China's popular micro-blogging platform, Sina Weibo, expects that 60 percent of its users will verify their identities by a government-mandated deadline of March 16.
According to the BBC, the government is requiring users to provide the service with their full name and phone number. Only those with verified accounts will be allowed to continue to use the service.
Similar to Twitter, which is blocked in China, Weibo allows users to post short messages and collect followers. Sina Weibo claims it has 300 million users.
The Chinese government has required users of the service to provide their personal information in order to stop the "spread of harmful" false rumors. Among those rumors are a story that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had been assassinated while staying in the country's embassy in Beijing, and another claiming that people had collected syringes infected with HIV in the city to use in attacks.
In 2011, the number of Internet users in China soared to 513 million, half of which used micro-blogging services such as Weibo, a January report from the government-run China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) found. Last year, the CNNIC said that the number of microbloggers quadrupled, and the number of Internets users in the country increased by 12 percent in December alone, compared to the same time frame in 2010.
The Internet in China is, of course, closely monitored, and the government is particularly sensitive about the spread of purported "rumors" on microblogs. Last August, these platforms caught the scrutiny of the so-called "Great Firewall of China" because of discussions about the health of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin as well as talk about the government's mishandling of a high-speed train crash, prompting Beijing to tighten its grip around Weibo.
Commmunist Party secretary Liu Qi paid a personal visit to Sina's offices and told the company that it must "resolutely put an end to fake and misleading information" and better manage users on its micro-blogging platform.
The identity verification tactic is the government's latest step in controlling microblogs, and as they grow, they will likely face more government regulations.
Sina Weibo Top User Rankings
As China’s strict new real-name policy on microblogging sites such as Sina Weibo came into effect, the platform’s most-followed user Yao Chen has become the first to reach 18 million followers.
The government policy was brought into effect on March 16 in an attempt to stop users from spreading “harmful” or false rumours while using a pseudonym but some users are concerned that enforcement will lead to further government censorship on social networking sites.
Chinese actress Yao Chen (picture) is the first Sina Weibo user to hit a total of just over 18 million followers. Her fan count is just shy of Twitter’s second most popular user Justin Bieber whose list of fans has grown to 18.57 million.
Lady Gaga, Twitter’s top microblogger, has raced past 21 million followers after hitting a record 20 million fans just weeks before. In a blog post dated February 8, 2012, Lady Gaga announced that she would launch littlemonsters.com, her own social network.
This week Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez both reached out to their fans on Twitter to thank them for their support as they toured the world.
Swift tweeted:
“Tonight we ended a 13 month tour. It was a beautiful trip around the world and I wouldn’t trade those memories for anything. Thanks guys.” Gomez posted a video on YouTube and tweeted: “It took me a while to get it up but, I wanted to send out a Thank You video to all cities/countries I visited.”
Third party estimates put Twitter at more than 500 million registered users. Sina reported that it had more than 300 million registered users on Sina Weibo in February 2012.
Most popular people on Twitter:
Lady Gaga (21,042,894 followers)
Justin Bieber (18,574,890)
Katy Perry (16,235,613)
Rihanna (15,136,322)
Shakira (14,921,984)
Britney Spears (14,261,168)
Kim Kardashian (14,128,548)
Barack Obama (13,084,879)
Taylor Swift (11,756,340)
Selena Gomez (10,969,110)
Most popular people on Sina’s microblog (Weibo):
Yao Chen (18,006,766 followers)
Dee Hsu (17,412,257)
Yang Mi (15,231,999)
Xie Na (15,101,705)
Kevin Tsai (14,720,573)
Zhao Wei (14,480,905)
Leehom Wang (14,390,159)
He Jiong (14,101,954)
Li Bingbing (13,061,076)
Chen Kun (12,514,872). — AFP-Relaxnews
COMMENTARY: Sina Weibo is operated by Sina Corporation (NASDAQ:SINA), a public company. Sina Corporation reported revenues of $482 million for the year ending December 31, 2011, but in Sina’s Q3 2011 the company had to write off $350 million on its wireless MVAS business and its acquisitions in China Real Estate Information Corp (CRIC) and Mecox Lane (MCOX), both of which made sense at the time of acquisition when the company was expanding its real estate and ecommerce advertising verticals. The result was a net loss of $336 million for Q3 2011, and a net loss for the entire year 2011 of $302 million.
