README.adoc

Related:

* <<hate-speech>>
* <<os-problemas-da-imprensa-livre>>
* <<dictatorships-are-bad-for-the-arts>>

.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Drooker[Eric Drooker]'s "Censorship" (TODO year) has become one of the most recognizable censorship symbols as of 2020. https://www.drooker.com/illustrations[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Eric_Drooker_censorship.jpg[height=400]

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vpPqYYyUdU[] Inside a Chinese internet censorship centre by <<scmp>> (2019) Interview with Zhi Heng from the censorship department of the live streaming company Inke (映客), "China's largest live-streaming app" at the time according to SCMP. https://www.inke.cn[company website]. Heng proudly shows how they use machine learning to help their censoring efforts, and how the managed to block live streaming based on GPS location around a manifestation once. Pure gold. That company has close CCP ties as can be seen on <<china-daily>> https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/tech/2017-02/17/content_28239744.htm[] "Inke hires 1000 supervisors to clean up live-streaming content" (2017).
video::4vpPqYYyUdU[youtube,height=400,width=600]

https://www.inke.cn/

[[internal-censorship]]
==== Internal censorship is necessary to prevent fake USA accounts from creating harmful propaganda

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_China
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中华人民共和国言论审查

The USA cannot create enough fake accounts to overwhelm real 1.5 billion Chinese accounts, especially considering things like forcing mobile number account verification.

Chinese politicians are just using this fear as an excuse to stay in power: <<evil-west>>.

What if a Chinese person who really loves China and wants to improve the country disagrees with the Government?

What if this person is right, and wants to express this publicly to get support and make change happen?

Should this person just be put into jail as is done currently? Do you really think that the CCP can never do anything seriously wrong? <<chinese-politicians-really-care-about-the-chinese-citizens>>?

When citizens stop trying to contribute due to fear, this is known as the <<chilling-effect>>.

What if a <<is-chinese-politician-x-evil,politician>> does something bad, and <<corruption,suppresses the news to protect themselves>>?

Without freedom of speech, who will watch over the actions of those in power? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes%3F[Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?]

____
I hear always the admonishment of my friends:

"Bolt her in, constrain her!"

But who will guard the guardians? The wife plans ahead and begins with them.
____

With internal censorship, leaders inevitably become <<xi-jinping,Gods>>, and soon zealous sons betray their fathers and brothers in loyalty to the leader and their fake ideal. See for example: <<man-in-the-high-castle>>.

[[man-in-the-high-castle]]
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SymuEg6NRp0 Scene from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_High_Castle_(TV_series)[The Man in the High Castle] S04E06 in which the devoted young Thomas Smith hands himself in to be killed by the Nazis whom he worships after discovering that he has a disease, which is not acceptable in <<nazi,Nazi>> America.
video::SymuEg6NRp0[youtube,height=400,width=600]

The famous https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Heine[Heinrich Heine] (German but from the 19th century, before the Nazis) saying also comes to mind:

____
Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.
____

Do you not think that this translates well to the modern version:

____
Where they have deleted online posts, they will end in deleting human beings.
____

The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_books_and_burying_of_scholars[Burning of books and burying of scholars] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/焚书坑儒[焚书坑儒], 212 BC) also comes to mind.

It is actually easier for the USA to manipulate a dictatorship than a democracy, because then all you have to do is buy/blackmail a few key corrupt politicians instead of manipulating millions of people's feeds.

.Internal censorship is so strong, that many Chinese people who leave China to live abroad continue to believe that the CCP is always right, despite having access evidence that suggests otherwise. This <<rebel-pepper>> 2019-08 cartoon shows frogs coming out of a big well still remain inside their own small wells made up of Chinese media such as <<zhihu-purge,Zhihu>> and CCTV. It is a reference to the Chinese proverb https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/井底之蛙[井底之蛙] which means that a frog in the bottom of the well can only see a very limited portion of the sky. https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/biantailajiaomanhua/lj-08302019111414.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Frog_in_well.jpeg[height=500]

.<<nazi,Nazis>> burning books in Berlin in 1933. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_book_burnings[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Nazi_book_burning.jpg[height=400]

.<<falun-gong>> books being destroyed with a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_roller[road roller] in 1999 in China in an extremely low quality early Internet still of a video TODO Ciro saw a 3s sequence in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7cz4Tkbwy8[], find timestamp again. How far do you think mass jailings and torture would be? One wonders why they didn't burn the books though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Destruction_d'ouvrages_du_Falun_Gong_lors_de_la_répression_de_1999_en_Chine.jpg[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Falun_Gong_road_roller_book_destruction.jpg[height=400]

==== China has more freedom of speech than the USA!

When you hear that online, it really makes you wonder if those people believe it or are paid to say it.

Luckily, this is easy to verify: just create an online account on a Chinese website, and start posting about censored political subjects, and wait for your account to get banned.

Then create an account on an American website, and start posting about censored political subjects. The first good question is: what will you post about since no political subject is censored?

Here is one concrete and well documented example: <<zhihu-purge>>.

Or maybe why not <<t-shirt,go out on the street in China with a T-shirt with censored words and share some photos online>>?

[[video-bbc-local-election-interview-block-2016]]
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1HdCIW2Xtk 2016-10-18 BBC reporter stopped from visiting China local election independent candidate Liu Huizhen (刘惠珍) by local thugs who block him physically from nocking the door. Funny/scary stuff. The BBC returned a few days later when the thugs weren't there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eroTCMRn2yQ[]. Accompaging article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-37997706[] "China elections: Independent candidates fight for the ballot".
video::c1HdCIW2Xtk[youtube,height=400,width=600]

[[t-shirt]]
===== What happens if you wear a T-shirt with censored words in China?

See also <<ciro-santilli>>'s answer to https://www.quora.com/What-would-happen-if-I-walked-around-Beijing-with-a-t-shirt-that-said-freedom-of-speech-is-pretty-great/answer/Ciro-Santilli[What would happen if I walked around Beijing with a t-shirt that said "freedom of speech is pretty great"?] on <<quora>>.

Some cases where that didn't end well for them:

* 2017 Li Xiaoling (李小玲) was arrested and released "on bail" for wearing a <<tiananmen,Tiananmen>> T-shirt: https://www.nchrd.org/2017/10/li-xiaoling/ on <<chinese-human-rights-defenders>>
* 1989 <<pu-zhiqiang-shirt,Pu Zhiqiang (浦志强) freedom of speech shirt>> during <<tiananmen>>

Related:

* 2000 https://en.minghui.org/emh/articles/2000/11/8/6250.html Autralian Zhang Cuiying (张翠英) went to China to protest against Falun Gong oppression and was kept 8 months in jail there. When she returned to Australia on 2000-11-04, she wore a t-shirt saying:
+
____
为了一句公道话， +
法轮大法是正法， +
为此坐牢八个月， +
历经艰险讨公道， +
头可断，血可流， +
浩气丹心留狱中， +
中国镇压法轮功， +
将成为千古罪人。
____
+
translated as:
+
____
Because of the truth I said +
Falun Dafa is righteous +
I was imprisoned for 8 months +
I went through the hardship just to attain the justice +
I am not afraid of bleeding or other sacrifice +
My righteous mind was shown in the prison +
China suppresses Falun Gong +
Which is unforgivable
____

