Guangzhou: Tweeting Cops Won’t Allow Tweeps To Comment

Mute Cops 2.0?

The Guangzhou Police is now tweeting on Sina Microblogs, but they’re not allowing people to comment. When the cops were asked, Propanganda Department chief Lu Zhengguang blasted out this bit of familiar officialspeak: “In regards to comments, as a new item, we need a complete process. We are still in the process of finding a way.” Another bit of govspeak: “The microblogging service of the public security organs is to give information about security to everyone; it is not for everyone to comment on. If you have something to say you may say it, but the public security organs is not intended for people comment on.”

Uh. Right. Remember this guy?

Our great chairman Mao Zedong’s classic refrain: serve the people (為人民服務). If you don’t allow the cops to be talked to… well, what’s the point? Are you still serving those folks out there?

A closer look reveals just how one-sided the conversation is: through the forest of ideogrammes one sees little other than one-sided propaganda, and… let’s see… only three replies. It’s only following 27 people, while 1,840 folks (including Shrek, if you look closely at the screenshot), seems to be following the service.

Do these guys have a UFO Management Department?

Meanwhile, the lingo there is nothing but Mandarinspeak. Leading commentator North Wind (Bei Feng) has lambasted the cops for failing to us “people lingo” (大白话), questioning why folks would follow the Guangzhou cops if they didn’t talk the talk (of the masses, of course).

Update: They are finally allowing people to comment… as of yesterday (May 19, 2010). Guess they cave into the vox populi…

Are Microblogs (and Twitter) A Step Back? Chinese Blogger Thinks So

That doesn’t mean all of the People’s Republic’s 1.3 billion (or the 400+ million wired of the 1.3 billion) think it is, though. The good thing is that you’re reading techblog86, one of these blogs that gives everyone a go at the microphone. And while it’s true the Chinese-language Twittersphere derided this, let’s give the blog post (in Chinese) a quick skim through… (Note: post you’re about to read ended up as a Global Times (Chinese edition) commentary in late April 2010.)

The article argues that in the Internet of this day and age, the blog is a great invention, letting folks focus on issues; yet microblogs “force” you inside of 140 characters, thus becoming a quick, short message. Microblogs have since been made a big hit on the Web and in marketing, but the blogger thinks it’s a step back. This is true, especially considering the example the article next delves into: a case of tweeting “give me an invite, or my girlfriend will split with me”. Microblogs are “too short”, but nobody, like, held a shotgun to you when you wanted to do a second 140 char update. And that’s what some of us on Twitter do. Try @pdenlinger or @daygan “for size”: both share extremely insightful two cents on current events by tweeting multiple times, thus in essence falling free from the “140 chars a tweet” limit.

The article’s next bone to pick: microblogs are here “solely” to “retweet” and to cultivate “onlookers” (围观). If you’re on Twitter and do Chinese tweets you’ll note that everything which shares a self-revelation (自爆), especially those bordering on the pornographic, get retweeted with the words “looking on” (围观) and the “RT”. The article is somewhat qualified in the sense that events can happen if this “looking on mania” gets coupled with rumours. It can indeed get out of hand, with folks “looking on” rumours.

Next bone: Tweets are too short; news wants to be anything but short. Here’s a bit of history: remember the plane that landed on water in an emergency? CNN and the networks picked that up on a tweet. Or more locally, remember when “The Thing” next to the CCTV Big Pants went off on fire in February 2009? Your blogger got this from a @zuola tweet; just to make sure @zuola had his facts right, he went to the site and ended up being one of the more “prominent” citizen tweeters in the fire. The blogger-in-question obviously didn’t take a good look at the options available — TwitPic? TweetLonger? (Yep, that really exists. Or do status.net and make your installs support tweets as long as you want — a thousand characters, for example.)

Finally: you’re tweeting about yourself without giving others the OK to drop in — and what’s to happen if you get caught up in a tweet-controversy? The article also questions what happens when a tweet has you misquoted, misrepresented, etc. (It’s not like radio or TV, where you can take the operators to court; this is more like a case of a random, anonymous tweeter spreading out false info to get you into trouble.) First, it’s off the point as in on Twitter (at the very least), you can make your profile “private”. There’s also the unfollow and block buttons — in case you’re worried, pounce away on these. Finally, just dump your account (although we’d wonder why you got in on the first place; aren’t folks who microblog always tweeting out secrets as to, say, when and where their dog last farted?). The article does make a sharp point in regards to the latter, though. Still, as Naked Conversations by @shelisrael and the @Scobleizer makes it clear, in the blogosphere if someone starts talking bad about you, the issue will be taken care of by itself (especially if it’s like a company CEO quitting when that’s not the case) — or you can join in on the convo and attempt to set things straight. Will that be the case in the Twittersphere? Probably — but more realistically — also probably not.

