Tudou.com—China’s largest video-sharing portal—were warned for hosting improper
material in March 2008. 108 The third-largest Chinese video-sharing site, 56.com, went
off-line mysteriously in June 2008 for more than a month, 109 and Youku.com received
a license from SARFT in July 2008. 110
Technical filtering associated with the so-called Great Firewall of China is only one
tool of informal control applied in China. For example, to manage the explosion of
the Chinese blogosphere, which reached 162 million blogs at the end of 2008, 111 blog
service providers must not only install filters that do not allow the posting of potentially thousands of keyword combinations, but also flag certain posts for review.
Comment sections, forums, and other interactive features that pose a higher risk of
containing sensitive content can be shut off, while posts can be deleted or concealed
by the provider so that only the author can see them. 112 Bloggers who are considered
to have written too many troublesome posts can have their accounts canceled at will.
The unfolding of one mass incident presents a crucial case study on the range of
online and media strategies to gather and communicate information, as well as government attempts to manage them. On June 22, 2008, the body of middle school student
Li Shufen was found in the Ximen River in Weng’an county, Guizhou province. 113 Although authorities declared her death to be caused by accidental drowning, her family
believed that she was a victim of a crime and pressed for an investigation. Rumors circulated that relatives of the country party secretary and police chief were among the
people Li was with on the night of her death, one of whom said she jumped suddenly
while he was doing push-ups. 114 In less than a week, the furor had grown so much that
a group of hundreds of marchers heading toward government offices morphed into a
crowd of up to 30,000 rioters, who surrounded a police headquarters and set fire to
buildings and police vehicles. 115 For a week, local officials were silent, and only one
piece of news was released by the official Xinhua News Agency, describing protesters
as ‘‘some people who did not know about the exact context of what had happened.’’ 116 In contrast to the silence of state-run media, numerous photos and video
clips of the rioting appeared immediately on blogs and various online forums such as
Tianya and the People’s Daily Strong China forum, while unconfirmed and conflicting
stories about the girl’s death were circulated on the Internet. 117 Angry netizens and
Web site moderators dueled vigorously, with users posting in increasingly oblique
and creative ways and Web sites aggressively deleting and blocking information about
the incident. 118 Furthermore, although hundreds of video clips appeared on YouTube,
Chinese users could not access certain videos about the incident, and none appeared
on two of biggest China’s domestic video-sharing sites, Tudou.com and Uume.com. 119
Soon after, state-run media began increasingly to report news and official announcements regarding the Weng’an riot on Chinese news sites, but without allowing
Internet users to leave comments. Other media attempting to cover the story were
compelled to apply for special press passes in order to secure interviews, which were
460
China
material in March 2008. 108 The third-largest Chinese video-sharing site, 56.com, went
off-line mysteriously in June 2008 for more than a month, 109 and Youku.com received
a license from SARFT in July 2008. 110
Technical filtering associated with the so-called Great Firewall of China is only one
tool of informal control applied in China. For example, to manage the explosion of
the Chinese blogosphere, which reached 162 million blogs at the end of 2008, 111 blog
service providers must not only install filters that do not allow the posting of potentially thousands of keyword combinations, but also flag certain posts for review.
Comment sections, forums, and other interactive features that pose a higher risk of
containing sensitive content can be shut off, while posts can be deleted or concealed
by the provider so that only the author can see them. 112 Bloggers who are considered
to have written too many troublesome posts can have their accounts canceled at will.
The unfolding of one mass incident presents a crucial case study on the range of
online and media strategies to gather and communicate information, as well as government attempts to manage them. On June 22, 2008, the body of middle school student
Li Shufen was found in the Ximen River in Weng’an county, Guizhou province. 113 Although authorities declared her death to be caused by accidental drowning, her family
believed that she was a victim of a crime and pressed for an investigation. Rumors circulated that relatives of the country party secretary and police chief were among the
people Li was with on the night of her death, one of whom said she jumped suddenly
while he was doing push-ups. 114 In less than a week, the furor had grown so much that
a group of hundreds of marchers heading toward government offices morphed into a
crowd of up to 30,000 rioters, who surrounded a police headquarters and set fire to
buildings and police vehicles. 115 For a week, local officials were silent, and only one
piece of news was released by the official Xinhua News Agency, describing protesters
as ‘‘some people who did not know about the exact context of what had happened.’’ 116 In contrast to the silence of state-run media, numerous photos and video
clips of the rioting appeared immediately on blogs and various online forums such as
Tianya and the People’s Daily Strong China forum, while unconfirmed and conflicting
stories about the girl’s death were circulated on the Internet. 117 Angry netizens and
Web site moderators dueled vigorously, with users posting in increasingly oblique
and creative ways and Web sites aggressively deleting and blocking information about
the incident. 118 Furthermore, although hundreds of video clips appeared on YouTube,
Chinese users could not access certain videos about the incident, and none appeared
on two of biggest China’s domestic video-sharing sites, Tudou.com and Uume.com. 119
Soon after, state-run media began increasingly to report news and official announcements regarding the Weng’an riot on Chinese news sites, but without allowing
Internet users to leave comments. Other media attempting to cover the story were
compelled to apply for special press passes in order to secure interviews, which were
460
China