.In 2016 activist Quan Ping (Kwon Pyong,权平,https://twitter.com/kwonpyong[BraveJohnny]) was sent to jail for wearing a <<nazi,Xitler>>/<<xi-jinping-memes,習包子/大撒币>> t-shirt in public and posting selfies online. This photo is in front of a Government building (TODO exact location, reports say he is from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jilin_City[Jilin City 吉林] transcription of the sign on top of building: 诚信立市 https://baike.baidu.com/item/工业强市[工业强市] 依法治...) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/16/world/asia/china-xi-jinping-xitler-tshirt-kwon-pyong.html[New York Times coverage]. He was later sentenced and served 18 months in prison because of this: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/profile/kwon-pyong on <<front-line-defenders>>. https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/xi-jinping-tshirt-activist-confirmed-held-in-northeast-china-detention-center-12082016110338.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Quan_Ping_tshirt.jpg[height=400]

[[liu-shihui-one-party-rule]]
.In 2009 activist Liu Shihui (刘士辉) was arrested for wearing a t-shirt saying "One-party rule is a disaster" (一党独裁，遍地是灾) in 2009 in Guangzhou. This is a quote from a <<chinese-government-media,Xinhua News>> editorial https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/1946/03/【历史的先声】一党独裁，遍地是灾/[from the 1940s]. On the back was another quote by former president https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Shaoqi[Liu Shaoqi (刘少奇)] "The CP [Communist Party] opposes the Kuomintang's one-party dictatorship, but the CP will not establish a one-party dictatorship". This interesting <<zhihu>> page has many other similar quotes BTW: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/59503784[] (https://web.archive.org/web/20200331202252/https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/59503784[archive]). He was later assaulted, spent 108 days in jail without a trial, and was forcefully sent back to his home town in Inner Mongolia: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/case-history-liu-shihui on <<front-line-defenders>>. Quotes from the <<hundred-flowers-campaign>> also come to mind. https://observers.france24.com/en/20090522-arrested-subversive-shirt[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Liu_Shihui_tshirt.jpg[height=500]

[[gfw]]
==== Great Firewall (GFW, 防火长城)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Firewall
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/防火长城

Golden Shield Project:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Shield_Project
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/全国公安工作信息化工程

And so, the spirit of Internet freedom that the Chinese themselves had at the start, was crushed :

____
越过长城
走向世界

Across the Great Wall, we can reach every corner in the world.
____

https://gist.github.com/yefuchs/4648713 "GFW Contributers" has a list of people that contributed to the GFW.

Source: the first International email sent from China in 1987 by https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/王运丰[Wang Yunfeng (王运丰)] in the Beijing-based Institute for Computer Application (ICA) of the China Ordnance Industry Corporation under the https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中华人民共和国机械电子工业部[Ministry of Machinery and Electronics of the People's Republic of China (中华人民共和国机械电子工业部)] to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Zorn[Werner Zorn] from the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlsruhe_Institute_of_Technology[Karlsruhe Institute of Technology] see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_China[].

[[dictator-needs-gfw]]
===== Would ending the Great Firewall truly end the dictatorship?

Not 100% sure.

In <<russia>>, for example, the Internet is relatively free, but the government controls most professional media, which is what most people end up seeing, by suing dissidents media out of business.

But on the other hand Russia is already much freer than China.

Although I don't like them, I can't deny one thing: the commies are smart, and when they do something (e.g. censorship), it tends to keep them in power.

===== The Great Firewall is necessary to protect China from harmful USA propaganda and data collection

<<ciro-santilli>> doesn't think this is below the USA, but:

* without censorship, you would be much richer and stronger, and more able to defend yourselves
* why does China also censor its own people in addition to foreign propaganda?
* maybe this fear is greatly emphasized by the Chinese government beyond truth just to help them keep control of the country by fear and maintain their own power. Can the Americans really have that much influence in your country? <<evil-west>>
* maybe the regions that want to split from China feel like China is not giving them anything back, and they are themselves looking for allies outside of China to help them split. With democracy, people are more likely to get what they want, and there will be split parties and votes.
* the same argument can be used to justify any action, no matter how bad. E.g.: we must put all who criticize the government in jail, or else they will make China less united and weaker against the USA!

<<deng-xiaoping>> notably had this ideology, even though he explicitly recognizes that there are also <<censorship-makes-countries-poorer,benefits to not having online censorship>>:

____
打开窗户，新鲜空气和苍蝇就会一起进来。
____

which translates as:

____
If you open the window, both fresh air and flies will enter.
____

[[google-china]]
====== Google China 谷歌中国

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_China
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/谷歌中国

.Faithful Google China users/employees made a funeral-like flower tribute on the company's entry sign in Beijing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuspark[Tsinghua Science Park] when the company was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Aurora[kicked/hacked out of China in the 2010 Operation Aurora]. This was one example of the unfair <<what-should-western-countries-do-about-china,joint venture technique imposed on foreign companies>> by China. https://qz.com/1352137/why-internet-users-chose-baidu-over-google-when-it-was-in-china/[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Google_funeral.webp[height=400]

[[jingjing-chacha]]
===== Jingjing and Chacha 警警察察

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingjing_and_Chacha

Friendly looking mascots of Internet Censorship in China created by the Shenzhen Government in 2006.

https://youtu.be/ZB8ODpw_om8?t=583 "Roger Dingledine - The Tor Censorship Arms Race The Next Chapter - DEF CON 27 Conference" mentions that choosing friendly looking mascots for internet censorship is a comon practice in several dictatorships, so to suggest that they are just <<evil-west,protecting citizens>>, These show the cute UAE censorship page for example:

* Iran https://business.financialpost.com/technology/canadian-software-used-to-filter-internet-in-middle-east
* Quatar https://rankingdigitalrights.org/2019/06/12/arab-regions-telecommunications-companies-fail-to-respect-users-digital-rights/

The images were https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jingjing_and_Chacha&oldid=917408711[removed from Wikipedia] presumably due to fair use concerns, so Ciro asked how to check that at: https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/137977/how-to-check-why-a-fair-use-image-was-removed-from-wikipedia After understanding the case, Ciro https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jingjing_and_Chacha&oldid=936842199[reuploaded the images], hopefully for good.

.Jinjing (警警) is the male cop. https://web.archive.org/web/20070825092952/http://www.e-gov.org.cn/Article/news003/2006-01-02/15229.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Jingjing.jpg[height=400]

.Chacha (警警) is the female cop. https://web.archive.org/web/20070825092952/http://www.e-gov.org.cn/Article/news003/2006-01-02/15229.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Chacha.jpg[height=400]

.Jingjing and Chacha picture shown on the street, presumably in China. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bnvy38/jingjing-and-chacha[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Jingjing_Chacha_street.jpeg[height=400]

.Image with Jingjing and Chacha together and explanations (深圳网络警察,Shenzhen Network Police), good for copy pasting. TODO a bit small. https://www.reddit.com/r/Cyberpunk/comments/84vbut/cute_official_mascot_design_of_chinese_internet/[Source]..
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Jingjing_Chacha_Shenzhen_police.jpg[height=400]

.Beijing version of the Shenzhen-created Jingjing and Chacha. TODO what does it say on the images? On car "XX网络110" (XX Internet 110) so it must be the phone number of the Internet police department. At bottom right something like (联合新作, joint XX), so likely means it is a joint action between two departments. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/20477258/ns/technology_and_science-internet/t/beijing-police-launch-virtual-web-patrol/[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Jingjing_Chacha_Beijing.jpg[height=400]

