README.adoc

This therefore morally justifies the take-down attempts made by hundreds of <<wumao>>s against Ciro's anti Xi Jinping content.

First by initiative of Stack Overflow employee https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/508266/cesar-m[Cesar Manara (Brazilian)], the sentence:

____
I think Trump is disgusting as a person
____

was removed from Ciro's profile and notified.

In response, Ciro created a meta thread to confirm that the community agreed, and they did: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/361486/can-i-say-on-my-profile-that-i-find-that-an-ex-president-of-a-country-or-other[Can I say on my profile that I find that an (ex) president of a country or other major political public figure is “disgusting as a person”?] and the community agreed with the removal: it reached only 5 upvotes and 25 downvotes. Ciro's profile at the time was linked to Trump's ban on social media: link:trump-ban-is-bad.md[].

Ciro then created https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/361493/if-a-politician-has-committed-genocide-can-i-say-on-my-profile-they-look-like-w[If a politician has committed genocide, can I say on my profile they look like Winnie-the-Pooh to insult them because they hate that?] was it was also mostly downvoted, and deleted, without any answer. Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20210227034430/https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/361493/if-a-politician-has-committed-genocide-can-i-say-on-my-profile-they-look-like-w also reproduced at: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/198#issuecomment-787047672 The deletion voters were:

* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/215590/polygeo (Australia, big Geographic Information System person, real name based on https://polygeo.com.au/elearning-videos/[] "Graeme Browning")
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/135565/journeyman-geek (Singapore). Site elected admin at the time, which implies that his deletion cannot be undone by non-admins. TODO are they born in Singapore? If yes they might also be pro Xi Jinping, which is a clear conflict of interest with freedom of speech. But their English sounds perfect, so Ciro is not sure if it is common for Singapore natives or not.
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/140890/martijn-pieters (UK, lots of Python rep)

There was no yes/no answer by anyone, because the of cowardice and hypocrisy:

* saying "you can" would imply you can criticize Trump
* saying "you can't" would imply they support genocide

So their brains just tilted, and they clicked the "delete" button as the only possible resolution. The overly speedy deletion of posts was then raised as an issue two days later for an unrelated post: https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/405585/can-we-slow-down-on-the-deletes-on-meta-folks

Then Ciro created an answer to https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/286082/does-the-be-nice-policy-require-se-users-to-be-nice-to-people-who-are-not-se-u/361497#361497["Does the Be Nice policy require SE users to “be nice” to people who are not SE users (e.g. public figures)?"] which is a superset of the previous ones referred by them. That post is reproduced at https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/198#issuecomment-787047242 It cites the case in which the law was tested, but it was single-handedly by journeyman-geek (from Singapore) without any justification.

Ciro then finally updated his profile picture to contain <<xi-pooh-photoshop>>, archive at: https://archive.vn/iV1L8 to test the Winnie-the-Pooh case which people simply refused to answer. Let's see show that goes. As Ciro learned however, only wumaos will continue to complain, and due to hypocrisy their complaints will be ignored.

Other users who publicly went against freedom of speech in that case (in the name of "political correctness"):

* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/665544/bad-coder ("West") replied at: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/361486/can-i-say-on-my-profile-that-i-find-that-an-ex-president-of-a-country-or-other/361495#361495
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/798831/ollie comments, ciro replies, they delete comment, comments, ciro reply, they delete comment... ciro gives up
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/361486/can-i-say-on-my-profile-that-i-find-that-an-ex-president-of-a-country-or-other?noredirect=1#comment1206900_361486 wants to close as duplicate of uber generic https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/208551/offensive-profiles-where-to-draw-the-line/208553#208553 and says:
+
____
we don't have to host or pay directly or indirectly to support your opinion. That's well established policy"
____

Freedom of speech in social media is truly threatened by the <<politically-incorrect>>.

Related issue: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/198

===== Stack Overflow political image answer placeholder (2021)

The deleted answer was https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/83446/gimp-how-to-combine-two-images-side-by-side/145543#145543

It used <<tank-man-cc-by-sa,Ciro Santilli's CC By-SA Tank Man image>>.

Of course, once again, just like mentioned at <<stack-overflow-forbids-criticizing-the-character-of-genocidal-political-leaders-like-xi-jinping>>, people prefer to:

* feel safe and good in their fake cocoon rather than have freedom. While people are dying, right now, in <<xinjiang-re-education-camps>>
* being fully inclusive means being inclusive to dictatorship supporters

No archives unfortunately, but:

* reproduced at: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/269
* https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/83446/gimp-how-to-combine-two-images-side-by-side/145543#145543 (https://web.archive.org/web/20210501090745/https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/83446/gimp-how-to-combine-two-images-side-by-side/147400#147400[archive]) identical politically correct one
* analogous to https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20737061/merge-images-side-by-sidehorizontally/63575228#63575228 (https://web.archive.org/web/20210430195552/https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20737061/merge-images-side-by-sidehorizontally/63575228#63575228[archive])

The full moderation team at the time can be seen publicly at https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/users?tab=moderators[] (https://web.archive.org/web/20210126143732/https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/users/41100/piebie[archive]) and it also contains:

* https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/users/41100/piebie (https://web.archive.org/web/20210126143732/https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/users/41100/piebie[archive]) Real name: Pieter Biesemans, a front-end developer from Belgium: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pieter-biesemans/
* https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/users/18168/curious (https://web.archive.org/web/20210430203036/https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/users/18168/curious[archive]) Anonymous, from Canada.
* https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/users/19174/wrzlprmft (https://web.archive.org/web/20210430203038/https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/users/19174/wrzlprmft[archive]) Gerrit Ansmann, a brain researcher from Bonn University, Germany: https://idw-online.de/de/news646752

Deletion message:

____
Hello,

We're writing in reference to your Graphic Design Stack Exchange account:

https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/users/21867/ciro-santilli%e6%96%b0%e7%96%86%e6%a3%89%e8%8a%b1trump-ban-bad

We think you are already aware of what we are going to say, but we are going to say it anyway. Stack Exchange is an apolitical platform, and we like to keep politics as for away from our content as possible. Our little nook on the net is about Graphic Design, which has nothing to do with politics (even though it is used in the political arena all the time).

We acknowledge that politic profiles are somewhat allowed as per https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/267368/are-political-avatars-and-profiles-ok, although we do question the usefulness of 'campaigning' through a Stack Exchange profile.

We want to draw the line however at political content. There is no need to use images or other content that might be controversial or cause emotional distress, while another image or content would serve the same function. That is why we deleted you answer on this question.

We want to welcome you on our site and encourage you to keep contributing with answers. Your other answers are fine, and judging by the amount of votes, mostly well-received by the community. You may repost the answer if you can swap out the images for more neutral ones.

At the same time we want to warn you that this type of content will not be tolerated in the future and further infractions may lead to more severe consequences.

Thanks for your understanding an cooperation, we wish you a pleasant experience on GDSE.

Regards,

Graphic Design Stack Exchange Moderation Team
____

Ciro's reply:

____
Hi,

Is this a policy specific to graphic design website, or is it network wide, and is there an open meta question for it?
____

The mods then changed their discourse to mention spam rules rather than only on the "people will feel bad" aspect:

____
The https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/conduct[code of conduct]:

Be inclusive and respectful.

Exposing others to images of violent and traumatic events is not respectful to those on whom those images have a strong effect. This is only acceptable if the topic of the question make this inevitable, which also suffices to warn of those who are triggered by those images: Images about violent events are to be expected in a question about such events, not in a question about concatenating two images.

Rules against spam:

A post should be marked as spam only if it advertises a product, service, or similar and is unsolicited or lacks disclosure.
[…]
Unsolicited means that mentioning the product serves no purpose other than promotion. […]

You were promoting a political position and including the promotional content (instead of a neutral picture) served no purpose other than promotion. It’s analogous to using a picture advertising a product as an example.
____

OK, the spam argument would likely win.

Ciro then hacked the images to his <<the-world-is-perfect,"The world is perfect">> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsch[kitsch] placeholder, and mods approved it, so here we go.

Ciro was planning the following meta post, but gave up on it:

____
Can I use political images as placeholders for questions involving images when it does not affect the validity of the answer?

