#firewallofchina

[reactionrealm-blog]

The major influence and growth of China’s social media

[reactionrealm-blog]

Double the population of USA...

…that’s how many active monthly social networking users China has. Over 650 Million!

China is one of the most restricted countries in the world in terms of the internet, but such constraints have directly affected the increasing success of Chinese social media sites such as WeChat, Sina Weibo and QQ.

 Through the introduction of “The Great Firewall of China”, run under the "Golden Shield Project" by the Bureau of Public Information and Network Security Supervision; the Chinese Government has made it impossible for foreign companies to enter the Chinese social media network.

Recently, the US blacklisting of Huawei has left many Huawei owners across the world shocked and wondering if they will need to stop using their phone. However, social media users in China are unfazed by this predicament and rather are bringing in waves of support for the affected brand.

The US blacklisting of Huawei has lead to Google blocking Huawei access to Android updates after complying with an executive order, issued by Donald Trump. This has lead many Huawei users outside of China worried; with some users on Twitter unsure of what to do with their current device. On the contrary, in China many publics have formed their own communities, discussing and vowing not to abandon Huawei in light of the recent developments on their various media platforms such as Weibo. This is an indication of a strong online identity.

On Weibo, the translated hashtag “Huawei can not rely on the US supply chain” had over 59 million views as of Monday 27th of May.

The hashtag “Huawei’s Self-Developed Operating System Hong Meng” also took off on Monday in response to the news that Huawei has been developing its own OS for years, in case it would no longer be able to depend on Google for the Android OS.

Many users commented that they are looking forward to the Huawei OS, and predict that one potential consequence of the China-US trade war will be that all Chinese smartphones might eventually switch to a Chinese Operating System and use made-in-China chips and electronics.

Publics express that Huawei is more than a brand to them, saying it is a “national pride.” The slogan “Go China! Go Huawei!” is pervasive on social media.

“Some of my close friends are thinking of buying an iPhone, and I think it’s shameful.”

“I will unconditionally support domestically produced products. Go Huawei!”, others wrote on Weibo.

This immense support demonstrates how publics can come together in support of an issue; especially in an environment that is affected by such factors as the The Great Firewall of China.

…That’s this week’s reaction in the realm of Social Media in China.

[the-digital-lens]

The Great Firewall of China

 China:  social media Hobbits?

Ruled by communism, China is a country which is tightly governed, prohibiting its citizens from engaging in many “Western” influenced activities- the most predominant being its dis-engagement from social media platforms. 

The Great Firewall of China, also known as the “Golden Shield Project” was implemented by Chinese government officials in December 2012, as a means of blocking undesired Western internet influencers launching into China’s digital sphere. 

Censored material has been blocked from entering the realms of China’s online world, the initiative working to combat politically sensitive information to neutralise online use and operations nation wide.

This censorship has acted to silence much of the population, impeding individuals from free speech and basic democratic privileges of the contemporary (Western) world. 

Prior to the firewall being put into place, “513 million Internet users” (Chiu, 2012, p.1) were recorded in December 2011. This leaves us with the big question mark- how does a country go from being one of the most proactive internet consumers to being one of the most highly constrained today? 

China’s government has employed approximately 50,000 people to monitor the nation’s internet usage, with over 300,000 communist parties (that we know of) comprising of the surveillance team. 

Blocking access from twenty five of the most global popular online sites, such as; Google, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram, it seems that many of China’s citizens are somewhat hobbits to the concept of social media, unable to partake in the search engine freedom that many of us in other parts of the world frankly take for granted. 

Although much of the top used global sites has been blocked from China, the launch of several other social media platforms established and approved by China itself have been largely popular in the nation. 

“Weibo”, launched by Sina Corporation in 2009 is one of the most popular social media sites in China today, with over “500 million registered accounts and 50 million active accounts” (Wang, 2015, p.31) recorded in 2014. 

Weibo, officially known as “Sina Weibo” functions as a Twitter feed would, allowing individuals to post text of a total of 140 Chinese characters, and attach URLs, images and videos with features such as the like button. 

However speculation has rumoured this popular social media platform, with a study conducted by Hong Kong University in 2013 suggesting that the Chinese Government had in fact been “...utilising Weibo to develop more sophisticated mechanisms of online control” (Wang, 2015, p.32). 

This highlights that although specifically tailored social media sites have been approved and are highly profitable in China’s online realm, “the Chinese people [may be] individually free, but collectively [are] in chains’ on the internet (King et al., 2013: 339).