.Angry Chinese cop cartoons extracted from https://web.archive.org/web/20191209021646/http://encyclopediadramatica.rs/China[Encyclopedia Dramatica] with the racist subtitles removed. It is hard to be sure what is the original image that they were Photoshopped from, but they are very similar to the Beijing Jingjing and Chacha although this is not a direct copy paste of the above since several details differ. The image was uploaded in 2011 to ED. https://web.archive.org/web/20170525180028/https://encyclopediadramatica.rs/File:Preasetoshowpapers.jpg[Source].
image::{cirosantilli-media-base}/Jingjing_Chacha_angry.jpg[height=400]

.The Qatar friendly censorship page likely from around 2011 sowing that China is not alone in this "cute censorship mascots" technique. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Qatar_filtering_message._Qtel_network.jpg[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Qatar_web_censorship_page.jpg[height=600]

===== Western companies that sell censorship technology to dictatorships

To China:

* Oracle
** 2021-02-18 https://theintercept.com/2021/02/18/oracle-china-police-surveillance/ "HOW ORACLE SELLS REPRESSION IN CHINA"
* Cisco may have knowingly helped to build the Chinese internet censorship infrastructure in the 2000's
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisco_Systems#Censorship_in_China
** https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/04/ciscos-latest-attempt-dodge-responsibility-facilitating-human-rights-abuses-export
*** https://www.eff.org/files/2016/01/12/113_second_amended_complaint_does_v._cisco_9.18.13.pdf they had a demo with a <<falun-gong>> module
** https://www.wired.com/2008/05/leaked-cisco-do/
*** Internal CISCO documents quote the Chinese Government saying: "The Golden Shield Project ... Combat Falun Gong evil religion and other hostiles"

To other dictatorships:

* 2019: IBM https://gizmodo.com/ibm-sells-face-recognition-surveillance-to-a-dictatorsh-1835101881
* 2017: Amesys France for facial recognition surveillance in Egypt: https://www.fidh.org/en/region/north-africa-middle-east/egypt/sale-of-surveillance-equipment-to-egypt-by-french-company-amesys
* 2011: Netsweeper Inc. from Canada to UAE
** claim: https://business.financialpost.com/technology/canadian-software-used-to-filter-internet-in-middle-east
* 2009: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forcepoint[Forcepoint], previously Websense
** claims on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forcepoint#Censorship

In 2019, the European Union was considering making stricter laws about cyber surveillance exports, to include more <<dual-use-technology>>, so <<what-should-western-countries-do-about-china,kudos to them>>:

* https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EPRS_BRI%282016%29589832
* https://ec.europa.eu/trade/import-and-export-rules/export-from-eu/dual-use-controls/index_en.htm
* https://www.osborneclarke.com/insights/upcoming-changes-to-bring-cyber-surveillance-technology-within-eu-export-control-regime/
* https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/12/eu-plans-restrict-export-dual-spy-tech-171210061410639.html

See also: <<western-companies-that-comply-with-chinese-censorship-requests>>.

.Cartoon showing how Amesys systems are used to suppress citizens in Egypt. Do you want the logo of your company to figure there instead? https://www.fidh.org/en/region/north-africa-middle-east/egypt/sale-of-surveillance-equipment-to-egypt-by-french-company-amesys[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Amesys.jpg[height=400]

===== Censorship monitoring

Projects that attempt to understand how the Great Firewall works and what it blocks:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Websites_blocked_in_mainland_China
** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中华人民共和国被封锁网站列表
* Garry King Harvard papers:
** https://gking.harvard.edu/50c#
** https://gking.harvard.edu/publications/how-Censorship-China-Allows-Government-Criticism-Silences-Collective-Expression
** https://gking.harvard.edu/publications/randomized-experimental-study-censorship-china
* https://gfw.report/
* https://geneva.cs.umd.edu/ from the Geneva Project of the University of Maryland. Source: https://github.com/kkevsterrr/geneva

It is also worth noting that as mentioned at <<is-stack-overflow-blocked-in-china>> that websites can become non-functional if CDNs they rely on are taken down, instead of the website being taken down itself.

News:

* 2021-03-16 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/16/signal-blocked-china-encrypted-messaging-app "Signal: China appears to have blocked encrypted messaging app"

====== Censorship monitoring tools on GitHub

More interesting GitHub repositories: <<github-repositories-with-censored-information>>

* https://github.com/phoeagon/gfw-sim GFW emulation
* https://github.com/citizenlab/chat-censorship data on Censorship
* https://github.com/mothran/mongol "A simple python tool to pinpoint the IP addresses of machines working for the Great Firewall of China."

[[greatfire]]
====== GreatFire (自由微博)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GreatFire
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/自由微博

A group that produces tools and websites against censorship in China, central website: https://greatfire.org/

Backed by <<rfa>> and therefore USA Government.

The GreatFire Analyzer is their most important tool, it checks if websites are blocked or not in China:

* https://en.greatfire.org/analyzer
* https://zh.greatfire.org/analyzer

It also keeps a calendar of previous checks so you can see when a website started getting blocked.

One of the highlighted collections is the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexa_Internet[Alexa] Top 1000 domain block analysis: https://en.greatfire.org/search/alexa-top-1000-domains

Quite a few amazingly named porn ones, how could you live without them? <<porn>>

* https://chaturbate.com
* https://bongacams.com/

And some interesting random stuff that is hard to understand why its blocked, some of them appear to be pure protectionism:

* https://sourceforge.net/ interesting! The ex-<<github>> was blocked unlike GitHub as of 2020: https://www.quora.com/Is-SourceForge-still-relevant-to-open-source-projects/answer/Ciro-Santilli
* https://www.homedepot.com
* weirdly named <<google-mirrors,Google mirrors>>
* https://www.jw.org/en/ Jehovah's Witness
* https://www.yodobashi.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yodobashi_Camera a Japanese Electronics retailer

Other tools and projects:

* https://freeweibo.com a Weibo archive to overcome deleted posts
* https://en.greatfire.org/blog/2013/nov/google-can-bring-end-censorship-10-days-heres-how made some noise at the time
* https://twitter.com/GreatFireChina
* <<collateral-freedom>>

Their repo https://github.com/greatfire/wiki has been added to <<gov-takedowns-china>>.

Who is behind them:

* https://techcrunch.com/2015/03/30/greatfire/ from 2015 says "Started in 2011 by three anonymous individuals", and "Charlie Smith" is the pseudonym of the CEO.

[[wayback-machine]]
====== Wayback Machine (网站时光机)

Their Wayback Machine tool archive snapshots of webpages and allows youto browse the history of all archives:

* https://web.archive.org/
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/网站时光机

By the Internet Archive organization:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Archive
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/互联网档案馆

This Chrome extension helps to quickly archive pages: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wayback-machine/fpnmgdkabkmnadcjpehmlllkndpkmiak

But remember that if you archive too many in a very quick succession before the previous ones have been archived, even if manually through that plugin, your account/IP might get blocked, so just give a few seconds for the current archive to terminate before starting new ones.

This happened to Ciro in 2020-06-14, but then he emailed the admins as mentioned at: https://help.archive.org/hc/en-us/articles/360016379432-Accounts-Tips-Troubleshooting- and they re-enabled it.