For example when answering the following ImageMagick question: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20737061/merge-images-side-by-sidehorizontally/63575228#63575228 I used an image with political content.

The choice of the placeholder was completely arbitrary, and does not affect the answer in any way.

But today admins of Graphic Design Stack Exchange https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/83446/gimp-how-to-combine-two-images-side-by-side/145543#145543 deleted the post saying it is not allowed on the Graphic Design website.

> We want to draw the line however at political content. There is no need to use images or other content that might be controversial or cause emotional distress, while another image or content would serve the same function. That is why we deleted you answer on this question.

The admins mention that on profiles it is OK linking to: https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/267368/are-political-avatars-and-profiles-ok but on answers it is not.

So I would like to clarify if:

* is this a policy specific to Graphic Design or if it applies to the entire network.
* if it applies to the entire network:
** Can I use images of myself, Ciro Santilli, or is that currently considered political content?
** At https://stackoverflow.com/a/57389607/895245 I needed several images, and I had used a list of USA presidents in chronological order without much thought. Do I have to modify that answer to use another set of images?
____

and planned answer:

____
**Any images that can be used on a profile picture should also usable as a placeholder**

When you answer a question, you should have a very wide choice of what to use as a placeholder.

Politics is a perfectly legal topic, just like flowers, animals, and scenery.

The "can it be used on the profile picture" test should already filter out any content that is deemed unacceptable due to legal concerns.

Another issue is that it is extremely difficult and possibly unfair to classify what is political or not.

Suppose that Ciro Santilli became famous enough outside of programming circles such that he starts to be considered a political subject.

Would his images then start to be considered political content?

But that would be discriminatory against certain people and not others.

Freedom of speech is extremely valuable, and we should be very careful about restricting it.

There are people literally unfairly dying, right now, because they don't have it.

Do you really want to reduce yours?

The only way to prevent history from repeating itself, is to remember it.
____

Related spam meta posts:

* https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/58032/what-are-the-spam-and-rude-or-abusive-offensive-flags-and-how-do-they-wor
* https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/260638/what-is-the-exact-definition-of-spam-for-stack-overflow

[[the-world-is-perfect]]
."The world is perfect" by Ciro Santilli, CC By-SA 4.0 (2021). After Graphics Stack Exchange forbade the usage of political images, <<ciro-santilli>> created this politically correct image to serve as a censorship placeholder, and reuploaded the answer as allowed by the moderators: https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/83446/gimp-how-to-combine-two-images-side-by-side/147400#147400[]. (https://web.archive.org/web/20210501090745/https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/83446/gimp-how-to-combine-two-images-side-by-side/147400#147400[].[archive]) CC BY-SA 4.0, heart attribution: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Corazón.svg[]. <<os-problemas-da-imprensa-livre,Newspaper censorship cake recipe posts during the Brazilian military dictatorship>> and <<what-is-more-obscene-sex-or-war,"What is more obscene: sex or war?">> and <<please-enjoy-this-politically-correct-cartoon,Please enjoy this politically correct cartoon>> come strongly to mind.
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base-ignore}/The_world_is_perfect.png[height=500]

."The world is perfect" as used to update Ciro Santilli's https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/83446/gimp-how-to-combine-two-images-side-by-side/147400#147400[deleted answer]. Instead of redoing the tutorial from scratch, Ciro just pasted the new image on top of the old one Stack Exchange censored: <<tank-man-cc-by-sa,Ciro Santilli's CC BY-SA Tank Man image>>. Borders of the censored image were intentionally left over however as a reminder that Stack Exchange censors. This is a work of art.
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base-ignore}/The_world_is_perfect_Stack_Overflow.png[height=500]

.Politically correct version of <<tank-man-cc-by-sa,Ciro Santilli's CC By-SA Tank Man image>>. This is how <<stack-overflow,Stack Exchange>> wants the world to remember <<tiananmen>>.
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Tank_Man_drawing_censored_by_Ciro_Santilli_CC_BY_SA.png[height=500]

.At one point in Richard Feynman's talk "Los Alamos from below", he describes how external letter censorship was implemented at Los Alamos, and how he went to thoroughly test the limits of what would be censored or not.
video::uY-u1qyRM5w[youtube,width=600,height=400,start=1343]

https://i.stack.imgur.com/p9Tv9.png

===== Stack Overflow mods refuse to clarify if anti-CCP imagery is allowed or not (2021)

This one again highlights the hypocrisy of many people in the West: we decide who is good and who is evil. The CCP is now evil, so you can criticize it, even if it shocks Chinese people. Ah, Nazism shocks us, even though it is an event from the past, so that you can't do. You can only shock the Chinese people, not us.

Or: we like human rights. But not potentially disturbing someone at work even slightly is more important.

Opened a meta thread for this at: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/366163/can-i-use-images-such-as-from-tiananmen-square-protests-to-criticise-the-chinese (https://archive.ph/56KK2[archive]) where the top answer was:

____
We refuse to make a public decision.
____

In response, Ciro wrote the following essay on his profile page: link:stack-exchange-lost-freedom-of-speech.md[].

The following quote from http://cirosantilli.com/ron-maimon[Ron Maimon] comes to mind:

____
Unfortunately, when you're in a minority, the only way to correct the consensus view is to just shout it, and repeat it, until people go and look and check for themselves. The reason is that it creates an adversarial atmosphere where the people have to pick sides, **and they don't like to pick sides, they would rather have everyone be happy**. So when you have to pick sides, what do you do? You either butt out, you just leave it alone, you run away. Or you sit and review the evidence until you know which side to pick.
____

Notable people who went against in the comments:

* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/295232/glorfindel from the Netherlands commented "As the Dutch police say "if you're asking for attention, you get attention".". No attempt to address the question at all. Just a direct "I'm right, you're wrong, and I'm glad you were punished".
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/282094/rob argues for "anything that raises enough flags should be taken down", 
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/353058/holyblackcat "The mods and/or SE staff might not have clear guidelines in place yet, and I bet the last thing they want to do now is to figure out such guidelines to answer your question. If you have to ask, then I would refrain from adding any of that to your profile. Let's keep excessive politics out of SO."
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/361484/luuklag "Nobody limits your free speech, we don't withhold you from going out on the street and yell whatever you want. Should SE allow everything on its platform, no. That is the same as you don't allow everything in your own house." What is it with the Netherlands? They were invaded by Hitler, and now they don't want to support human rights?
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/135565/journeyman-geek again from <<stack-overflow-forbids-criticizing-the-character-of-genocidal-political-leaders-like-xi-jinping>>

Close voters and reopen voters can be seen publicly at https://web.archive.org/web/20210609071812/https://meta.stackexchange.com/posts/366163/revisions[]

First close voters:

* https://web.archive.org/web/20210506210343/https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/286501/pierre-vriens presumably from Belgium
* https://web.archive.org/web/20210609000247/https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/798831/ollie again from <<stack-overflow-forbids-criticizing-the-character-of-genocidal-political-leaders-like-xi-jinping>>
* https://web.archive.org/web/20210506134050/https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/336163/robert-columbia
* https://web.archive.org/web/20210507002405/https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/154443/rory-alsop Rory Alsop from Scotland. A LinkedIn with matching name and location: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rorya/ states:
+
____
I have spent most of the last 20 years not just improving technical security in large and small organisations, but improving security and risk behaviours, awareness and culture in communities."
____
* https://web.archive.org/web/20210609000250/https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/622284/spevacus "I participate in Charcoal, a user-run group that fights spam and rude/abusive content across the network. Do you hate spam? Drop by Charcoal HQ and help us catch and destroy it!". Interesting! https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector

First reopen voters:

* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/185080/eliah-kagan Eliah Kagan, this is an awesome Ask Ubuntu dude from New York
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/377214/sonic-the-anonymous-hedgehog
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/707129/xnero presumably from USA based on https://travel.stackexchange.com/users/105447/xnero
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/384528/forest-distrusts-stackexchange

The interesting thing is that none of them had the courage to actually say "forbid Tiananmen", "forbid Falun Gong". But they all said "forbid not suitable for work". But they won't clarify if "not suitable for work" includes "not suitable for work in China".

