socialmedian: What China is Censoring This Week

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What China is Censoring This Week

Submitted by Ryan Flanigan from Google Reader

May 06, 2009

Summary

The thing about censorship is that, when done well, no one really knows what’s being censored. This is why last week’s leaked documents from Baidu, the largest Chinese-langauge search engine, are so titillating. Maybe someone screwed up bad, or maybe someone on the inside had an attack of transparency; whatever the reason, we now have a huge pile of documents detailing Baidu’s censorship policy during the period from November 2008 to March 2009.

Whee!

The documents, now safely ensconed in a permanent home on Wikileaks, reveal for the first time a detailed inventory of the Chinese government’s priorities for, er, harmonization. The general categories are no surprise; “Tiananmen Square” and “Taiwan” and “naked chat” are all blacklisted. Other areas are shockingly broad, such as “power” and “tyranny.” Certain media outlets such as Voice of America are considered unacceptable, and “SMS the answer” is listed in the “exam information” section. Also, no ketamine.

The main document of interest begins,

近期重点监控信息

中办发国办发温州鬼村段桂清四川广安广安事件

中组部前部长直言动物园集会涿州饲养基地中石油国家电网倒

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