#8: Add me on Renren
If you’re in China right now using their network, you probably won’t be able to see this. But why?
Because of the Great Firewall of China.
Here is a brief run down about it. It is also known as the ‘Golden Shield Project’ designed as a strict Internet censorship and surveillance project in China, restricting citizens from access to things such as politically sensitive topics, fake news, pornography, and just any microblog they simply don't like (Synthesio 2013, p. 4)
Now you’re probably wondering if they have a digital social life. Well they have their own forms of social media applications replacing sites like Youtube, Twitter, Google and Whats App, even Facebook which they developed as Renren. And of course, they are all heavily regulated. Surprisingly enough though, Chinese Internet users spend more time on social media sites than any other sites, even after all of this (Chiu et al. 2012, p. 3).
But do you think this strict censorship could be depriving them of useful resources?
Wang (2015, p. 29) explores the concept of place in conjunction with geo-identity when thinking about uses of China’s microblogging sites in particular. So if we compare our geo-identity with Chinese Internet users, there is a difference in the way we create content based on our experience with “place-making” in our country of residency (Wang 2015, p. 31).
If we compare the content I have posted as a Melbourne resident compared to a Chinese citizen, you will see the difference between the topics and opinions given. By living in Melbourne, I actively consume global media and base my opinions and assumptions through unfiltered comments, posts and photos. In Melbourne, the idea of place in a social media environment constitutes to broad communication between global citizens, allowing larger social networks to join in conversation which influence opinion (Christiansen 2017, p. 142). Here, the idea of place has personally influenced my social media usage through the unlimited access I have to explore places through personal experiences and social practices both online through social media and offline.
In comparison, Chinese Internet users have not been exposed to a broader sense of place outside China. Therefore, more limited and restricted content is posted, relying on their own sense of place and experience with local news consumption obstructing a larger viewpoint. Their idea of social media consists more of a consumer product and research point of view direct from China, therefore illustrating their limited knowledge of place about the world (Crampton 2011, p. 28). Basically, their geo-identity is dependant on their exposure to news curated and censored for all users in China.
Now I wonder how we would cope with this Firewall. Not very well I presume.