On 2021-05-29 <<ciro-santilli>> added almost all images from this page to his Stack Overflow account as shown at: https://archive.ph/nZLgI

On 2021-05-29 <<ciro-santilli>> was suspended from Meta Stack Exchange for 7 days as shown at https://web.archive.org/web/20210529081019/https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/200117/ciro-santilli%e6%96%b0%e7%96%86%e6%a3%89%e8%8a%b1trump-ban-bad received the following message from moderators:

____
Hello,

We're writing in reference to your Meta Stack Exchange account:

https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/200117/ciro-santilli%e6%96%b0%e7%96%86%e6%a3%89%e8%8a%b1trump-ban-bad

We note that you were previously contacted for part of your profile being offensive. It has been brought to our attention that a significant part of your profile is filled with shock pictures, nazi imagery and similar images.

We'd note that people do use this site at work, and while users have some freedom over the content of their profile, there are fairly obvious lines that shouldn't be crossed.

We do not recommend that you restore the content we removed - specifically the images without checking back with us.

We have temporarily suspended your account; you may return after 7 days.

Regards,
Meta Stack Exchange Moderation Team
____

As can be publicly seen at https://web.archive.org/web/20210506210320/https://stackexchange.com/about/moderators the list of moderators of that website at the time was:

* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/59303/chrisf[ChrisF] from the United Kingdom
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/135565/journeyman-geek[Journeyman Geek] who previously also showed up at: <<stack-overflow-forbids-criticizing-the-character-of-genocidal-political-leaders-like-xi-jinping>>
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/369802/tinkeringbell[Tinkeringbell] from the Netherlands

Ciro replied:

____
Hello,

Could you clarify if the following types of images are OK or not:

- people imprisoned in Xinjiang concentration camps
- Tiananmen square protests
- making fun of Xi Jinping
- Falun Gong persecution

supposing that they show no explicit gore or violence?

All the above are considered highly shocking to many Chinese people, due in part to their strict censorship rules, and not suitable for the workplace in China.

I have been using such images for many years to criticize what I believe are terrible events in China, and the decision so far has been that I was allowed to use them.

The intent of the Nazi images is clearly to compare both regimes to criticize the Chinese Government, which I believe is following the same path as the Nazis (e.g. Concentration Camps in Xinjiang, no freedom of speech, etc.), to help prevent such abuses from happening again in the future.

I just want to clearly understand the rationale of of why anti-CCP images are OK, but anti-Nazi ones aren't, so I can follow your rules correctly and save everyone's time in the future by correctly deciding which images are OK or not.

Cheers.
____

On their next reply, they tried to dodge a directly reply, but suggested that anti-CCP imagery is forbidden:

____
> Could you clarify if the following types of images are OK or not:

Its not the 'topic' but rather the content.

> All the above are considered highly shocking to many Chinese people, due in part to their strict censorship rules, and not suitable for the workplace in China.

Well if your intent is to shock - don't. These are your words, not ours - and hopefully reflects a better understanding of what's not acceptable.

> I just want to clearly understand the rationale of of why anti-CCP images are OK, but anti-Nazi ones aren't, so I can follow your rules correctly and save everyone's time in the future by correctly deciding which images are OK or not.

We never said that. We gave specific examples of objectionable content. If you realise something isn't suitable - that it is something shocking, and not suitable for the workplace, as you seem to realise, it shouldn't be on your profile.

In short, we believe you have a very clear idea, from your own response, of what's not acceptable, and we hope you exercise better judgement in this regard in future.
____

Ciro's Reply:

____
> We never said that. We gave specific examples of objectionable content. If you realise something isn't suitable - that it is something shocking, and not suitable for the workplace, as you seem to realise, it shouldn't be on your profile.

My intent is to convey extremely important information, not to shock.

However, in dictatorships like China, extremely important information is forbidden for unfair reasons, and therefore shocking.

> We never said that. We gave specific examples of objectionable content. If you realise something isn't suitable - that it is something shocking, and not suitable for the workplace, as you seem to realise, it shouldn't be on your profile.

You forbade any Nazi imagery clearly, including to criticize the Nazis, so that is clear and I will never again add Nazi imagery.

All anti-CCP content is extremely shocking to many Chinese people (but not others). And it is not suitable for the workplace for anyone there, that is unquestionable.

Therefore, from your reply, I understand that anti-CCP content is not allowed because it is not suitable for the workplace in China, as it is shocking.

Is this understand correct? Can you please confirm very clearly and directly: do you forbid all anti-CCP imagery or not? And if it is just a partial ban, what is allowed and what is not more precisely?

My understanding from top answers at: https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/349131/users-political-display-name-triggering-government-action-against-users-who-vie is that such criticism of the CCP is allowed on the website, even though it is clearly not suitable for the workplace in China.

Sorry to ask this further, but I need a clearer guideline so I can follow it.
____

[[other-openly-dissident-users-on-stack-overflow]]
===== Other openly dissident users on Stack Overflow (Stack Overflow 上的其他公开持不同政见的用户)

For non-Stack Overflow specific ones see: <<chinese-dissidents>>

Query to find them: https://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/312860/chinese-dissidents-by-keyword-aboutme-or-displayname

Notable ones only here (high rep or innovative criticism):

* "GNUSupporter 8964民主女神 地下教會"
** Real name: Vincent Tam from social media links.
** https://math.stackexchange.com/users/290189/gnusupporter-8964民主女神-地下教會#
** https://web.archive.org/web/20191209202831/https://math.stackexchange.com/users/290189/gnusupporter-8964%E6%B0%91%E4%B8%BB%E5%A5%B3%E7%A5%9E-%E5%9C%B0%E4%B8%8B%E6%95%99%E6%9C%83
** Keyword attack inspired by me
* Yu Hao
** https://stackoverflow.com/users/1009479/yu-hao
** https://archive.is/76FCb
** "<<gfw,GFW (Great Firewall of China)>> is one of the most notorious inventions in the history of Internet. Anyone working for it should be ashamed."
* gotqn
** "Free Tibet From China Domination"
** https://stackoverflow.com/users/1080354/gotqn
** https://web.archive.org/web/20190821105901/https://stackoverflow.com/users/1080354/gotqn
* Scott 混合理论
+
https://stackoverflow.com/users/1230329/scott-混合理论
+
The same message as Yu Hao, I wonder if it is an external thing or direct copy of Yu, but no Google hits besides them.
* Terry Wang
** https://stackoverflow.com/users/1801697/terry-wang
** https://archive.is/V0aSK
** Lego recreation of Tankman on the profile picture: <<lego-tank-man>>

Users who had <<gfw,GFW>> references but removed it:

* https://stackoverflow.com/users/4594532/gnimuc-key
** https://web.archive.org/web/20170331144256/https://stackoverflow.com/users/4594532/gnimuc
* https://stackoverflow.com/users/651907/jclin
** https://web.archive.org/web/20160516065151/https://stackoverflow.com/users/651907/jclin

Misc interesting stuff:

* <location>火车站酒店小姐 (about 20 accounts with that pattern)
** https://stackoverflow.com/users/7040504/莆田火车站酒店小姐
** https://web.archive.org/web/20190428090348/https://stackoverflow.com/users/7040504/%E8%8E%86%E7%94%B0%E7%81%AB%E8%BD%A6%E7%AB%99%E9%85%92%E5%BA%97%E5%B0%8F%E5%A7%90
** Interesting list of prostitution spam/sockpuppets? All have the exact same profile information.
** Hitting query due to "审查", but the usage is unrelated to the Firewall.

