MySpace now available in China - minus politics and religion
By Lu EnJie - Thu, 04/26/2007 - 17:02.
Domain Names lost
MySpace China to be locally managed
MySpace China's content filter
UPDATED: MySpace, the world's largest social networking website, has finally come to China, the world's most populous nation. After months of delays, China's 1.3 billion citizens are now able to create their own pages on the Chinese-language version of MySpace. But unlike MySpace in other countries, sensitive topics like religion and politics are nowhere to be found on the Chinese site, and users are asked to report 'subversive' activity.
MySpace, which already has more than 100 million users worldwide, is backed by News Corporation, one of the world's largest media groups. The company formally announced MySpace China yesterday, and the site went live shortly after midnight in China, with a layout which mimics that of its main global site - with a few key differences.
Discussion forums on subjects like religion and politics are nowhere to be found on the new Chinese MySpace site, even though these are popular topics on other international MySpace sites. Instead, users are only offered safer topics for conversation, such as humor, sport and movies.
Users are told to click a button if they spot any 'misconduct' by other users. This 'misconduct' includes actions such as 'endangering national security, leaking state secrets, subverting the government, undermining national unity, spreading rumors or disturbing the social order' – according to the site's terms and conditions (Chinese page).
Attempts to post content containing a variety of sensitive terms, such as 'Taiwanese independence', the 'Fa Lun' meditation movement or the Dalai Lama, produce the following message. 'Sorry, the article you want to publish may contain inappropriate content. Please delete the unsuitable content, and then try reposting it. Thank you. '
Domain Names lost
Most potential Chinese domain names for MySpace were snapped up by cybersquatters or others, after MySpace neglected to register them, as Texyt reported earlier this week. The company's Chinese site is located at MySpace.cn, a departure from normal MySpace practice of adding national sites as a sub-domain of its main MySpace.com site (such as uk.myspace.com). This appears to underline a clear division between the existing MySpace and its Chinese offshoot.
MySpace China to be locally managed
Unlike most other Western internet companies in China, MySpace China will run independently of the international head office, the company's CEO in China, Luo Chuan, told reporters, according to Chinese website, Finance World (Chinese language link).
The local management has “total control” over MySpace operations in China, Luo stressed. With 130 million internet users in China, the company is aiming first at the core group of 30 million regular users, he told reporters.
Luo said the site must attract active users, not just lurkers who don't add content. However, MySpace has not said how it will find its way through the minefield of government censorship and political control that has hurt other Western internet firms in China.
Yahoo, for example, has been sued by users who were imprisoned after the Chinese government allegedly used Yahoo data to track them down when they posted politically-sensitive information.
"In recent months, the Chinese authorities have sought to further tighten controls over the Internet. This has been followed by further censoring of certain Web sites, blogs and online articles," Amnesty International claimed in a briefing on human rights in China this week.
However, by not even offering discussion forums on contentious issues like politics and religion, MySpace appears to be setting down firm guidelines to users. The picture here shows these hugely popular topics on the main US-based MySpace site - they are not present on the newly-launched Chinese MySpace site.
MySpace China's content filter
Even searching in English for the name of the Dalai Lama, generally acknowledged as the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, is enough to invoke MySpace's content filter in China, as the screenshots above show. The Chinese-language message that appears warns that the search phrase contains 'inappropriate content.' and continues 'Please delete the unsuitable content, and then try reposting it. Thank you.'
Updated April 29: Added comment from Amnesty International
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Another example of a company
Another example of a company or corporation caving in to the idiotic whims of a despotic government. I wonder what myspace would have done if it just had to break into the market of Pol Pot's Democratic Kampuchea.
Foreign creeps in China
I've just been looking at a truly sickening example of this money-grabbing attitude on a blog written by Chris O'Brien, a foreign editor at Xinhua, which is the international news agency run by the Chinese government.
Xinhua accidentally used a picture of Homer Simpson's brain on a serious story about health! Chris pointed out the error and politely suggested they fix it.
The original story is funny, but just have a close look at the vicious comments from Gareth W. Dodd, who is supposed to be an experienced journalist and senior editor at Xinhua, but to me he sounds more like the token foreign ass-kisser for his fascist thug paymasters.