It is possible to request social media pages you own to be removed from the archive in some circumstances: https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/143529/is-it-possible-to-request-to-remove-page-snapshots-from-a-personal-social-media

Some website specific techniques:

* YouTube videos: they do seem to download them!
** But as as of 2020, they seem to have some serious bugs failing with "Sorry the Wayback Machine does not have this video (<id>) archived (or not indexed yet)." on most videos: https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/149933/why-does-the-archive-org-of-most-youtube-videos-fail-with-sorry-the-wayback-mac
** And the interface may be very broken, possibly due to the arabic youtube interface, you might just have to click around sometimes. So the best thing is to just always use the magic direct video link: of form: https://web.archive.org/web/2oe_/http://wayback-fakeurl.archive.org/yt/<video-id>
** E.g. a deleted pair from <<aaron-dewitt>>:
*** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d81mEbL8Yw8&feature=youtu.be
*** https://web.archive.org/web/20201103072718if_/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d81mEbL8Yw8&feature=youtu.be
** It is possible to get a raw mp4 link with as mentioned at https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/391951-How-to-download-a-YouTube-video-archived-by-Wayback-Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/2oe_/http://wayback-fakeurl.archive.org/yt/<video-id> e.g.: https://web.archive.org/web/2oe_/http://wayback-fakeurl.archive.org/yt/c6uFGGunRxc[], the download did work on 2020-12-31. It redirects to
* Google Docs: visit the page while logged off (e.g. via browser private mode), click the print button, and then archive the resulting PDF URL

How to search by prefix/pattern: https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/146661/how-to-search-the-internet-archives-wayback-machine-by-url-prefix-or-pattern

[[archive-today]]
====== archive.today

http://archive.is/

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archive.today
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archive.is

Like <<wayback-machine>> by unknown shady individuals, so less trustworthy.

CrunchBase claims without source New York based: https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/145817/on-which-country-are-the-creators-and-servers-of-archive-today-archive-is-base

Does not care about robots.txt, so it sometimes works where Wayback Machine fails, so its better than nothing when it does. E.g. it is a good option for <<quora>>.

And no, you can't Wayback Machine archive an archive.is, they blocked the domain.

Has specific LinkedIn handling as it has a logged scrape account, e.g.: https://archive.vn/EPaEH[]. TODO find account URL.

Also has specific GitHub handling, e.g. as seen at: https://github.com/TinkoffCreditSystems/invest-openapi/issues/278 TODO what for?

Their github account was: https://github.com/volth an archive https://archive.vn/kqftP The account was completely deleted presumaly after GitHub noticed the anti-ToS usage: all their issues created have been deleted, not converted to ghost as happens with account deletion, and non-owners cannot delete their issues, only comments. Since he was such a large NixOS contributor, this was notice by other contributors: https://discourse.nixos.org/t/how-was-this-treewide-pr-performed/11174/15 | https://twitter.com/grhmc/status/1334138105738256389

From the non-trivial contributions, they were a big NixOS contributor, and are clearly fluent Russian:

* https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/91184 "[staging] perlPackages: update" was merged.
* https://github.com/TinkoffCreditSystems/invest-openapi/issues/278 "Инструменты "для квалифицированных инвесторов" недоступны через API" is a sample issue in fluent Russian

By cloning NixOS NixOS/nixpkgs we obtain an email, it uses custom domain http://volth.com/ as of 2021-02-04 has a copy of the Google 404: https://web.archive.org/web/20190913083033/http://volth.com/ This is the case since 2013. In 2011 it was some other random company.

Google photo matches exactly this "Masha Rabinovich" https://www.linkedin.com/in/masha-rabinovich-52aa3a197/[], or is just some image of a well known person? Account marked as "Bachelor of Engineering" at the Humboldt University of Berlin.

The same photo seems to be used for all fetches: https://archive.vn/IPEEd[].

Googling name leads to an YouTube account whose only video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1bp1VxMwP4 | https://archive.vn/9Xq6w "How to make an archive.is link with selection hashtag", so yes, the relation is almost certain.

https://www.northkoreatech.org/2016/09/21/north-koreas-dns-files-reveal-internet-websites/ has an archive.is related comment by an user of the same name Masha Rabinovich: September 22, 2016 at 17:55 "There are some more websites in .kp: http://archive.is/*.kp"

In 2008 they had some interest in compilers: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/tinycc-devel/2008-11/msg00015.html The obvious gmail email can be obtained from there. The only hit is in this creepy email list: https://api.intelx.io/file/read?type=1&systemid=989faa9e-46a1-440f-87fa-2a98b616c66d&k=7b256c65-6ebf-4bb8-a301-070bce8dec01

Removing the space leads to more matches:

* 2012-08: https://community.f-secure.com/en/discussion/14768/what-is-the-evidence-of-harmful-behaviour#M3733 a "masharabinovich" claims the website:
+
____
Your website http://browsingprotection.f-secure.com/swp/result?x=5Jg2kWKC8d86b4F-H5cdoS8dyu04vtzGtEXhQL6COLIX0k4wrv-N*w shows that someone in your company "found evidence of harmful behaviour" on my website http://archive.is/
____
* https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk%3AMasharabinovich shows 2012 attempts by Masha to automate wikipedia arching of dead links with archive.is.  Later in 2016 archive** in 2016 archive.is is was blacklisted entirely: http://wikipediocracy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7578
** possibly in 2018, Wikipedia widely adopted automatic <<wayback-machine>> usage on all external links: http://blog.archive.org/2018/10/01/more-than-9-million-broken-links-on-wikipedia-are-now-rescued/

Wikipedia suggests that the name Masha Rabinovich is likely of Russian Ashkenazi Jewish origin:

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masha
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabinovich

so if the LinkedIn information is real, maybe they just went to study in Germany, or their ancestors migrated there.

The name in Cyrillic would be "Маша рабинович", but we couldn't find any information of interest by searching for that.

[[google-cache]]
====== Google Cache

https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/1687222?hl=en

Google caches every indexed page that shows up on the search, you just have to click on the arrow and select "Cache" to see it.

The advantage over <<wayback-machine>> is that Google crawls many more pages than the Wayback Machine.

How to get the Google cache for a given URL: https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/15633/how-to-modify-a-url-to-get-a-google-cached-version-of-page

It is not possible however to see old caches, therefore you have to archive the Google caches with <<wayback-machine>> if you find anything interesting in them to not lose it:

* https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/45306/how-do-you-view-all-the-cached-versions-of-a-web-page
* https://support.google.com/websearch/thread/18638126?hl=en

The Google cache also has a text-only mode which is great for more complex webpages like those on <<zhihu>>, which due to JavaScript madness keep showing and disappearing.

====== geoscreenshot

https://www.geoscreenshot.com

Takes screenshots of the websites much like <<wayback-machine>>, but you can select the location.

Once the screenshot is made, you can "view the HTML", and that gives an Amazon AWS link, and warns that JavaScript and CSS might/will be disabled. The screenshot does not state what the origin URL/data is, so it cannot be used as a proof. But we can <<wayback-machine>> archive it to make sure it remains visible. E.g.:

* 2020-09-30 https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship | http://web.archive.org/web/20200930075102/https://s3.amazonaws.com/geoscreenshot-static/d3fdb97d-2ac3-4f57-a737-6fab2997fb1a.html see also <<github-censored-subdomains>>
* 2020-09-30 https://github.com/programthink/zhao/issues/38 | https://archive.vn/QKCMi see alo <<programthink>>
* 2020-09-30 https://cirosantilli.com/china-dictatorship/ | https://archive.vn/bIzkH see alo <<mirrors>>

The free trial is very limited, and you can't share the screenshots on a public URL. See also: <<censorship-monitoring>>.