Query to find them: https://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/312863/mentioned-ciro-santilli-on-aboutme-or-displayname

[[stack-overflow-anti-dissident-users]]
====== Stack Overflow anti-dissident users (Stack Overflow 反异见用户)

* https://stackoverflow.com/users/815408
** https://web.archive.org/web/20170602054631/https://stackoverflow.com/users/815408/%E8%AF%B7%E5%B0%81%E6%8E%89ciro-santilli-%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E5%85%B1%E4%BA%A7%E5%85%9A%E4%B8%87%E5%B2%81
*** username: "请封掉Ciro Santilli 中国共产党万岁"
*** profile: "中国万岁！ 中国共产党万岁！ 法轮功，民运，台独在中国共产党的铁蹄下不过是螳臂当车！"
** https://web.archive.org/web/20200830192811/https://stackoverflow.com/users/815408/lookintoeast became a coward, renamed to "LookIntoEast"
*** https://web.archive.org/web/20200910172706/https://stackoverflow.com/questions/63464732/how-to-set-a-custom-image-height-for-an-image-in-asciidoctor more shitcomments "可惜啊中国一天比一天强大繁荣，中国的实力碾压你们轮子跟捏死一只蚂蚁那么简单。哈哈哈哈", Yes, the CCP is very good at <<intolerance,putting old ladies in jail>>. A great thing to be proud of.
** left 3 "offensive" comments and downvoted some posts. Flagged them all. Easy suspension, https://archive.ph/lBlyk[7 days], 3 downvotes reversed as "Serial voting reversed":
*** https://web.archive.org/web/20210706074306/https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67750849/how-to-filter-by-event-type-in-chrome-devtools-profile-tab-e-g-to-see-mouse-cli?noredirect=1#comment120649535_67750849 快看，你轮子老婆正被野男人按在床上疯狂X！！！ 因为你性无能！哈哈哈哈哈哈。轮子狗都是这种下场
*** https://web.archive.org/web/20210706074342/https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67773885/how-to-return-a-404-not-found-page-and-http-status-when-an-invalid-parameter-of/67773886?noredirect=1#comment120649386_67773886 快看！你老婆这只轮子🐔，一直被不同男人X呢！那个地方被X到流脓！因为你性无能哦，所以不停被你轮子老婆戴绿帽子！
*** https://web.archive.org/web/20210706074248/https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67787456/what-is-the-difference-between-fallback-false-vs-true-vs-blocking-of-getstaticpa?noredirect=1#comment120649323_67787456 轮子狗死全家！！！！！快看你妈刚被车撞死了！脑浆 一直喷！
** mentioned at https://v2ex.com/t/378274 from <<v2ex>>
** a questions only account, not many intelligent CCP supporters out there of course. 2020 edit mentions: https://web.archive.org/web/20200910173714/https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7152762/how-to-redirect-print-output-to-a-file-using-python mentions "How time flies. Almost 10 years ago I started to work on bioinformatics without any coding skills. Then I gave up my PhD and previous career and becomes a pure software engineer."
* https://stackoverflow.com/users/9393161
** https://web.archive.org/save/https://stackoverflow.com/users/9393161/ciro-santilli-%E7%9A%84%E9%80%A0%E8%B0%A3%E6%98%AF%E5%8F%AF%E8%80%BB%E8%A1%8C%E4%B8%BA
** username: "Ciro Santilli 的造谣是可耻行为" https://web.archive.org/save/https://stackoverflow.com/users/9393161/ciro-santilli-%E7%9A%84%E9%80%A0%E8%B0%A3%E6%98%AF%E5%8F%AF%E8%80%BB%E8%A1%8C%E4%B8%BA
* https://stackoverflow.com/users/8454187
** username: "Snowden Assange Wounded Knee"
** profile: "燃(ri)烧(si)您(ni)的(de)梦(ma)，Ciro Santilli. StackOverflow上的一个用户. The Oliver Stone Experience"
** explanation:
*** "燃烧您的梦": http://www.nq6.com/dj/1674.html
*** "Wounded Knee": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wounded_Knee_Massacre
* https://web.archive.org/web/20210621133747/https://stackoverflow.com/users/13740876/蔣禿賊送東北屠義士血染四一二蔡蛙魁請疫苗毒萬民跪地拜美倭

==== GitHub

GiHub is the new <<xidan-democracy-wall>>! :) See also: <<meant-to-be-used>>.

Interesting repositories are listed at: <<github-repositories-with-censored-information>>

GitHub's site policy can be seen at: https://help.github.com/en/github/site-policy

If you believe this page violates those policies, see: <<github-report>>.

China's GitHub censorship history is documented at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_GitHub#China[], some events:

* 2019-07-29 https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/29/github-ban-sanctioned-countries/ "GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea". "As part of the push, Friedman said GitHub has enforced new restrictions to prevent users in sanctioned countries from accessing private repositories and GitHub Marketplace, as well as maintaining private paid organization accounts"
** https://github.com/1995parham/github-do-not-ban-us protest repo against the sanctions, archived as of 2020-08
** https://github.com/1995parham/github-do-not-ban-us/issues/1010 "Use gitee from china" recommending <<gitee>>

Related:

* <<censorship-circumvention>> contains some anti-censorship repositories
* <<cute-cat-theory-of-digital-activism>>
* https://www.quora.com/Is-GitHub-com-allowed-in-China/answer/Ciro-Santilli

[[github-report]]
===== How to report a user on GitHub (GitHub上怎么举报用户？)

Click the report abuse button on https://github.com/cirosantilli[Ciro's profile], which links to: https://github.com/contact/report-abuse?report=cirosantilli+%28user%29 or you can just contacat support@github.com

If you do so, please feel free to also open an issue on this repository saying why you believe the site policy has been violated.

Those issues will be marked with: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues?q=label%3Aabuse-report+

It will be fun to watch you try, and fail.

This is because you do not understand how important the concept of <<richer,freedom of speech is>> in the West, and how amazing it feels when you are right, and it protects you.

The only thing that would work is if the Chinese government makes a gov-takedown on this repo: <<github-gov-takedowns>>, in which case: <<strategy-if-this-repo-gets-added-to-github-gov-takedowns>>.

In order to get this repository in gov-takedown, your best bet is to use the <<cac-report-website>>.

admin.github.com hits to cirosantilli.com:

* 2021-05-21
* 2019-09

admin.github.com hits to GitHub repository:

* 2021-05-30 6 from 1 user

Bibliography:

* https://www.zhihu.com/question/388634161 如果举报github上的这种情况？ (How to report this type of circunstance on GitHub.) Question links to <<evil-man>>.
+
A few answers then started mentioning <<github-com-cirosantilli-china-dictatorship>>:
** 2021-08-15 https://www.zhihu.com/question/388634161/answer/2062103232 "主楼的没了，这个存在一年左右了，有人来举报吗？" (The repo the OP mentioned (<<evil-man>>) does not exist anymore. Did anyone report this one?). Real answer: because <<ciro-santilli>> is not Chinese, you cannot arrest him like you arrested the author of <<evil-man>>.
** 2021-08-224 https://www.zhihu.com/question/388634161/answer/2080367170 "大家一起举报上面内容" (Let's everybody report the above content together) with a screenshot: https://pic3.zhimg.com/v2-15efd54f1a16e17ef1ae77702b03bb88_r.jpg?source=1940ef5c[]. Ah, the beauty of it.
+
One of the answers recommends the following message:
+
____
Hello, I'd like to report a person who abused Github, this person has created multiple accounts and added some offensive repo, these repo are not related to technology and disgusting content, causing many users to search this spam repo. These contents violate the Github's terms, I hope Github can banned this account.
____
+
Poor <<wumao>>s. With this language/intonation, they are off to a bad start from th emessage itself.
* https://www.zhihu.com/question/388634161/answer/2112339988 shows how to do it with adblock plus by removing specific page elements for the search. Similar to greasefork methods mentioned at <<disturbs>>.
* https://www.zhihu.com/question/388634161/answer/2101125957 does not understan what off topic means, and says that the attack is worse on <<stack-overflow>> and rants <<meant-to-be-used>>. Due to their limited English, they do not seem to realize that both keyword attacks are by the same person, <<ciro-santilli>>.

.How to report an user on GitHhub.
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/How_to_report_an_user_on_GitHub.png[height=2000]

[[github-censored-subdomains]]
===== GitHub censored subdomains (GitHub 审查的子域)

It appears according to <<greatfire>> however that there are some important GitHub censored subdomains, notably:

* https://raw.githubusercontent.com[], from which images and other downloads are served. Therefore all images served from GitHub should be broken in China
* https://gist.github.com[], https://en.greatfire.org/https/gist.github.com[]: meh, that's useless, just create a github.com/notes repo and dump your stuff there

However, at least for raw, <<geoscreenshot>> disagrees:

* 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
* 2020-09-30 https://gist.github.com/ | https://archive.vn/wip/VUNU4

More information:

* https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/146517/how-it-is-possible-that-some-pages-of-an-https-website-like-github-are-marked-as
* https://twitter.com/cirosantilli/status/1310461733325148160

[[github-gov-takedowns]]
===== GitHub gov-takedowns (由其各自政府在某个国家审查的仓库的GitHub官方列表)

https://github.com/github/gov-takedowns

This official GitHub repository tracks which repositories are blocked in specific countries.