Creepy Gareth seems to have invented a fake conversation with Chris, and then threatened to fire him over it. Pb
lol..... I forget why I hate
lol..... I forget why I hate China, and things like this remind me ^^
Some great people in China
China's saddled with a bad government, which is a tragedy for the whole world, and not only China, but there are many good people there, so take care to aim that hate of yours carefully.
u shouldnt be prejudice of
u shouldnt be prejudice of things. you should try to put better things into the world not fog up everything with hate.
you are a f**kin retard
China is perficitly fine if people like you would just f**kin quit saying that you hate china or you hate people in china sh*t like this wouldnt be going on.
ummm....
Retro mob cuddie
back off
i so agree with this ,there is nothing wrong with china or the people that live them there so...
LEAVE THEM THE F*CK ALONE
yeah
yea people like that have no
yea people like that have no idea what they are talking about to begin with as i am originally from boston thats beantown for all you non local's and in massachusetts i now reside in anhui province city capital ( hefei )
as i assure you that there is more freedom here in fact yes many difference and 3rd world look alike how ever infact there are still great number of respect and policy:
as for people of course just like anywhere e;se in the world there are rude and arrogance where one may travel...
but those who act as such are mainly country people and have no idea what or how to act like in a civilized manner but then again how many american's actually act any better?
you say you hate china? lol why???,,
is it the fact the lieing media claim's and tells the unaware american's and what you can or can not do which is garbage like i stated i haven't felt more free'er in my whole life untill i came to china
watever
come on. you cant hate the whole place and some people in china are good people soo this is the most rudest thing i ever heard!!! sooo f*** you off b****!!!!!!!hoe
Hate & Replies
I don't agree with a single word but replying ,which is now in common use, by means of insult and unnecessary language never proves a point.
yeah thats cold and un
yeah thats cold and un called for they didnt do nothing to you...get over yourself..loser!
This is catering to Communist Dictatorship
This is great. MySpace will forever be remembered as a portal, that along with Yahoo and Google, kowtowed to the Communist dictatorship. Even though that complying with the CCP is illegal for the portals...
I think Chinese people should start looking at EDoors, the only really unrestricted free speech portal in Chinese.
Slashdot Discussion
Discussion of this article at Slashdot
A Perceptive Slashdot Comment!!
This great response from Mrbluze at Slashdot is quite well considered. It's not the usual ping-pong of extreme, but ignorant, opinions Slashdot discussions sometimes suffer from
Whilst I agree with you partly, I think the reason people are aghast at these kinds of news reports is because suppressing debate, perpetuating fear and generating an 'us and them' culture prevents China from advancing to become a liberal society (liberal as in beer.. or something).
Oppression doesn't have to be the price of surviving with limited resources. Part of the reason China remains poor and in many respects a 3rd world nation is precisely because it has a stupid system of government. It is an oligarchy, it remains a totalitarian state. I'm not saying China has to be a 'Democracy' like, for example, Canada, but anywhere in the world you find the absence of a meritocracy, you have this problem. The US is no shining example anymore of promotion on the basis of merit, either.
On the other hand, anyone who wants to point the finger at China had better sweep in front of their own door first. Everyone's liberties are being eroded at this time, and we all must fight the fight on our own turf.
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=232587&cid=18910619
Yes, I noted you said Canada
Yes, I noted you said Canada not the US. Ans you are correct. We are not a Democracy, and many fail to see that. If I can't smoke my weed, and give the white house the big O'l bird, then there is not true freedom. :)
ye' canada? actually canada
ye' canada?
actually canada is a socialist country as america is a republican country and never was nor a democratic free country as more laws and rules reflect apon lives each day tell me sir/ma'am?
where is america do you reside where you can smoke a cig in a bar? or say what you want in the streets? no place i heard of unless you live in some isolated hickville something close to vermont perhaps? lol
i hate the fact that american's say this and that but when it comes down to it is when a police officers wants to break down you'r door and then claims by mistake do they pay or do you?
o' when you are in some bar and you walk out and the officer see's you walking not drivin' and still harrasses you and asks for you'r i.d.
in china you can walk down the streets with a bottle of J.D. in one hand and a beer in the other with a cig. and walking at 2 am passing the police and the only thing that will happen is that the police simply say nihao!
while on the side streets still seeing people having a great comfortable life sharing and planning and talking to each other at 2 am after a fantastic time from the clubs while eating snacks or prawns drinking beer
where can you do this legally in the states?