===== Lists of material censored in China

For materials hosted on GitHub, see: <<github-repositories-with-censored-information>>.

For books, see: <<books>>

Websites:

* <<falun-gong-media>> contains a few:
** <<bannedbook>>

===== gfwlist

https://github.com/gfwlist/gfwlist

Chinese people widely use this website list with browser extensions, so as to only use more expensive and risky <<censorship-circumvention>> traffic when accessing certain webpages.

The result is a well maintained list of interesting websites. About half of which is porn.

Get the full list with:

....
base64 -d gfwlist.txt
....

See also:

* https://github.com/gfwlist/gfwlist/issues/3 "How to use this repo?"
* https://github.com/gfwlist/gfwlist/issues/1141 "Add categories tags to each entry"

[[censorship-circumvention]]
===== Censorship circumvention (翻墙)

Lists:

* https://www.wallmama.com/ 墙妈妈 is one of the top Google hits and mentions amongst others:
** VPN obviously
** SOCKS5 (lantern, 蓝灯)
* https://github.com/vpncn/vpncn.github.io on <<github>> reviews VPN services
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lantern_(software)
** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/蓝灯
** https://github.com/getlantern/lantern on <<github>>
* SSR (<<shadowsocks>>)
* https://github.com/yinghuocho/firefly-proxy "A proxy software to help circumventing the Great Firewall."
* https://www.bypasscensorship.org
* https://github.com/awesome-doge/breaking-gfw-book

It is interesting to note how <<falun-gong>> is a good source of censorship-circumvention material, see e.g.: <<github-gov-takedowns>>.

Projects:

* https://github.com/Loyalsoldier/v2ray-rules-dat | https://github.com/v2ray/v2ray-core Contains cirosantilli.com: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Loyalsoldier/v2ray-rules-dat/release/geosite.dat[], victory.

More info:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_circumvention
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/突破网络审查

====== Hide destination IP until it leave the country

TODO is there any way to do use this to overcome IP blocks? You would wait until the packet leaves the country to reveal the final destination IP:

* https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/1358/what-tools-are-available-to-identify-which-country-a-specific-ip-address-is-loca
* https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9802046/identifying-country-by-ip-address
* https://stackoverflow.com/questions/409999/getting-the-location-from-an-ip-address
* https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/12857/is-it-trivial-to-bypass-ip-blocking
* https://tor.stackexchange.com/questions/15483/how-can-i-use-tor-in-china

[[ensi]]
====== TLS 1.3 ENSI

* https://blog.cloudflare.com/encrypted-sni
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Name_Indication#Encrypted_Client_Hello

This amazing standardized feature encrypts the domain as well as the URL.

This means that censors are unable to block only certain websites via DNS blocks, which is one of the main techniques used. But they can still block by IP, no?

In 2020-08, it was reported that the firewall was already blocking it: https://www.zdnet.com/article/china-is-now-blocking-all-encrypted-https-traffic-using-tls-1-3-and-esni/

Therefore, <<what-should-western-countries-do-about-china,all the West has to do>> is to force all of its websites to serve ENSI-only!

====== ShadowSocks

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowsocks
* https://github.com/shadowsocksrr/ on <<github>>
* https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/08/circumvention-tool-deleted-after-police-visit-developer/
* https://github.com/shadowsocks/shadowsocks-iOS/issues/124#issuecomment-133630294 used to contain:
+
____
Two days ago the police came to me and wanted me to stop working on this. Today they asked me to delete all the code from GitHub. I have no choice but to obey.

I hope one day I'll live in a country where I have freedom to write any code I like without fearing.
____

TODO vs VPN:

* https://superuser.com/questions/1233614/what-is-the-difference-between-shadowsocks-and-openvpn

====== SOCKS

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOCKS
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOCKS

TODO vs VPN

* https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-socks-and-a-VPN

[[icp-license]]
===== ICP license 非经营性网站备案 (2000)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICP_license
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/非经营性网站备案

Part of the <<internal-censorship,Internet censorship machine>>, although it predates the GFW proper.

It can be seen at the bottom of many many many websites, it is likely mandatory to display it.

If you see one of those, you already know hat it cannot be trusted for politics.

For example, https://archive.is/ePBM9[as of April 2020], the <<zhihu>> sidebar shows:

____
京 ICP 备 13052560 号 - 1
____

where "京" indicates that the certificate was issued by the Beijing Provincial level city.

In 2014, almost 15 years later, <<russia>> finally caught up, what a relief: <<russia-mandatory-registration-of-bloggers>>.

====== Social media license

Ahh, this is a perfect excuse to delete all <<wumao>> comments!

* 2021-02-20 https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4129352 "Beginning next week, the Cyberspace Administration of China will require bloggers and influencers to have a government-approved credential before they can publish on a wide range of subjects. Some fear that only state media and official propaganda accounts will get permission. While permits have been needed since at least 2017 to write about topics such as political and military affairs, enforcement has not been widespread. The new rules expand that requirement to health, economics, education and judicial matters."

[[anonymous-accounts-ban]]
===== Anonymous accounts ban (2017)

* https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/ban-08282017112633.html
* https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/27/china-doubles-down-on-real-name-registration-laws-forbidding-anonymous-online-posts/
* https://advox.globalvoices.org/2017/08/27/china-to-ban-anonymous-online-comments-blacklist-users/

Related:

* <<linkedin>> requires you to use the real username and photo

[[cac]]
===== Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC, 国家互联网信息办公室)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberspace_Administration_of_China
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中央网络安全和信息化委员会办公室

This is where the Internet censors work.

[[cac-report-website]]
====== CAC report website (中央网信办举报网站)

Summary:

* http://www.cac.gov.cn/hdzx/jbzx/A091102index_1.htm
* https://www.12321.cn/web
* http://12377.cn

Reports such as https://www.theage.com.au/world/asia/china-exporting-ccp-speech-controls-to-australia-as-second-university-caught-in-row-20200805-p55irf.html highlighted that these websites has a "report harmful or garbage information" entry, which can notably be used by Chinese expats to report people who badmouth the CCP, and in particular other Chinese nationals.

Typing "国家互联网信息办公室" on Google autocompleted to "国家互联网信息办公室举报" (举报 == report), and finds http://www.cac.gov.cn/hdzx/jbzx/A091102index_1.htm[].

This is clearly an official government website due to the `gov.cn` URL, and it also has an <<icp-license>>.

One of the categories of report on that page is: "网络不良与垃圾信息举报受理中心" (center for reporting harmful or garbage information, https://web.archive.org/web/20200704135840/http://www.cac.gov.cn/hdzx/jbzx/A091102index_1.htm[archive]).

Notably, there is one separate entry for illegal activity as well (网络违法犯罪举报网站) and another one for <<porn,pornography (中国扫黄打非网)>>, so it is interesting to see that there is one specifically for "misinformation".

The harmful information page redirects to: https://www.12321.cn/ (https://web.archive.org/web/20200907150310/https://www.12321.cn/[archive]) which has further categories.

The "report website" (举报不良网站) category links to https://www.12321.cn/web (https://web.archive.org/web/20200807060758/https://www.12321.cn/web[archive]) and then has a "link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionary[reactonary] and <<politically-sensitive,politically sensitive>>" (link:https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/反动[反动]及<<politically-sensitive,政治敏感>>) checkbox.