GitHub has absolute transparency about Government takedowns, which is awesome: https://github.com/github/gov-takedowns/tree/master/China

This makes that repo into a list of fun things.

As of 2019-05 there had only been only two takedowns by China however, compared to dozens by <<russia>>. The Chinese commies are not big fans of transparency it seems.

As of 2020-03, besides the <<programthink,Zhao>> takedown, all other takedowns happened in 2019, and most seem to be <<falun-gong>>/<<epoch-times>> sponsored ways to <<censorship-circumvention,climb the wall>>.

The message GitHub shows on the blocked countries is:

____
Repository unavailable in your location

This repository is currently disabled in your location. For more details please see the takedown notice.
____

Here are some examples of people reacting to the blocking of https://github.com/programthink/zhao/issues/38 as per https://github.com/github/gov-takedowns/blob/78775b09e64d85f08547287cab204b48b2491192/China/2016/2016-06-08-programthink-zhao.md from China (and likely on the entire repository, which appears to be the block granularity implemented):

* https://github.com/programthink/books/issues/31 (https://web.archive.org/web/20191023093618/https://github.com/programthink/books/issues/31[archive])
* https://www.zhihu.com/question/284445884/ corresponding Google bomb at: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/71
* https://program-think.blogspot.com/2018/04/Zhao-at-GitHub.html?comment=1524671692761#1524671692761

See also: <<programthink>>

To check China only takedowns such as this, we cannot use <<censorship-monitoring,Great Fire Analyzer>>, which reports the page as accessible: the only tool <<ciro-santilli>> could find so far to capture a page from China a bit like Web Archive was: <<geoscreenshot>>

.<<geoscreenshot>> of https://github.com/programthink/zhao/issues/38 from <<programthink>> taken on 2020-09-31 from China. The "Repository unavailable in your location" message shows, since https://github.com/github/gov-takedowns/blob/master/China/2016/2016-06-08-programthink-zhao.md[this repository is in gov-takedowns/china].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/GitHub_Programthink_Zhao_issue_38_China_geoscreenshot_2020_09_31.png[height=400]

[[strategy-if-this-repo-gets-added-to-github-gov-takedowns]]
====== Strategy if this repo gets added to GitHub gov-takedowns (如果此 repo 被添加到 GitHub gov-takedowns 中的策略)

If this happens, we well proceed to create alternative repos `china-dictatorship-2`, `china-dictatorship-3`, etc. and it would be fun to see how that gets handled.

Edit: <<china-dictatorship-chinese-web-browser-block>>, <<ciro-santilli>> decided to create: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship-2 even though the repository hadn't been added to gov-takedowns.

Can Github add an entire user to gov-takedowns? We shall find out.

But remember that we also have: <<mirrors>>, and that this can be easily rendered as a single HTML page and uploaded to any static website host.

[[gov-takedowns-china]]
====== gov-takedowns/China (由中共在国审查的库仓的GitHub官方列表)

Skipping all <<falun-gong>>/<<epoch-times>> repos with very few stars, mostly some <<gfw>> skip methods, those are noise, and possibly added only to dilute the real deal.

* 2016
** https://github.com/github/gov-takedowns/blob/caef002cb19309c318ea01afb4d3cec98bcd4042/China/2016/2016-06-08-programthink-zhao.md[] https://github.com/programthink/zhao[]. <<programthink,Zhao>>
* 2019
** https://github.com/github/gov-takedowns/blob/master/China/2019/2019-11-06-MPS.md
*** https://github.com/greatfire/wiki Wiki of <<greatfire>>. <<censorship-circumvention>>. Precise issue: https://github.com/greatfire/wiki/issues/166[] (no archives). 
** https://github.com/github/gov-takedowns/blob/master/China/2019/2019-12-12-MPS.md
*** https://github.com/gfw-breaker[], see also: <<github-repositories-with-censored-information>>

[[github-objectionable-content]]
===== GitHub "This repository may contain objectionable content" (此仓库可能包含令人反感的内容)

GitHub has a veru little known feature called:

____
This repository may contain objectionable content
____

TODO exact Chinese phrase on UI.

When GitHub admins set this on a repository, it has the following effects:

* the repository cannot be seen by logged off users! Trying to do that results in a redirect. This puts such repositories at great disadvantage on search engine optimization
* the first time you visit the repository, they ask you if you want to continue

This is not a transparent mechanism, as it does not clearly state why the repository has objectionable content.

Known repositories with that enabled:

* <<duty-machine>> as of August 2021 https://github.com/duty-machine/duty-machine[]:
** 2021-08-18 <<wayback-machine>>: redirects to login: https://web.archive.org/web/20210818110306/https://github.com/login?return_to=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fduty-machine%2Fduty-machine
** 2021-08-18 <<archive-today>>: https://archive.ph/jtX4p shows the actual message since it uses a logged-in user for its archives
* https://github.com/Yanqiu-gui/-[]. Appears to be some kind of textual softporn repo.

TODO: <<ciro-santilli>> once saw that message when visiting: https://github.com/Yanqiu-gui/-/issues/5 on 2021-05-19 for the first time, but not on the following ones.

How does that message get added exactly?

And you are forced you to login to view that repository!

Incredible, a hidden undocumented semi-hide-repo feature.

Here's an archive: https://archive.ph/VJQdD That click wall also prevents archives of the repository therefore.

[[github-censorship-guidelines]]
===== GitHub censorship guidelines (GitHub 审查指南)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9966118 GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'  (2015)

===== Gitee

For our mirror there, see: <<gitee-censorship>>.

Linked to "Open Source China" (开源中国) according to TechCrunch:

____
The project will be carried out by a consortium led by Open Source China, the Shenzhen-based firm behind its namesake open-source community and Gitee.
____

* https://github.com/oschina GitHub OAuth goes through that organization
* https://www.oschina.net/ their website

At https://gitee.com/mirrors they mirrors 21 thousand repositories as of 2021, updating them daily, with the goal of having "higher download speeds" in mainland China. Not that their speed is shit because of censorships of course.

Mirrors containing Ciro's keywords or related interesting stuff:

* https://gitee.com/alexi126/linux-kernel-module-cheat https://archive.vn/wip/aDWVq
* https://toscode.gitee.com/rpbf/vim-snippets/blob/master/AUTHORS#L67 https://archive.vn/wip/MuuoK "Ciro Santilli 六四事件"
* sensitive domain lists:
  * https://gitee.com/aiqz/pac ans specifically https://gitee.com/aiqz/pac/blob/master/pac.txt contains a proxy list with `||cirosantilli.com`, which is a decoded version of the base-64 encoded <<gfwlist>> normally used for <<censorship-circumvention>>. Lol.
* sensitive word lists. In <<censorship,censoring>>, we display. It is fun to see how they censor at every level, including the keyboard input method. Fear is everywhere, <<newspeak>> must be enforced at all costs:
  * https://gitee.com/markxx/tochat/blob/dev/tochat.sql even website project templates must come with a censored word list: https://gitee.com/markxx/tochat/blob/dev/tochat.sql#L6299 "六四事件"
  * https://gitee.com/aiban_junjie_fan/sensitive_words/blob/master/words.txt
  * https://gitee.com/bryan31/liteBanner/blob/master/src/main/resources/sensi_words.txt
  * https://gitee.com/thinksaas/thinksaas/blob/master/install/install.sql#L138
  * https://gitee.com/guobinyong/wubixinshiji/blob/master/wubixinshiji.dict.yaml is a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wubi_method input program
  * https://gitee.com/xkinput/xklbs/blob/master/星二S词库.txt
  * https://gitee.com/latpaw/emacs/blob/master/site-lisp/eim/cjeb.txt#L10288[]. This interesting emacs config appears to expand e.g. `fclg` into `法轮功` on tab complete. Nice.