That this article found itself on the somewhat nationalistic Global Times Chinese edition (环球时报; as part of an April 30 opinions article), the paper itself resented by especially the more libre-leaning Chinese-language tweeps, does in itself create cause for concern. (You guessed it right: once the article found its way via a link to Keso’s blog (a leading tech blogger in Chinese), one of the comments went: The person who wrote that article is brain dead!!!!!!!.) Still, our job here at techblog86 is conveying more points of views (long live plurality!). The article is interesting, if not a little biased or at times a bit exaggerating, and it makes for “balanced reading” in a day and age when your tech blogger has to tweet about every last thing he’s doing…

#Hashtagging Along: A Re-Reader into Twitter’s Hashtags

It’s been a somewhat slow May Break here in China, with yesterday (Monday, May 3, 2010) feeling especially slow (ah, freakin’ clouds over the city), but we thought you’d might enjoy this snip from GigaOM about those #Hashtags flying all over the place.

Here’s how your tech blogger fared…

…and he was introduced to this only in late 2008, with @christinelu preaching the #china20 hashtag to him.

Hashtags can be thought of a neat way to create a “virtual convo”, and they’re probably best seen as live “convo folders”. That’s the case with tags such as #chinict, which is all about the up-and-coming CHINICT. And yes, techblog86 will be there.

They’re also behind virtual social movements. About this time a year back, when China started blocking Twitter on the eve of… one heck of a sensitive anniversary, those who could get behind the wall started tweeting out the #fuckGFW hashtag, a hashtag that has stuck since then to show Netizenry angst and resentment against Internet censorship. Earlier this year, a massive flash mob created the #GFW hashtag, which like its obscene brother, managed to climb to No. 2 in rankings on the entire Twitterverse.

(Now that this has been reported, we’re expecting all hashes in the country to get harmonized.)

But the online PRC’s hashtag world is not all gloom and doom. In fact, Om made reference to What the Trend, a site made by Shanghai Metro expert (and pro coder) Matt Mayer. Hashtags can, accordingly, be gamed so that some random topic ends up as No. 1. But they’re also great for discovering what’s hot on Twitter as of late.

#foursquare Day Beijing Featured In National News Mag

Will we soon see #foursquare harmonized? Travel sites have a much better track record with the Net Nanny… that is, unless you get un-harmonious with them. (How — that we don’t know.)

Anyway, #foursquare Day Beijing made it big. One of the nation’s most libre papers, the Southern Metropolitan Weekly (《南都周刊》), did its bit in letting the world — at least the Chinese-language world — know all about foursquare Day. In addition to letting your blogger claim a full page of the paper’s territory, the paper, more importantly, gave more airtime to @frankyu, mayor of the Sanlitun Apple Store, as well as other folks, including Joel Danielson of Illuminant.

(Yep — the paper also revealed that @frankyu is mayor because he checks in every single day. In fact, Frank just checked in about an hour before this post was pushed out. Ah, Frank, why don’t you just write the Great Leader Steve Jobs and — own the Store for good?)

The paper also interviewed the folks behind Fubar, where the party moved after 50+ folks checked in at the city’s Mac temple. Fubar gets its biz done through word of mouth, and — true to the #foursquare spirit — offers the mayor (currently no-one but @BeijingBoyce) happy hour prices all day.

PS: The paper got David Feng’s nationality wrong — he’s a Swiss, not a Singaporean. Beijing’s Subway Goddess, @sioksiok, by the way, is Singaporean…

PS 2: The guy you see with an index finger sticking out is pointing at the swarm by the Apple Store. We should have pointed that out earlier…

(Thank you @chinewinelover for the OK to use the pic.)

於 4 月 16 日舉行的 foursquare Day 線下聚會引起了媒體的關注，其中一個做大篇幅報導的就是《南都週刊》，並採訪了本博客博主、舉辦場所之「foursquare Mayor」及其它 foursquare 人物。

Plurk: “Harmonized” in China — For A Year Now

Some things never change. As in — when good things meet bad people — or bad firewalls. China’s super-harmonious Great Firewall (#fuckGFW in Twitterese) has taken Plurk (噗浪 in Chinese) offline — and that was a year ago today.

In the meantime, Plurk has since just about exploded with nearly two thirds of the user base from Taiwan. In fact, in a meetup with one of the more notable English-language tweeps in Taipei a few months ago, your blogger heard a fair bit of hearsay — of whether or not Plurk headquarters would migrate on over to the Green Isle. Meantime most Taiwanese news sites have a direct link to Plurk out news and commentary, and the island’s main political parties do Plurk.

Since then, China seems to have taken a liking to blocking social networking sites, whether they’re reactionary (Twitter) or not. With them even blocking I Can Haz Cheeseburger… it’s just a case before, as the Twittersphere has hinted to, them blocking every last website and creating an all-PRC intranet.

(The mandarins came close late last year, when they brandished the “foreign websites / whitelist” (白名單) sword. It, obviously, backfired.)