After you submit, it leads you to: https://www.12321.cn/suc (https://web.archive.org/web/20200807063330/https://www.12321.cn/suc[archive]) in which you can optionally provide further contact details: https://www.12321.cn/reg[]. This appears to be no link with the previous page, so they might just do it via IP. Registration requires both a cell phone and an email.

From the website source code (very simple, hand written, we see that it uses <<baidu,Baidu Analytics>>. The CCP obviously trusts Baidu a lot :-)

On 2020-09-07, <<mirrors,cirosantilli.com/china-dictatorship>>'s Google Analytics had a hit coming from http://jbcz.12377.cn/report/center/web.index[] ("This site can't be reached" on Chrome). This was soon after <<ciro-santilli>> mentioned <<cac-report-website>> at https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/149#issuecomment-688084645[]. This is presumably the censor's web UI to review reports. "jb" from jbcz presumably means Ju Bao (举报), the CZ Ciro couldn't guess. 2020-10-14 had another hit from: http://jbcz.12377.cn/report/load/operate.index[].

The toplevel http://12377.cn (https://web.archive.org/web/20200907235842/https://www.12377.cn/[archive]) is entitled "中央网信办（国家互联网信息办公室）违法和不良信息举报中心" and is another report website. It is also linked to from http://www.cac.gov.cn/hdzx/jbzx/A091102index_1.htm under different categories, so it is also official.

The first category in that page is "政治类" (political category). From there we have some awesome information.

First it links to the report guidelines (举报指南) https://www.12377.cn/jbzn.html?tab=4 (https://web.archive.org/web/20200902094911/https://www.12377.cn/jbzn.html?tab=4[archive])

____
涉攻击党和国家制度及重大方针政策，攻击"<<two-safegards,two safeguards,两个维护>>"，危害国家安全、泄露国家秘密，破坏国家统一和领土完整，损害国家形象荣誉利益，破坏国家民族宗教政策、宣扬邪教，诋毁英雄烈士等内容的互联网违法和不良信息，请在此举报。
____

which states:

____
Involved in attacking the party and state system and major policies, attacking the "<<two-safegards,two safeguards>>", endangering national security, leaking state secrets, undermining national unity and territorial integrity, damaging national image, honor and interests, undermining national and religious policies, promoting cults, and vilifying heroes. Please report illegal and harmful information on the Internet of martyrs and other content.
____

so yes, attacking the party and major policies is illegal in China, big news, right? "Involved in attacking the party and state system and major policies" is then one of the categories in the report page.

Soon after the previous events in 2020-09-08, anaytics got a hit from http://openurls.com.cn/ to https://cirosantilli.com/china-dictatorship[]. The only function of that website appears to be to open a newline separated list of websites into separate tabs. Maybe a censor bulk quickly having a look at several tasks. It is basically a clone of https://www.openallurls.com/[] but with an <<icp-license>> :-) The 2020-10-14 hit from http://jbcz.12377.cn was followed by another hit from http://openurls.com.cn/[], further reinforcing that this is part of their review procedure. 3 more hits on `/` and `/ciro-santilli` on 2020-02-22 after pinging a few people on https://github.com/zaohmeing/21- issues. Another hit 2021-03-19 to https://cirosantilli.com[], unknown cause.

Other report websites:

* https://www.12339.gov.cn/ spy report website, see also: <<ministry-of-state-security>>
* <<hong-kong-national-security-department-hotline>>

[[wumao]]
==== Wumao (五毛)

50 Cent Party, 五毛党, Wumao Dang:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/网络评论员

They can be classified as a form of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_warfare[information warfare] (link:https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/信息战[信息战]).

A wise person once said:

____
It is impossible to distinguish wumaos, idiots and <<not-chinese,brain washed>> people. So we just call all of them wumaos.
____

It has been pointed out however that there is a funny <<slang,slang>> name for brainwashed CCP supporters who are not necessarily paid professional wumaos: "link:https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/小粉紅[小粉紅]" (little pinks)

But of course, the <<ccp-cult,CCP is a cult>> (and <<democracy-is-a-religion,democracy, a religion>>), and therefore <<preconceived,any discussion is also pointless>> in general.

To a large extent, wumao's goals are to dilute useful conversation with shit, normally <<evil-west>> and <<western-democracies-are-not-perfect>>.

This leads to endless idiotic conversions of type:

____
You: Chinese friend, your house is on fire, let's try to put the fire out!

Wumao: I don't care, your house is also on fire!

You: that's true, that fire is also very serious, and I'm trying to put it out!

Wumao: look everyone, his house is on fire! Mine isn't!
____

Therefore, it is crucial to have a working algorithmic policy to handle them: <<how-to-deal-with-wumaos>>.

Notable wumaos <<what-should-western-countries-do-about-china,should be investigated by intelligence agencies>>.

If it is determined that they are knowingly funded by China, they should be put into jail as foreign agents.

There is a tradeoff between privacy rights and snuffing out wumaos, and it is hard to decide where to set the line. But snuffing out wumaos is important, and must be done.

If we were to give up on privacy completely, one possible rule would be: block anyone that lives in China and whose revenue therefore cannot be investigated properly by your government to determine if they are funded by the CCP.

Here are some people completely against blocking wumaos. Those silly Democrats never prepare well enough for war:

* https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/opinion/how-to-counter-chinas-global-propaganda-offensive.html
** it mentions the "Countering Information Warfare Act of 2016" https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/2692[], which is exactly what Western countries should do

The <<baidu-baike>> definition of wumao https://baike.baidu.com/item/五毛/24163406[] (https://archive.vn/mADIL[archive])) is priceless:

____
五毛，网络流行语，指收钱为某单位在网络上说好话的人

Fifty cents, an internet buzzword, refers to people who collect money for a certain unit to say good things on the Internet
____

"Good". And not mention of the CCP in the article, of course.

Other names:

* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/网军 (online army), example: https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/Soft_Job/M.1478104872.A.916.html "Github也出現網軍了嗎?" (Is there an emerging wumao army on GitHub?) on <<ptt>>

Bibliography:

* 2020-03-12 https://twitter.com/jenniferatntd/status/1238076579466674178 <<jennifer-zeng>>'s publishing of purported Wumao guidelines with translation. Translated title: "<<cac,CAC>> (link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberspace_Administration_of_China[Cyberspace Administration of China]) Internal Documentation for Internet Commentators (no spreading)"
* 2018-09-27 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCnnPf2OnHo "Chinese Internet Trolls Get Paid 50 Cents For Every Comment" by <<serpentza-laowhy86,laowhy86>>
* 2017-04-09 https://gking.harvard.edu/files/gking/files/50c.pdf "How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, not Engaged Argument" by "Gary King, Jennifer Pan, Margaret E. Roberts"
* https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/files-05202015150018.html
* 2015-05-20 https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/files-05202015150018.html "Hackers Leak Files Showing Inner Workings of 'China's 50-Cent Army'", hacker group name "Unicorn Nocturne". TODO material, silly reporters that don't give links
* 2014 emails of some Wumaos were hacked/phished and leaked at https://xiaolan.me/50-cent-party-jxgzzg.html (down, no web archive, but https://archive.is/BNNQe[]) revealing operational details
** https://qz.com/311832/hacked-emails-reveal-chinas-elaborate-and-absurd-internet-propaganda-machine/

毛 (mao2) is a colloquial form of 角 (jiao3) both meaning "one-tenth". Coins actually use 角. See also:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renminbi#Coins The fourth and fifth series Wikipedia currently have a 50 cent picture:
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_series_of_the_renminbi
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_series_of_the_renminbi
* https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/8355/角-毛-10-cents-for-money-why
* https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/26832834/六元四角-vs-六块四毛钱

.50-cent coin (五角) from the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_series_of_the_renminbi[fourth series of renminbi] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/第四套人民币[第四套人民币], 1987-1997). This image is going to be very useful. Note the beautiful plum blossom drawings reminiscent of <<chinese-traditional-painting>> which <<ciro-santilli>> loves. Note how it uses 角 (jiao3) instead of 毛 (mao2). http://www.bjzxcp.com/article-41679.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Wujiao.png[height=400]

[[how-to-deal-with-wumaos]]
===== How to deal with wumaos (如何应对五毛)

Above all, never reply intelligently to wumaos. Ignore all their notifications, and ignore their profile wherever possible. And if they start generating too many notifications, block them.

* <<reply-policy>>
* https://github.com/ckhung[C.K. Hung]'s wumao reply strategy: https://ckhung0.blogspot.com/2017/07/50-cents-party.html
+
____
為什麼我不刪五毛的回應反而要刪你的回應? 因為你只能跟人類講道理， 沒辦法跟原始物種講道理啊!

Why I delete your posts, but I don't delete wumao's posts? Because it is only possible to reason with humans, it is not possible to reason with primitive animals!
____
* https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/2019/08/【麻辣总局】新型敏感词武器：赵弹磁铁/

===== Where to find wumaos

Wumaos are particularly easy to spot on <<censorship-monitoring,Western websites banned in China>> and when written in English, since there is no way that strong pro-CCP opinions would get any support in such circumstances:

* <<quora>> is completely infested by wumaos as of 2020, see more information on that section

When they write in Chinese, it is much harder to know if they are paid or not, most are just <<stupid,brainwashed>>, some places to find them:

* <<zhao-heming>>

[[ccp-apologists]]
===== CCP apologists (中共辩护士)

If it is ever proven that those people are directly supported by the Chinese government, their nationalities should be revoked, it is very simple.

<<ciro-santilli>> feels that it is unlikely however that the CCP directly pays those apologists, as that would be too risky for both parties.

Rather, Ciro believes that they are either:

* saying that the CCP is good to get more views and ad revenue from CCP supporters that want to hear it from a white (most cases)
* even bigger complete idiots who actually believe China is good (the minority)

Then, when they reach a certain size, the CCP can support them indirectly, notably by featuring them in <<chinese-government-media>> such as <<cgtn>>, e.g. as happened <<nathan-rich>> at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRK1XDlZkng[], in order to boost their views and ad revenue.

For this reason, it is very hard to stop them without quenching freedom of expression.

Ciro's currenty recommended approach is the following: if a proeminent pro-CCP YouTubber never ever criticized the CCP, and it gets featured in CCP media, treat that channel exactly as you should treat CCP media, which is by adding a notice at the bottom along the lines of:

____
This account supports the Chinese Government, which is a fucking murderous dictatorship.
____

followed by a funny meme image that is forbidden in China, e.g. <<xi-jinping-memes>>.

It would be amazing if we could demonetize the apologist channels only for views coming from Chinese citizens, but that seems hard without completely destroying privacy?

Related discussion at: <<what-should-western-countries-do-about-china>>.

It is also interesting to note that many of them don't speak a word of Chinese, or very basic Chinese. It is fine when you say "the CCP is great" as a foreigner, but if you say "the CCP is bad", then <<not-chinese>>.

* 伏拉夫 (fu2 la1 fu1): Russian, says I love China in ridiculously enthusiastic tone which is despised even by the Chinese, samples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMVRdeUrk-8[]
+
Video by <<western-dissidents,Lele Farley>> making fun of him and <<nathan-rich>>: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSM2_HgXKsM
+
It does not feel like he is paid by the Chinese government, but rather that he is just trying to get some views.
+
https://www.zhihu.com/question/334923127 如何评价俄罗斯籍中国网红伏拉夫？ on <<zhihu>> with 17k likes as of 2020-06.
* Daniel Dumbrill
+
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6Bl8MTbW9M9MQoPhxbarpw
+
Clip featured in <<cgtn>>: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUjatX2p0dA (http://archive.is/gCeIk[archive]) "Daniel Dumbrill: Hong Kong is far freer since its return to China" supporting <<hong-kong-national-security-law>>
+
Another one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMUA3GeScUI "Daniel Dumbrill: I want my children to be proud of being Chinese"
+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gygxrdNmzUQ "Speaking With a Uyghur Activist About Xinjiang Abuse" interviews https://twitter.com/arslan_hidayat[Arslan Hidayat], who was also interviewed by <<china-uncensored,China Unscripted>>: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUTUVxw7VXc and appears to be denouncing the oppression. Video description is filled to the brim with links about how the West is using Xinjiang for fake news. TODO how can he make a video with that guy and still live in China? This suggests strongly that his videos obtain direct CCP approval.
+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nNZbDF75dc "Daniel the Pro-China 'Shill'" replies to accusations of being pro-China
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Zeman Carrie Lam supporter
* "Living in China" by Jason Lightfoot: https://www.youtube.com/user/JasonLightfoot Sample video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Mjik6q7FFo "The CCP is Wonderful! Thank you China not a government shill 谢谢你中国"

<<nazi>>-related people that come to mind:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Joyce William Joyce
+
____
William Brooke Joyce (24 April 1906 – 3 January 1946), nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw, was an American-born British fascist politician and Nazi propaganda broadcaster to the United Kingdom during World War II. He took German citizenship in 1940.

Joyce was convicted of one count of high treason in 1945 and sentenced to death, with the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords both upholding his conviction. He was hanged on 3 January 1946, making him the last person to be executed for treason in the United Kingdom.
____

On <<quora>>: https://www.quora.com/Why-does-there-seem-to-be-an-upsurge-in-CCP-apologists-and-apologism/answer/Ciro-Santilli

TODO decide:

* the JaYoe Nation https://www.youtube.com/c/JaYoeNation Sample video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smnVeGR15GI "Chinese Government Officials Corrupted My Videos! | JaYoe Conversation" 
* Mexicanos en China https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgQYtqm1xB2uuNZaOniCH0Q Sample video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a71fDVMBwP8 "Is the CHINESE GOVERNMENT PAYING US to Make Videos: Our Trip to Shaanxi // 中国政府是否付钱给我们制作视频" https://youtu.be/a71fDVMBwP8?t=188 says they were sponsored for the vidieo.
* Gweilo60's Channel: https://www.youtube.com/gweilo60
* Eric Favreliere: https://www.instagram.com/ericfavreliere/

Bibliography:

* https://medium.com/swlh/how-china-is-influencing-youtubers-into-posting-state-propaganda-db72acf18dfa "EXCLUSIVE: How China is Influencing YouTubers into Posting State Propaganda" mentions https://youtu.be/2mQ8plzWl9g?t=520 "They tried to get me to post Chinese propaganda" by J.J. McCullough (2019) was approached to publish an anti-<<shen-yun>> video by what was likely a Chinese agent.