As of 2021, it requires login to see:

* commit history: https://gitee.com/mirrors/luarocks-build-xmake/commit/8b18f1f62ba26944f117ed549ddaeea210fbdd6e History must be controlled, history is dangerous. See also <<baidu,Baidu Baike>>, <<baidu-baike-censorship-of-hao-haidong>>:
* files larger than 1MB: https://gitee.com/xkinput/xklbs/blob/master/星二S词库.txt 

Lol.

News:

* 2020-11-10 https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/10/gitee_linux_foundation_china_mirror/ "China's government-anointed Git operator says it will become a Linux Foundation mirror"
* <<huawei>> open sourced is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_OS[Harmony OS] "IoT operating system" in Gitee: https://openharmony.gitee.com/openharmony
+
The name of that OS is pure gold considering the Chinese origin, since "to harmonize" is often used as a way to say "to censor negative CCP information".
+
That URL also likely highlights Huawei's intense influence on Gitee, the as the custom domain redirects to it: https://openharmony.gitee.com[], as opposed to what normal users can likely create https://gitee.com/openharmony[].
* 2020-08-21 https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/21/china-is-building-its-github-alternative-gitee/ "China is building a GitHub alternative called Gitee"
+
<<ciro-santilli>> commented about his <<gitee-censorship>> experiment there, it got 26 upvotes 13 downvotes, and as removed as "This post violated our policy.". There is no way to appeal that in that idiotic system. It is absed on: https://www.openweb.com/ It is also bugged as fuck. Sometimes says violates policy, then there's a JavaScript update andthe comment shows.

[[gitee-censorship]]
====== Gitee censorship (Gitee 审查)

After posting our <<mirrors>> there, it was blocked in 12 hours:

* https://gitee.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship
** archive immediately after creation: https://web.archive.org/web/20200821202450if_/https://gitee.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship
** blocked archive 12 hours later: https://web.archive.org/web/20200822111436/https://gitee.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship
+
____
{"status":404,"data":null,"message":"404 Not Found"}
____
* https://gitee.com/cirosantilli
** archive immediately after: https://web.archive.org/web/20200821202055/https://gitee.com/cirosantilli
** archive 12 hours later: https://web.archive.org/web/20200822111721/https://gitee.com/cirosantilli
+
____
{"status":403,"data":null,"message":"The user has been blocked"}
____

The block email is:

____
通知

仓库 cirosantilli/China Dictatorship 已被锁定

原因： 根据相关法律法规和政策，本仓库暂停访问。
____

Other known blocked china-dictatorship forks:

* https://gitee.com/jaime_li/china-dictatorship no archives, can't find another account by the same user, but got a backlink 2021-06-22

[[github-chinese-top-charts]]
===== GitHub-Chinese-Top-Charts (GitHub中文排行榜)

https://github.com/kon9chunkit/GitHub-Chinese-Top-Charts

Automatically generated list of repos with Chinese characters in their descriptions with the most upvotes per programming language.

<<github-com-cirosantilli-china-dictatorship>> appeared on the front page at one point: https://github.com/kon9chunkit/GitHub-Chinese-Top-Charts/tree/73ef00e9f846dd380769095f08648e5e1a06596f Let's see how long until it gets censored.

At https://github.com/kon9chunkit/GitHub-Chinese-Top-Charts/issues/177 a <<wumao>> asked "为什么一些奇怪的项目也能进榜单？" (Why can some weird projects appear in the project list?)

Also reproduced at: https://www.w3cschool.cn/article/22061212.html

[[zhihu]]
==== Zhihu (知乎, censored Quora clone, 审查 Quora 克隆)

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

The Chinese <<quora,Quora>> clone, but highly censored: <<zhihu-censorship>>.

Some interesting questions not related to <<ciro-santilli>>. Ciro related questions at: <<zhihu-questions-related-to-ciro-santilli>>.

* <<censorship>>
** https://www.zhihu.com/question/29279520/answer/110611566 "为什么有人一边支持审查制度一边还喜欢看美剧、日漫？" "Why are some people in favor of censorship, but at the same time still like to watch American series?" (https://web.archive.org/web/20200429091047/https://www.zhihu.com/question/29279520/answer/110611566[archive])
** Censorship in Zhihu
*** https://www.zhihu.com/question/23376181 "你对知乎的审查系统有何意见？" "What is your view of Zhihu's censorship system?" (https://web.archive.org/web/20200329115919/https://www.zhihu.com/question/23376181[archive]) "由于众所周知的原因，知乎上的文章和答案一旦涉及某些字眼，就会触发审查，其方式是让你的文字暂时仅自己可见"
*** https://www.zhihu.com/question/21099730 从知乎建站以来被封禁的用户都有哪些？Since Zhihu's founding, which accounts have been blocked on the website? (https://web.archive.org/web/20200112103049/https://www.zhihu.com/question/21099730[archive]) (https://archive.is/dH9pK[archive]). The top answer contains a list, and a brief explanation of why some of them were banned:
**** Ciro Santilli: S/O 红人 (fStack Overflow celebrity)
**** "ww" in explanations means "big laugh" according to: https://hinative.com/zh-CN/questions/8349706 because a single "w" means a small laugh
**** several accounts are linked to one specific answer or comment
**** other accounts are classified as often commenting on <<politically-sensitive>> material
* <<falun-gong>>
** <<flg-daily>>
*** https://www.zhihu.com/question/27659795 (https://web.archive.org/web/20200429084153/https://www.zhihu.com/signin?next=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zhihu.com%2Fquestion%2F27659795[blocked as of 2020-04], https://web.archive.org/web/20150603025013/http://www.zhihu.com/question/27659795[archive from 2015]) 家里有人练法轮功是一种怎样的体验？ How is it like to live with Falun Gong believers?
** <<flg-changed>>
*** https://www.zhihu.com/question/23988890 (https://web.archive.org/web/20200429084640/https://www.zhihu.com/signin?next=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zhihu.com%2Fquestion%2F23988890[blocked as of 2020-04], https://web.archive.org/web/20160311140407/https://www.zhihu.com/question/23988890[2016-03 archive]) "全能神教在境外，法轮功也在境外，为什么他们不祸害境外人民、偏偏只祸害大陆人？"<<eastern-lightning,Eastern Lightning>> exists outside of the country [China], Falun Gong exists outside of the country, so why is is that they don't harm people in those countries, but only harm people in Mainland China?"
* <<gay-rights>>
** https://www.zhihu.com/question/370080866/answer/1046195468 "为什么中国影视作品不允许LGBT的出现？" "Why is it not allowed to show LGBT content in Chinese film and television?" (https://web.archive.org/web/20200429091622/https://www.zhihu.com/question/370080866/answer/1046195468[archive])
* <<zhihu-censorship-of-hao-haidong>>

.The Zhihu 404 page image. When they take the posts down as of 2020, it shows the 404 page which reads "你似乎来到了没有知识存在的荒原" (you seem to have come to a wasteland about which does does not exist any knowledge), and shows this symbol. https://web.archive.org/web/20200614114534/https://www.zhihu.com/topic/20080590/intro[Source].
i mage::https://web.archive.org/web/20200614114535im_/https://static.zhihu.com/heifetz/assets/liukanshan_wire.e7247fbf.svg[height=500]

[[zhihu-censorship]]
==== Zhihu censorship (知乎审查)

More general censorship discussion at: <<censorship>>.

Examples of Zhihu censorship:

* <<zhihu-purge>>
* <<zhihu-censorship-of-hao-haidong>>

Other discussions:

* https://www.quora.com/How-strict-is-Zhihus-content-censorship

[[zhihu-purge]]
===== Ciro Santilli's Zhihu purge 2019-11-03 (三西猴被知乎抹去)

On this day, not only the posts made by Ciro himself were deleted: he had never asked any questions or made any Zhuanlan posts himself, only replied to those. But that content made by other users was still removed. Therefore, this is not just a simple user ban, but active censorship.

Ciro received an email from account@mail.zhihu.com:

____
您好，Ciro Santilli，很抱歉您的回答受到了牵连，您回答过的问题「github.com@cirosantilli 是谁维护的，为什么会收集邮箱地址？」因「违反互联网相关法律法规」已被删除。
____

followed by Ciro's answer to <<zhihu-46957710>>. Ciro could not login anymore, the login screen showed:

____
帐号已停用，请联系：user@zhihu.com
____

So likely someone must have used the fact that this was an edgy personally information release subject issue, and then someone from Zhihu decided to purge Ciro and anyone posts that ever talked about him.