中國大陸去年今天起，開始對噗浪社交網絡進行封鎖，此後又對了推特、臉譜網等諸多國外社交網路採取封網措施。同時，噗浪在臺灣廣泛使用，許多政黨都在此設立帳戶，而臺灣不少新聞網站也提供噗浪連結，讓讀者直接將一條新聞轉入噗浪中。

The Tweet of the Day: 1984, Brave New World, and China

What do Huxley, Orwell and the Twitter user @baixiaoci have in common?

@baixiaoci started out with a tweet (in Chinese) at 22:00 last night (August 18, 2009), which read (translated):

There’s something unfortunate about the Chinese over the Americans: the predictions of both Orwell and Huxley have become reality in China Switch on television, and you get Brave New World. Surf the Web, and it’s 1984.

Your tech blogger retweeted this in the morning hours today (August 19, 2009). This tweet got retweeted upwards of 20 or even more than 20 times in a single day, probably setting a brand-new record…

@baixiaoci, by the way, is from Shenzhen, but is presently in Shanghai as his tweets have him. He’s a photographer and has a site — 50mm.cn as well as another one at baixiaoci.com.

See, we had to promote this guy. He’s now famous. With just one tweet.

Twremarks: What Chinese Tweeps Are Talking About

Ever wonder why Fanfou was shut down? The site was full of political tweets flying to and fro. Never mind it had a Chinese ICP site — it was nixed, no questions asked. With the PRC’s Big Sixty coming in this close, those at the top are hoping that there’ll be “nothing big” that could get out of control — not even with 300 million virtual beings.

Today was just another day in the Chinese Twittersphere — except for one thing: the Tan Zuoren case started and, as usual, some of the Chinese tweeps started tweeting about the case. We had reports of hushed courts, police brutality and other disturbing tweets coming in this side of the Pacific, whereas the tweets coming in from the US were much closer to home — and were less political.

I tweeted about this some time back. The Chinese Twittersphere seems to have a particular political interest vested amongst the community. Yet in the US, Twitter’s used to describe things that may not be all that political. It’s not that the US and politics don’t mix on Twitter — that’s what put @BarackObama on the map. Yet, the intensity of politics is lesser felt outside the PRC — especially in the USA.

Remember the #080808 Hashtag?

Just a year ago this day, the Beijing Olympics got off to a start. Whether it was a bang or a whimper (as in the massively stepped security procedures and almost-impossible-to-get PRC visas) — that we’ll let you decide. But there’s a hashtag that was part of the day: #080808.

Not just that. Everyone China or even remotely Chinese-related had #080808 on their avatars. @thecarol from Taiwan did that. @isaac did it. Everyone in the region went #080808, thanks to @flypig’s idea.

The irony of this is that, in the name of the Big Sixty coming later this year, the #080808 hashtag — along with everything else Twitter-related — appears to have been harmonized. Oh yeah — and also the Internet censorship. You could access sites you couldn’t access otherwise in China a year ago. YouTube or even BBC Chinese? Yours last year.

#Harminator’s this year.

The skies outside today in Beijing appear just as gloomy as it was a year ago. (Obviously, and we’re going off at a slant here — for the best blue skies, come in winter around January or February. Satisfaction guaranteed.)

Twitter In A Double Whammy in China

Talk about Twitter in China these days! First it went down in early June (password here had something to do with Tian’anmen), then it went down right after Urumqi shook with riots. Now Twitter itself has been compromised with denial-of-service attacks, and just lately all passwords have been reset.

Here’s how sorry the situation has gotten as of late:

• In all of this: Twitter (as in the twitter.com site) has been blocked in China.
• Late Thursday: Access to iTweet, Hahlo and some other third-party Twitter sites became cumbersome.
• Early Friday: iTweet, Hahlo pretty much dead by mid-morning.
• Late Friday: PeopleBrowsr looking OK, but still very iffy. Ping.fm does not post all tweets going through.
• Very late Friday: Twitter working again via iTweet and Hahlo.
• Early Saturday: iTweet, Hahlo working again.
• 09:49 Saturday morning: Twitter sends password resets, access to iTweet and Hahlo die again.

We’re pointing a finger at Twitter directly. Politically speaking, if you could save Iran, why not save China?

Thanks to @POPOEVER, @daygan and others for helping your tweeter out through all this.

Twitter Self-Harmonized?

It seems like it. As this post is going to press, it looks like not just Twitter itself is harmonized, but that third-party clients and access points, including iTweet and Hahlo, have also become — more harmonious. (For those of you just starting out, anything harmonious or harmonized in the Chinese Interwebs means that the site has fallen victim to the Harmonious Society — as in a society that regards these suspect sites as websites non gratia. In layman terms, anything harmonized is blocked in China.)

A chat with some tweeps in the People’s Republic reveal something that can only be called self-harmonization: it looks like, State-side, something’s awry with Twitter. See, not only does Beijing think Twitter is — can we say this — harmonious?

Your blogger-cum-tweeter needs bed time off (and nope, bed tweeting is not part of the program), so here’s hoping that the Twitterverse returns intact tomorrow morning!