Chinese unlikely to use it anyway
While the observations on the evils of censorship are all very true and relevant, the truth is that it is unlikely that MySpace China will find many users. There seems to be (this is from my own observation of Chinese friends and acquaintances and not based on any actual stats) a move away from the foreign owned sites towards domestic ones.
Baidu is by far a more popular search engine than Google, in fact I often need to force my staff to conduct research on Google. QQ is a much more popular chat service than MSN or Skype and in fact I recently had a friend tell me she had to set up a QQ account (even though she doesnt like the evil software that gets into your machine and can never be cleansed) because so many of her Chinese friends refused to use MSN.
It seems to be a kind of passive nationalism thing. I ask people why they use Baidu instead of Google and they say because it is Chinese and understands what Chinese want. The same of MSN and I suspect Myspace.
IBM and the Nazis
Of course no one concerned with trans-global deal making will be reading this comment, but were they to, I'd tell them to cop on.
Twats.
I am an American living in
I am an American living in China right now & we can't even access the U.S. version of MySpace. It really sucks!
Try a proxy for access in China?
Didn't realize MySpace was blocked in China, maybe it's just blocked in your area? Try using a proxy, like proxify.com. Does that help?
I thought you could access the US MySpace users' pages through Chinese Myspace. anyway. For example, like this
http://www.myspace.cn/redhotchilipeppers
Proxies...
...are also blocked. You can still access pages through myspace.cn (assuming there is no "sensitive material"), but unless your written Chinese is good, its a bit difficult to navigate through the pages and options, as nothing is in English. Few things are as infuriating as spending a long day working in China, then going home looking forward to some good 'ol connections to family and friends in the States, and finding MySpace and BlogSpot blocked. Again.
Private proxies
If you can't find any working proxies, you could set up a private one for you and your friends to use. You can get a web hosting account in another country, like the USA, that lets you install PHP scripts, and then install PHProxy or something like that.
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=110693
I can't know for certain it would support all the features of MySpace, though, because I never tried that. It seems to display most sites ok.
MySpace has never been blocked...
Access to MySpace has never been blocked...here in Shanghai anyway.
I(a Canadian)have been living here for almost two years - and from my viewpoint, things are not that bad at all, for city dwellers anyway - the farmers have a meek living but that’s true for most any country.
Is the Chinese government perfect? Of course not. NO GOVERNMENT IN THE WORLD IS PERFECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Who cares if you can't criticize the government? Go to Canada or America and criticize those governments - It won't do you any good anyways!!!!
Try managing a country with 1.3 billion people! It's not easy by any stretch of the imagination!! So you can sit there from your comfy seats and spew your "i hate china because...", but take a step back and try to look at the big picture. There are hundreds of millions of people who had nothing in their pockets or mouths just two decades ago. These people are happy very happy now. And there are hundreds of millions who are due to get theirs in the next few decades too.
Just imagine what kind of absolute chaos would ensue if everyone started to rebel against their governments. Now imagine 1.3 billion people doing it!
Get the picture?
This government is trying its best to do good for the people - of course there will be problems. That’s only natural, and problems happen with any government.
I come from Canada where the Canadian Government has trouble running a country with 35 million people. How difficult must it be to run a country with 40 times that population!