Ciro's blocked account:

* before deletion: https://web.archive.org/web/20190821075907/https://www.zhihu.com/people/cirosantilli/activities
* after deletion (redirects to login page): https://web.archive.org/web/20191103071033/https://www.zhihu.com/signin?next=http://www.zhihu.com/people/cirosantilli/activities

Random unblocked control account: https://www.zhihu.com/people/lu-zhen-yu-96-65/activities (https://web.archive.org/web/20191103070652/https://www.zhihu.com/people/lu-zhen-yu-96-65/activities[archive]).

Furthermore, all questions related to Ciro, including the posts criticizing him such as https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/25600138[] (https://archive.is/DkooN[archive]), were taken down. This made Ciro laugh: in China, you can't even criticize that which is censored, or your post also gets taken down.

Ciro then created an anonymous Zhihu account after this event.

Interestingly however, the following answer came up later on: <<zhihu-ted-chiang-answer>> and stayed up for at least 5 months, which indicates that Zhihu did a one-off removal, and did not set up a filter for Ciro's name.

====== Ciro Santilli's Zhihu ban 2018-06-25

<<ciro-santilli>> was banned from Zhihu on 2018-06-25 for "<<politically-sensitive>>" content.

As a result, since that time I will be answering Zhihu questions as issues in this repo with the `zhihu` label: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues?q=label%3Azhihu+

I have however never posted anything politically sensitive on Zhihu, unless my name and profile picture have reached that distinction, and therefore the ban is clearly an unfair per-person ban.

But of course, all is fair in love and war, and politics.

Posting any sensitive content on Chinese websites is a waste of time, since it only means that they will be removed and you will waste time creating a new account, I will never do that.

The only significant content I ever posted on Zhihu is the answer to: https://www.zhihu.com/question/46957710/answer/122827944 which is purely technical, and trivial replies on threads that other people have started about me. Have those people been blocked like me?

My posts are still up and it does not appear to be possible for people to see that I have been banned, but whenever I try to take any action on the website a popup appears saying:

____
由于严重违反 知乎社区管理规定 ，该帐号已被永久禁言
____

This includes liking, commenting, answering, asking or trying to update my profile to say that I have been blocked.

This message also shows on my public page for everyone to see: https://www.zhihu.com/people/cirosantilli/activities but they use some JavaScript scheme complicated enough that archive.is cannot capture it.

I still get notifications however, but I am unable to reply to them, especially given that all Chinese accounts, unlike mine, have no personal identifiable information due to the understandable fear Chinese citizens have of their own government, even though such accounts might be illegal in theory: <<anonymous-account-ban>>.

The only action that I can take now is to report abusive comments people make to me.

Obviously, the only effect of such ban is that I will create an <<anonymous-account-ban,anonymous account>> under Tor with a second cell phone if I wish to contribute in the future, and China will have less information about my political interests than before.

The private messages the website sends while banning you are:

____
知乎管理员 ：您好，根据用户举报，您的帐号发布了「<<politically-sensitive,政治敏感>>」内容，帐号已根据知乎社区规范被永久禁言。处理详情可查看社区服务中心。具体规范请查看知乎社区管理规定。 6月25日 16:37 回复 | 删除

知乎管理员 ：您好，根据用户举报，您的部分个人信息由于不符合知乎用户信息管理规范已被重置。用户名可以在设置页面中修改，修改后会自动进入审核等待通过；其他个人信息可以在个人主页中编辑。感谢您对知乎社区的理解和支持。 6月25日 16:37 回复 | 删除
____

Those messages contain links to: https://www.zhihu.com/terms2 | https://archive.is/wdXSz and https://www.zhihu.com/question/19551824 | https://archive.is/BrgV2

The ban came soon after I posted a link to my GitHub repo as a comment at: https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/21/ice-employee-list-github-linkedin/ maybe they are related.


[[who-reported-ciro-santilli-on-zhihu]]
====== Who reported Ciro Santilli on Zhihu (谁在知乎上举报了 Ciro Santilli)

At the same time the ban happened I received a public comment from user "Eureka" https://www.zhihu.com/people/crb912/activities | https://archive.is/1F3t6 on this thread: https://www.zhihu.com/question/46957710 | https://archive.is/PVOLd saying:

____
你滥用了github， 也滥用了Stackover。这个一个纯粹计算机、编程和知识分享的地方，请不要带入政治性的色彩。请不要这么做， 维护社区的非政治性、中立和技术性纯粹，是每个热爱cs的人应尽的义务。
____

I am unable to get a URL that shows the comment on archive.is, so I have no proof of this claim. If you trust me, then here is a screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/YCiEEax

Since I expect the ban lists to be private, I find it extremely likely that this was the user who reported me, unless both were simultaneously triggered by a third event which I have not seen. So correct me if I'm wrong here.

Users with the same user id `crb912`, related "Eureka" username or same profile picture, can be found at:

* https://www.weibo.com/crb912 (unable to archive) on <<weibo>>
* https://github.com/crb912 | https://archive.is/heGfd which suggests a possible real name

By Googling the email found on the GitHub repos, we find: http://www.360doc.com/content/15/0809/11/25724933_490492490.shtml | https://archive.is/2UnGL which might, at last, contain a photo of my nemesis.

My public message to the reporter whomever he may be:

____
While you have also raised issues that were raised a thousand times before, and clearly answered in the FAQ, at least you were able to take some actual action leading to an actual ban, and I respect you for that.

I hope that one day you will redirect that cunning and initiative towards taking down the root cause of the problem, which are the Chinese communist Party and their Firewall themselves.
____

[[zhihu-questions-related-to-ciro-santilli]]
===== Zhihu questions related to Ciro Santilli (三西猴相关的知乎问题)

Parent section: <<backlinks>>

All Zhihu posts related to Ciro Santilli were deleted following <<zhihu-purge>>. Some had been deleted before.

* 2019-06-12: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/68869259 (https://web.archive.org/web/20190905071450/https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/68869259[archive before deletion], (https://web.archive.org/web/20191103072349/https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/68869259[archive after deletion])) "德国极端分子黑我们大中国！犯我中华者，虽远必诛！！". Ciro wonders why the poster thought Ciro was German.
* 2019-03: https://www.zhihu.com/question/316700162 (https://archive.is/ewxqb[archive before deletion], (https://web.archive.org/web/20191103065512/https://web.archive.org/screenshot/https://www.zhihu.com/question/316700162[archive after deletion])) "如何看待Github Trending上Ciro Santilli的众多开源项目？". Due to: https://github.com/cirosantilli/x86-bare-metal-examples being featured on Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19428700
* 2018-11: https://www.zhihu.com/question/302738350 (https://archive.is/lkQxS[archive before deletion], (https://web.archive.org/web/20191103065759/https://www.zhihu.com/question/302738350[archive after deletion])) "如何评价Ciro Santilli对Stack Overflow和GitHub的扰乱？"
* 2017-03-07: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/25600138 (https://archive.is/DkooN[archive before deletion], (https://web.archive.org/web/20191103065808/https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/25600138[archive after deletion])) "StackOverflow 上的一个智障用户"
** 2017-03 https://sololand.moe/2017/03/06/brain-fucked-user-on-stackoverflow (https://web.archive.org/save/https://sololand.moe/2017/03/06/brain-fucked-user-on-stackoverflow/[archive]) by https://github.com/brglng/ (https://web.archive.org/web/20180802090918/https://github.com/brglng/[archive]) "StackOverflow 上的一个智障用户" contains a copy of the post by the same author.
+
It just makes Ciro smile whenever he thinks that their post criticizing Ciro was deleted by the CCP, and they still might support the CCP, <<meant-to-be-used,Stockholm syndrome comes to mind>>.
+
As of 2020, that website generates a constant stream of incoming traffic to the issue it links to: https://github.com/cirosantilli/chat/issues/26[]. Unfortunately brglng was a coward and removed his comments leaving the conversation a bit broken, and this was before Ciro <<wayback-machine,web archived obsessively>>.
* 2015-08-18: https://www.zhihu.com/question/34775392 (https://web.archive.org/web/20160219094646/https://www.zhihu.com/question/34775392[archive before deletion], (https://web.archive.org/web/20191103065816/https://www.zhihu.com/question/34775392[archive after deletion])) "你们怎么看stackoverflow上某人故意屏蔽中国访问的事件？"

A random control question that shows that archive.org 404's are actually deleted questions: https://www.zhihu.com/question/316700165 (https://web.archive.org/web/20191103065449/https://www.zhihu.com/question/316700165[archive]).