<<reddit>> threads:

* https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/lgkp8t/british_youtubers_paid_by_the_cpp/ about Jason Lightfoot

[[nathan-rich]]
====== Nathan Rich (Hotpot King, 火锅大王)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Rich
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/内森·瑞克

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaSlyjhR4WC7QhYuaivxb6g/videos

As mentioned at: https://medium.com/swlh/how-china-is-influencing-youtubers-into-posting-state-propaganda-db72acf18dfa[]:

____
His vlogging career is inexplicably successful. He has 385,000 subscribers on his channel, a huge amount for someone with so little time and so few videos on the platform.".
____

https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/au8az3/exscientologist_nathan_rich_is_a_convicted_felon/ mentions another interesting very strong circumstantial evidence:

____
His videos feature perfect Chinese in the subtitles along with Chinese video titles, meaning that he is almost certainly having these videos produced by someone else/and or a group of people. I can guarantee that based on his pronunciation of the few Chinese words he says in the video, his Chinese ability should not be anywhere close to fluent.
____

Sample videos:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRqcA04FtmM he says <<serpentza-laowhy86,SerpentZA>> is a fraud "because he criticizes China".

Reception:

* https://www.zhihu.com/question/310502367 "如何评价 B 站 UP 主「NathanRich火锅大王」？" on <<zhihu>>. TODO what is "B站UP"?
* 2020-07-05 <<cgtn>> approves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRK1XDlZkng "Nathan Rich: 'Hotpot King' delivering truth about HK to the world"

2020-06-01  https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3941420 "China propagandist Nathan Rich's criminal record revealed" contains an outline of Richs criminal records, with including mugshots. Most of this was already likely known, but it gives good detail. In particular, it comments on the fact that in 2013 Beijing started to more strictly do criminal background checks for VISA applicants: https://www.china-briefing.com/news/non-criminal-record-certificate-required-for-employment-license-application-in-beijing/[], and that Rich managed to get the VISA two years later nonetheless, notably including a drug trafficking charge.

白https://secure.avaaz.org/community_petitions/en/youtubers_social_commentators_anybody_interested_i_remove_youtube_user_nathan_rich_from_google_services/ characterises him as "左五无毛". While this does not seems like a specific expression, and maybe is not even accurate, learning the meaning of "左五" is of interest:

* https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/白左
* https://www.zhihu.com/question/52409116
* https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/40252469
* https://pincong.rocks/question/3559

====== Barrett Channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1XG7bJnYqta_ezr12WZp7w

2021-09-21 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/beijing-funds-british-youtubers-to-further-its-propaganda-war-x5gqp5fg0 (on <<reddit>>: https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/kto2vj/beijing_funds_british_youtubers_to_further_its/[]) claims that:

____
The Times has found that some of their videos were funded by <<china-radio-international,Chinese Radio International>>, a media organisation that has been exposed as the secret owner of an international network of propaganda radio stations.

...

In November they visited the Shaanxi district of China with several other foreign YouTubers who live in China and make videos supporting the government.

The trip was organised and funded by the Chinese Radio International and an official press release described the visit as "International Internet Celebrities Witnessing the Happiness of Shaanxi People".

In a candid video about the visit that was subsequently removed, Lee admitted that a trip to a mountain was cancelled so they could witness "propaganda" regarding the area's prosperity.

He said: "It wasn't until the second day they started talking about cutting the trip short by a day, and there was no real reason given for that." A fellow YouTuber Jayoe Nation said: "They had to fit in more propaganda."

Lee replied: "They didn't say that, did they, but that's what happened."

Various videos from the trip show the YouTubers visiting locations in the district including a farm where Oli performed a farcical dance while holding vegetables.
____

Father and son British expats: Lee Barrett, the father, and Oli Barrett, the son.

100k subs one year after. Don't speak a word of Chinese it seems, but all videos have full bilingual translation.

Their tone is natural unlike others more exaggerated like <<nathan-rich>>, so maybe they believe in the shit they say? Either that, or they are a good fake by the CCP.

Sample videos:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq1mCL7EQrM "China Doesn't Have Free Speech!"

[[nigel-ng]]
====== Nigel Ng (ungle-roger, mrnigelng, 罗杰叔叔)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Ng
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/黃瑾瑜

2021-01-12:

* https://hongkongfp.com/2021/01/13/uncle-roger-apologises-and-deletes-video-featuring-fellow-youtube-star-who-criticised-china/ "'Uncle Roger' apologises and deletes video featuring fellow YouTube star who criticised China"
* https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-55651798 "Uncle Roger comedian deletes video with China critic"

Nigel had published a collaboration video called "Uncle Roger Review UGLIEST DUMPLING EVER" with another YouTuber called https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjkGXhZsu5H64fWuNQNf1Xw[Mikey Chen], who unknown to Nigel, is a somewhat discreet <<falun-gong>> believer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=315&v=nD6792YoOmY[source])

The video then removed solely because of Mikey's believes expressed elsewhere. The apology on Weibo: https://weibo.com/7231497816/JCQPH5vzK[] Excerpt:

____
During the process of working with the content-creator, I wasn't aware of his political thoughts and his past incorrect remarks about China. This is my negligence, and I will be more careful when I make content in the future.
____

This is the original video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N_wKd5UUg4 according to this reaction video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsatmCWeVb8 No archives of the original were made unfortunately.

Nigel had 125k Weibo followers at that point, and reuploads every YouTube video he posts over there with Chinese subtitles: https://weibo.com/u/7231497816[], extremely likely done by paid professionals.

Saying hi: https://github.com/nigeljyng/dotfiles/issues/4

[[real-username-law]]
==== Real username law (2015)

* 2015-03 China forces real usernames on the net, and provoking ones
** https://advox.globalvoices.org/2015/04/16/new-internet-rules-in-china-target-usernames-avatars-as-subversive-tools/ "New Internet Rules in China Target Usernames, Avatars as Subversive Tools"
** https://www.engadget.com/2015/02/28/china-username-policy-purge/ "Chinese internet giants purge 60,000 accounts for inappropriate usernames"

And guess which idiotic Western website requires real usernames and no privacy? <<quora>>, of course: https://techcrunch.com/2011/02/14/quora-to-oddly-named-users-papers-please/

==== Journalism

===== Western journalists in China

* 2020-09-21 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-21/matthew-carney-foreign-journalist-china-intimidation-birtles/12678610 "'You will be put into detention': Former ABC bureau chief tells story of fleeing China for first time"
* 2016 <<video-bbc-local-election-interview-block-2016>>
* 2015 Ursula Gauthier from <<liubukou>>

[[social-credit-system]]
=== Social Credit System 社会信用体系

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/社会信用体系

Coverage:

* 2019-06-04 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cGB8dCDf3c "A Look Inside China's Social Credit System | NBC News Now" by "NBC News"
* 2018-12-12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkw15LkZ_Kw "China's "Social Credit System" Has Caused More Than Just Public Shaming (HBO)" by "VICE News". https://youtu.be/Dkw15LkZ_Kw?t=238[328s] shows how you can donate money to the party to increase your score. This is not a hidden practice, they were filmed and everyone is showing their faces. What a brilliant idea that could never ever lead to corruption! Ciro's jaw just dropped. How can the commies not hide this kind of shit from the West, but hide other stuff the West couldn't care less about?
+
video::Dkw15LkZ_Kw[youtube,height=400,width=600]

=== Chinese foreign interference campaigns

See also:

* <<chinese-interference-in-western-media>>
* <<chinese-interference-in-the-western-education-systems>>

[[belt-and-road-initiative]]
==== Belt and Road Initiative (一带一路)