Let the people, the country and the government be – It needs time to develop naturally. If you lived here you’d see your criticizing is probably not justified.
whats a website that you can
whats a website that you can unblock websites at school cause all of our myspace has been blocked
sucks man wy ya in china
sucks man
wy ya in china anyway?
later
peace out man
taylor
that must really suck
that must really suck because i am i myspace freak and i
dont know wat i would do without myspace!!! =0
Chinese Censorship
As an American,I also believe censorship is wrong;but the Chinese government has the right to do as they wish with whatever is in their borders. But to those who are commenting(or going to comment) on their form of government,there is no such thing as a "right" or "wrong" government.Besides,there is no definate definition of what is "right" and what is "wrong". They are abstract concepts that are determined solely by personal opinion. A type of government can never be the problem,it is those in power that are the problem. Here in America, it is supposed to be a Democracy,yet that is becoming far from the truth. Our freedoms are subtly being taken away as well. America is becoming less "free" by the day. The only difference with China is that their government is being more obvious and straight forward with what they do and why they do it unlike the gov't of our good ol' US of A that does it behind excuses (i.e. Homeland Security,terrorists...etc)Goes to show you that just because a country is "Democratic" doesnt mean its free. I dont agree with what they are doing but they have the right to do it because they are in charge,for better or worse.
What gives the Chinese government the right
What gives the Chinese government the right to do as they wish inside their borders?
How did they get to that position on the top of the heap, where they get to make all the decisions?
I'll tell you. They killed a lot of people. And they still lock up anybody who disagrees with them in public.
I agree with you 100%. What
I agree with you 100%. What gives them the right? They do. It sucks but thats the reality of the situation. The only way the Chinese people can throw the off the yoke of their government would be to revolt,and im not talking non violent either(wouldnt do any good). Considering how many people are packed together in China,the numbers are on their side. A non violent approach would only be met with stiff punishment. At least with a nationwide revolution with arms,they would have a chance. It all depends on when or if the Chinese people would be ready for such a change
And what gives the U.S.
And what gives the U.S. government the right to invade Iraq?
your an idiot
your an idiot...go to china where you can be with the rest of your farleft jackoffs
yes he is an idiot he should
yes he is an idiot he should be minding his own jack a ss buisness.
It is sad to see some
It is sad to see some people's limited, biased view on the situation in China, and nice to see that there are others (Americans) that is living in China and truly understand what government is all about.
Many think of democracy as a perfect political system. Well, democracy is an excellent ideal, but so is communism. The problem is that no government on earth can actually make thses nice ideals into reality. You think China is run by dicatatorship? Well, i think democracy is the dictatorship of the majority. Plus, in any democratic system, the candidates who have a chance at winning an election are those backed by wealthy, powerful, and greedy corporates and billionares. Power doesn't have to be absolute in order to corrupt absolutely. People think of U.S. as the heaven for material comfort, well, it is, but this material comfort does not come from your government, nor does it arise from your political system. The affulence Americans enjoy comes with a price which citizens of the whole world need to pay. Americans' massive, monstrous consumption lifestyle, or their "American Dream" is not only eating away at the world's environment, but also devouring resources which should be distributed evenly to benefit all mankind. In fact, i think China is not a threat to the world, but the United States of America is.
Moving
It is always a possibility. As a world traveler I have seen both ways. If the US is so bad you could pick up and move. After all, babies in China do not wear diapers much (cutting down on the land fill problem) and the doctors go to school for a whopping 2 years. I guess you could spend some of your American money to have yourself air-lifted to Hong Kong to get real medical attention after one of their quacks stick you with an unsterilized needles giving you Hep. Then there is the babies that are pressed into your arms by mothers hoping that you can give their children a better life, but you wouldn't know about that would you? China is a beautiful country and I have fallen madly in love with the people the environment and the food, but their government is doing a wonderful job of saving face by shutting down some of the doors of communication that would let the world know what life is really like there. Of course, in each part of China things are different. I only visited 3 provences, so...maybe other parts aren't so bad. Why don't you go and find out?
i think the world of myspace
i think the world of myspace is coming to an end
it's blocked at my school and i need help unblocking it
please help of i can never go on again thank you
just go to www.2hide.net you
just go to www.2hide.net you should be able to get on from shcool using that website
Ehhhhhhhhhhhh
I just wanna check my myspace!!!!!!!!!!!!
no body
no body cares!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i miss my myspace skool
i miss my myspace skool sucks
hey
hey i agree school does suck and i do miss myspace as well you no and they should put it back on
i miss my dam myspace skool
i miss my dam myspace skool sucks...
yea it do we need myspace in
yea it do we need myspace in school for real
I don't see what's so great
I don't see what's so great about North American myspace.com.............
You're all up in arms because China has removed two topics from their message boards which can be bypassed a la "animal farm".
Now just look at the whole flawed set up of myspace to begin with...
Everyone gets to make a free profile.
Everyone gets to add as many friends as they want.
Everyone can accept as many friend requests as they want.
BUT
Everyone has to accept each new friend request by clicking a button, you can accept at most 10 at a time.
Now think about how long it would take you to accept 1,000,000 friend requests for your uncensored American myspace page?.....
It's a barrier to entry that prevents real people from voicing opinions and gathering support for their ideas.
The mega corporations have bypassed this of course because if you have enough money you can purchase "advertising" on myspace which goes beyond putting a simple static banner ad on myspaces homepage...
What you can purchase is a corporate friend account, who will be featured on the home page of every 100,000,000 profiles.
Another thing is that these corporate profiles don't have to accept friend requests. They have automatic friend acceptance so they can thrust their product or opinion in millions of peoples faces overnight.
In essence what myspace is doing (very cleverly I might add) is they are turning the internet back into television, in the sense that tv is a one way communication medium.
Myspace is doing far more corrupt things than acquiescing to Chinas demands. When myspace creates massive barriers to entry, makes arbitrary choices on who gets to be featured on myspace's homepage, and by selling souped up profiles that undermine the entire democratic image they promote..... well that is just an unfair system that does little to create an egalitarian website for their users.
A final note... myspace is replete with conflicts of interest as Tom has supplanted himself as the de facto friend for every new member and has used his presence and influence to garner more support for his fledgling record company and other private money making interests.
An early example occurred when Tom offered to increase the number of photos members could upload to their profiles *if* they added myspace music as a friend first. This of course happened when all the other social networks had long ago upped their members photo capacity to double or triple that of myspace.
The moral of the story here is that myspace is a private company that has and will use their website as a means to promote whatever financial, political, or general idea, or corporation they want; via means that are not available to others even though the website is largely seen as a free place where everyone can just add friends and have fun...
??how!!
hey everyone, i just wanto know a simple way to get onto myspace at school.
peace out
taylor
no way
there is no way to get on myspace na. they blockin every thing we think of. they get on my nerves
my school blocks myspace
my school blocks myspace aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
proxy
hey why dont you use a proxy like uumm ipwith.com or ipbean.com or sslproxy.org !!!!!THAY WORK!!!!!!!!!
sucks having myspace blocked at school
wut if people finished there work & they wood like to go on there page just to see if they have any new messages and don't have internet access at home or for some reason they couldnt go online but they finished there work and they cant go on dat suck...
unblock myspace from public schools..please
atte:ANONYMOUS
amen
dude you are smart. but at my school you can go on it but at my local libary you have to be over 17 to unblock it. sucks
this sucks
the world of myspace is coming to an end and i need help unblocking it!
they even block videos at my school
help me unblock it!!
blocking myspace is killlin me
can you unblock myspace because that is what we like to go
yeah its so damn retarded
yeah its so damn retarded that its blocked it suck real bad!!!! i hate it
hey dis is mayra nd da only reason i come 2 skool is 4 myspace nd it ani't there
hey my name is mirna and it suck bad that we aint able 2 go on myspace !!!!! im pissed
ugh ughugh
Thanks Myspace
Thanks Myspace
How many...
...of the China haters on this site have ever been to China? If you did actually manage to take your heads from up your own "self righteous" backsides and visit you would find a wonderful country filled with amazing people! I visited this year for the first time, it's safe to say I want to live there now and leave the UK, I love the place. I didn't see any evidence of this "Communist Dictatorship" you so passionately speak of, but I did find a vibrant, exploding economy, amazing nightlife, a fascinating culture, and wonderful people, some of the friendliest, welcoming people you could ever wish to meet. The stall owner in Shanghai Flower Market who was checking her stocks and shares online whilst attending to customers certainly didn't seem "oppressed", nor did anyone else I was fortunate enough to meet.