Mentions not yet deleted as of writing:

* https://www.zhihu.com/question/21099730 at <<zhihu>>

[[zhihu-ted-chiang-answer]]
====== Answer to the Zhihu question "How do you evaluate Ted Chiang's 'Evil Chinese Characters' essay?" "如何评价姜峯楠（Ted Chiang）在纽约客上的随笔《坏汉字》？"的回答

https://www.zhihu.com/question/47205991/answer/967940202 (http://web.archive.org/web/20200628101940/https://www.zhihu.com/question/47205991/answer/967940202[archive])

Contains reactions to the post: <<evil-chinese-characters-by-ted-chiang>>, and this answer says that even though Ciro Santilli is amazingly smart, he cannot be bothered to learn Chinese characters, quoting Ciro's comments from: <<does-ciro-santilli-speak-chinese>>.

This post was interesting because it happened after <<zhihu-purge>>, which indicates that Zhihu did not setup an automated "Ciro Santilli" filter.

[[zhihu-46957710]]
====== github.com@cirosantilli 是谁维护的，为什么会收集邮箱地址？

https://www.zhihu.com/question/46957710 (https://archive.is/PVOLd[archive before deletion], (https://web.archive.org/web/20191103065828/https://www.zhihu.com/question/46957710[archive after deletion])).

Asked in 2016-09 after Ciro published: https://github.com/cirosantilli/all-github-commit-emails

Deleted after <<zhihu-purge>>. Ciro's answer before deletion:

____
你用的git config user.email当然是公开的：谁都会git clone就知道了。

问题就是git repository很大，我们不会都clone.

但是github有一个API，收集很多信息，包括邮件。

然后，Google用了那个API给他们的https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/...信息。

BigQuery对程序员很容易提取信息，是我用的。

我发表邮件以后，两个东西变化了：

1. Google 把邮件从BigQuery删除
2. GitHub 更新他们的隐私声明GitHub Privacy Statement

这就是我的木比：保护人们的隐私权

我的README.md更详细地解释。
____

==== Quora

https://www.quora.com/profile/Ciro-Santilli

Quora is https://cirosantilli.com/quora[a generally shitty website], with mechanisms that allow <<wumao,wumaos>> to quench freedom of speech.

Quora is a major platform for <<astroturfing>>.

Ironically, as usual, is it also blocked in China:

* according to <<greatfire>>: https://en.greatfire.org/https/www.quora.com
* 2018-03 news coverage https://www.businessinsider.com/china-banned-zhihu-over-censorship-2018-3?r=US&IR=T

Examples of activity related to Ciro Santilli:

* 2016 Ciro Santilli's profile was blocked because it had Chinese keywords on both my username and credentials. Justification: "non-English".
+
* 2017 created one in English: Cook <<tiananmen,Tiananmen Square>> Noodle Shop, from <<falun-sweden>>
+
Added my Noodle shop to maps: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Tiananmen+Square+Noodle+Shop/@60.6132538,15.6687509,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x94603408e3c63fb3!8m2!3d60.6132538!4d15.6687509
+
Leach websites that picked it up: https://kvalster.se/Falu/Uthyres/Lagenheter/Gammelvagen_49_1417351

Quora is also shitty because wumaos can downvote your answer privately regardless of reputation and make it become collapsed as "Answer may need improvement", which means it goes to the bottom and readers have to click an "expand collapsed answers" button to see it, so that very few people will ever see it.

Then have to appeal and wait for moderators to evaluate it.

This happened for example at: 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 (see also <<t-shirt>>).

Ciro appealed in 2020-03-10 and the answer was reinstated on day later, but by then the question was already not being suggested as much to readers, and the other wumao answers (which criticize the USA rather than answering the question about China).

While there is some probability that the answers themselves are not wumaos, their upvoters almost certainly are and must be investigated.

Other shitty aspects of Quora include:

* block <<wayback-machine>> archives with their robots.txt, gotta use <<archive-today>>
* automatically add random topics that you don't care about to your suggestions, with no easy way to prevent that.
* questions cannot have more than one sentence. There used to be a question body, but it was replaced with a "link for context". Ridiculous.

As a result, on the few occasions that Ciro posts on Quora, all content will also be mirrored here. Ciro's China Quora answers include:

* 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"?] (https://archive.is/PxjJA[archive]) see also: <<t-shirt>>
* https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-net-worth-of-Xi-Jinping/answer/Ciro-Santilli[What is the net worth of Xi Jinping?] see also: <<panama-papers>>

Some <<wumao,wumaos>>:

* http://archive.is/WzIcg[]: a Han supremacist!

Related posts:

* on <<reddit>>
** 2021-03 https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/lv0n24/has_quora_been_overrun_with_chinese_propaganda/
*** 2021-04 https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/mkfgrb/quora_is_officially_a_propaganda_network_for_the/

[[ptt]]
==== PTT Bulletin Board System (Taiwanese message board, 批踢踢實業坊)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PTT_Bulletin_Board_System
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/批踢踢

Popular <<taiwan,Taiwanese>> forum system and server from 1995, pre HTML, works from telnet terminal, so likely very programmer heavy, and obviously anti-CCP, as of 2020 often shows <<falun-gong>> ads.

<<ciro-santilli>>'s appearances on PTT:

* 2020-10-09: https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/joke/M.1602211516.A.3FB.html 如何一秒惹怒中國人 (how to provoke a Chinese person in one second) by https://pttweb.tw/user/abc60575986/[abc60575986] saying "台灣是一個國家" (Taiwan is a country). Then https://pttweb.tw/user/kugwa/[kugwa] linked to <<keyword-attack,Ciro Santilli's Stack Overflow profile>>
* 2020-01-31: https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/Gossiping/M.1580484253.A.37A.html "stackoverflow菁英卻痛恨中國" by https://pttweb.tw/user/Eric0605/["Eric0605 (我還有點餓)"] on the Gossiping board. One of the comments then links to http://cirosantilli.com
* 2017-06-19 https://pttweb.tw/s/2K9zV "Ciro Santilli <<the-709-crackdown,709大抓捕>> 六四事件 法轮" on the Gossiping board
* 2016-10-03 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?) by gocreating on the Soft_Job board

Archaic, fucking impossible to learn how to use. Ciro Santilli hasn't managed yet, so if you want a reply from him, open an issue on this repo instead. Some tips:

* on the web UI rendering replies can be either likes (推 as in 推荐), dislikes (噓, hush!) or neutral (right arrow)
* per-page threads are basically flat. You can however reply to another post with a "Re:" post. One application of this seems to be to post images which might only be allowed on the thread starters, e.g.: https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/joke/M.1602324724.A.CA0.html is a "Re:" to https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/joke/M.1602211516.A.3FB.html It is not clear if Re: and original posts are interlinked in any way.

TODO: can anyone comment, without having a Taiwanese university address? This suggests no: https://www.reddit.com/r/taiwan/comments/1etbvb/anyone_on_pttcc_advice_suggestions/ Also asked at:

* https://www.quora.com/unanswered/Can-you-comment-on-the-PTT-Bulletin-Board-System-at-ptt-cc-from-Taiwan-without-working-or-studying-at-a-Taiwanese-university
* https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/92

A source informed Ciro that now only https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Taiwan_University[NTU] alumni can have an account.

Maybe the email requirement is the only way to prevent <<wumao,wumaos>> from flooding the website.

Normal people see it on a web viewer hosted on: https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/index.html

However it is fucking impossible to web archive that web interface because there is a cookie I'm 18-years-old confirmation before the first connection.

This shows how to connect for the first time: https://www.ptt.cc/index.firstbbs.html

One attempt is: