Twitter, Web 2.0, and Protest: China Edition
Following up on the many previous Monkey Cage posts on the use of Twitter and other Web 2.0 tools in recent protests in Iran (see here, here, and here) and elsewhere, it is worth noting that the BBC is reporting that one of China’s first steps in addressing the protests and violence in Xinjiang province has apparently been to curtail internet access. The BBC writes on its web site:
BBC sources in China report they have been unable to open the Twitter messaging site in Shanghai and that message boards on Xinjiang on a number of websites were not taking posts.
Reports from Xinjiang suggest some internet and mobile phone services have been blocked.
Analysts say the government’s so-called Great Firewall of China, which it uses to block unwanted internet material, will prevent large-scale dissemination of information but that dedicated internet users can bypass it fairly easily.
Comments
This is pretty stupid on the Chinese government’s part, since most witness reports indicate that the vast majority of the casualties were Han Chinese civilians, who were assaulted by the protestors/rioters.
Posted by: although most media reports eschew this point | July 6, 2009 04:12 PM
“When I wrote the post, I had limited information and I jumped to the
conclusion that the 156 victims of Sunday’s violence were Uighur.
In fact, it appears that the majority of the victims were Han Chinese,
brutally killed by gangs of Uighurs roaming through the back streets of
Urumqi. There are some horrific pictures circulating of rows of bloodied bodies and cyclists lying in puddles of blood with their heads bashed in.
I apologise for running ahead of the facts, but the idea that Chinese troops had been unable to prevent the Uighurs from murdering Han Chinese honestly never occurred to me.”
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/malcolmmoore/100002509/urumqi-riots-signal-dark-days-ahead/
Posted by: From a Telegraph reporter | July 9, 2009 01:38 AM