I think you all need to take a long hard look at your own societies before passing comment on another, especially if you are from the UK or USA!
why
why do local libarys and school block porn and myspace?
why.
please reply
ok every one calm down
ok every one calm down myspace is coming back to your sckools ok go to 2hide.org or go to 2hide.net or 2hide.com or 2hide.globalnet may not wiorrk just email me i know all the secrets kifity@hotmail.com ill be waiting
This is hilarious. All you
This is hilarious. All you stupid Western neo-libs and conservatives are up in arms over the fact that Chinese netizens can't search for Falun Gong or the Dalai Lama on Google or Myspace. What makes you think they'd want to be searching for content like that anyway? I've lived in China 5 years, married a local, and raised my "hun xue" daughter here. Never once have I heard anyone, even in private, mention how upset they are that they can't get info about those topics. Posts like this make it seem like the Chinese are all just dying to break out of the country and learn as much as they can about the Dalai Lama and how goddamn great he is. In fact, most Chinese wont have anything to do with him or FG at all. Maybe you'll that's evidence of the "oppression" they supposedly live with, but I can assure you that hardly any of the billion Chinese in this country are losing any sleep over it. Most Chinese aren't interested in politics, anyway.
So cut out the self-righteous "ohhh, those poor Chinese people" bullshit.
myspace.
need myspace unblock sites
/
help
hey dudes where is the english button on chinese myspace
I have 1 question...plz help
Hi! dudes please tell me where can I download free pron
everybody sucks
everybody sucks
THIS SUCKS !!!!!
THIS SUCKS !!!!!
At least they have Myspace
If I lived in China, I would be a happy camper, even without some things that other countries have.
Myspace
This is cool man!
hey everyone
live life to the fullest and never let anything go unless it has let go of you first
hey
hry dose eny1 know how to unblock myspace from skool
i dono anymore how to hack
i dono anymore how to hack myspace from school.. did you find out?
if only theyed tell me how
if only theyed tell me how to hack on to myspace in the usa lol..
anyone know?
i cant wait to speak chinese.
I love chinese people. i love the culture. I want to
I'm Chinese, and I love
I'm Chinese, and I love China, but I don't love CCP.
im chinese but i dnt want to
im chinese but i dnt want to live there because my mummy nd daddy r killing me i cant get away PLEASE help me i want the childline number so i can get proper help.
my name is Talida i am 12 i am a bit young to get beats so please help mee !!!
thankzzz x
p.s think next week i might not be here !
Well, I only caught a part
Well, I only caught a part of this as I was looking through what people had to say; to those that took such great offense to the comment "who gives the US the right to invade Iraq?" ...Seriously, who does? I don't necessarily agree with China's censorship policies, but at the same time the US has its own flaws in ideology. I can even follow the invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11, but Iraq was a different story and in all honesty did not need the US to get involved. I just find it funny that the US government feels it necessary to step into every foreign matter, no matter how far or how unrelated it may be; meanwhile a good portion of the American people simply agree that it's "what's supposed to be done". Every country has its own flaws, some are just more... noticeable, than others.
i think...
I do not believe this
How o send Pm?
Hi, how I can send PM?
ok i am too an american i
ok i am too an american i now reside and live here in china how ever as much as the chinese like to firewall any kind of american sights
and they do quite often you should use cmd to bypass the proxies and firewall by using ip address and possibly using other servers
p.s. btw china does not have their own servers or internet
they steal it and use australia's servers and would more than likely be using fiberwire and using the ip's as their own while making their own ends using a company such as china mobile and or even chinanet com.
then then forward all information to china in beijing and sell it to people all over china's provinces
enother reason why the system is so overloaded and at times quite slow........................................
best use nod32 with steganos anon. with 360* never use kaspersky as it is made by russians and is infact a virus nod32 proved that case
this sucks
this sucks
why do people block this
why do people block this site so that way they cant get on to it for?
i have a myspace and a ps3
i have a myspace and a ps3 sooo that means china rules
CHINA
Myspace just got blocked, as of December 5th, 2009.