So yeah, they believe it.
But people elsewhere don't understand the value of freedom and the problems of mass surveillance, so why do we think the average
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Your view is very Western. If they don't question authority they're pretty free to live their day to day lives, and that's enough for most people...
It wasn't not so long ago we had this scenario in multiple occasions here in Europe. It always ended in mass executions, genocides and war.
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How can any Chinese person stand to live in China? I would think they would be revolting or committing suicide by the millions.
You may have hear about a little communist revolution they had there, and the totalitarian state that followed.
Those who opposed them fled to a little island. Or just got slaughtered.
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The Supreme Court has ruled govenment cannot be the arbiter of truth w.r.t. the First Amendment, especially in politics.
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Because, shock of shocks, the Chinese are not western liberals! Holy fucking shit, I'll bet you'd go along with the proposition that "morality is subjective" but here you are, pretending as though the system you like is the best one.
Just following our lead (Score:2)
Just following our lead ... got to have "fact checkers" keeping us safe from "fake news".
Can't have people getting unapproved ideas from anywhere.
As the princess said, a relevant quote (Score:2)
But why tighten your grip if you aren't already afraid you're losing it? I think the Party sees the writing on the wall. The development they're pushing contains the seeds of their demise.
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So? (Score:2)
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You have a link to back up that rather interesting assertion?
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I'm glad (Score:2)
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Advertising for illegal things like prostitution is illegal when you are part of the operation. Maybe prostitution shouldn't be illegal, but it is, and advertising for it is, and knowingly providing advertising space for it is, too.
Note it's the participation that is illegal, not the ad itself, which you can reproduce and talk about as long as you are not part of the operation, like a journalist or facebook meme vector.
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