Week 11: Global social media: case study China
With over 1.3b people living in China, and a share of nearly 20% of the world’s total population (Worldometers, 2016), there is always going to be intense scrutiny and analysis of what goes on in the world’s biggest population. The sheer size of the market is reason enough for Facebook and Twitter wanting a Chinese user base, but it’s also because they are considered tech savvy and heavy users of their own social media platforms.
A report in 2013 (Millward 2013) estimated nearly 600 million active social media users in China. They are using sites very similar to Facebook (QZone, Pengyou, Renren and Kaixin) and Twitter (Tencent Weibo and Sina Weibo).
The censorship in China is explained by MacKinnon (2013), as being three pronged; technical, human powered and self-censorship.
The technical firewall that exists is controlled by eight Internet Service Providers (ISPs) which are controlled by the government. Users trying to access www.facebook.com are blocked from doing so and because the ISPs are controlled by the government the government can instantaneously block websites for any, or no, reason.
From a human powered perspective, the government hires companies that monitor and trawl the internet, looking for and removing content that contravenes government policy. There are also people that are paid to publish content that positively supports the government – perhaps nothing new but on the scale in China it’s too massive to ignore.
And finally the third prong of self-censorship which is adopted by companies wanting to operate within China. The fear of angering the Chinese government is enough for them to ensure that they, and their users as publishers, author content in a way that is suitable for the Chinese market. The slightest mishap can mean instant blocking at the hands of the government controlled ISPs.
References
China Population (2016), Worldometers, viewed 1st February 2016, <http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/china-population/>
Millward, S 2013, Check Out the Numbers on China’s Top 10 Social Media Sites (Infographic), TechInAsia, viewed 1st February 2016, <https://www.techinasia.com/2013-china-top-10-social-sites-infographic>
China Correspondent 2013, The Great Firewall of China, viewed 1st February 2016, <https://www.opendemocracy.net/china-correspondent/great-firewall-of-china>