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Sina's stock has suffered a series of ups and downs. Sina's stock peaked at $142.83 on April 20, 2011, but by June 20, 2011, its stock had plunged to $77.62. Following the writedown of its wireless and real estate businesses, its stock price plunged to $67.90 on October 3, 2011. By January 9, 2012, Sina's stock had dropped to an all-time low of $50.69. It has since rallied, and is currently trading at $70.91. The Chinese government is cracking down on all its social networks, and now requires all registered users to verify their ID. According to Sina management, the governmental requirement will negatively impact their earnings due to higher expenses to comply with the new regulations, and this will more than likely affect their future stock price.
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In a blog post dated February 14, 2012, I reported that Tencent Weibo, the No 2 microblogging site in China, had announced plans to enter the U.S. market with an all-English site, and would compete head-on with Twitter, the No 1 U.S. microblogging social network. Rumors that Sina Weibo may follow suit and also enter the U.S. have not been confirmed, but anything is possible. -
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For nearly a year now, I have been warning my readers about China's social networks because of their eradic earnings, questionable traffic data, less stringent accounting requirements, and volatile stock prices. I would carefully watch all these Chinese social networks as the Chinese government's censorship hammer comes down hard. This should be a warning to Facebook and Twitter, from making any overtures to enter the Chinese market.
With the following words earlier today, in a blog posting titled “Tweets still must flow” the management of Twitter went over to the dark side and may well have dug their own grave.
"Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world. We have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why."
Some Twitter users say they will stop using the service on Saturday in protest of the company’s new rule that allows for content to be blocked in specific countries.
The new policy will enable Twitter to block specific tweets on a country-by-country basis when the content runs afoul of local laws.
Several global companies, including Google and Facebook, already have similar policies to remove content to comply with individual countries’ laws regarding speech — one of the most commonly cited examples of a law like this is Germany’s prohibition against pro-Nazi content.
Critics worry that Twitter’s policy will destroy its capability to work as a platform for impromptu social movements, a role it played so prominently during the Arab Spring.
Posting messages with the hashtags “#TwitterBlackout” and “#TwitterCensored,” users vowed to let the company know that they opposed the new policy. Several of the tweets were in Arabic.
The company said that as it continues to grow globally it’s had to rethink its policies on free expression. The post said.
“As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there.”
Demand Progress penned an "Open Letter To Twitter: Stand Against Censorship" (see below) to the company asking Twitter to keep fighting for and enabling freedom of expression — not rationalize away totalitarianism as a legitimate “different idea.”
Click Image To Sign Petition
Twitter spokesman Matt Graves explained how Tweet blocking will be initiated:
Twitter will first notify an individual user when his or her content is withheld.
Twitter will post clear notice to users in the country where the content is being withheld.
Users outside of the country that asked for the content to be taken down will still be able to see the content.
Twitter said that it created the tool to censor by country in order to prevent having to remove illegal content from its global network. Restrictions will be based on a users’ IP address, and users will be able to select their country though their account settings if Twitter misidentifies their country.
The company said that it has yet to use this new function, and will attempt to let users know when their content is being reactively withheld from a certain country. It says it has taken steps to make sure that the rest of the world will be able to see when tweets are removed from a given country.
The company is also working with the Web site Chilling Effects — a joint project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and several universities — to post all the takedown notices it receives, whether from copyright holders or from foreign governments. Twitter has already begun posting copyright takedown requests.
Google already uses Chilling Effects to share its takedown notices and also compiles those notices Transparency Report — which many have used as a tool to examine the global Web censorship picture.
COMMENTARY: I like a Twitter that is open and uncensored and hope that it will remain true to its original mission of providing an open platform for self-expression and communication. I encourage everyone with a Twitter account to sign the Demand Progress' Open Letter to Twitter petition.
SEOUL—North Koreans bade farewell to dictator Kim Jong Il Wednesday as his body was borne around the snowy capital of Pyongyang in a motorcade that was broadcast on TV a few hours after it happened.
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Tens of thousands of North Koreans gathered along the procession route, which began and ended at the palace built for his father, North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, and where visitors had lined up for the past week to view his body under a glass case.
North Korea's military held a funeral procession for leader Kim Jong-il, led by his successor son Kim Jong-un, in Pyongyang. Courtesy of Reuters.
The casket bearing Mr. Kim's body was carried atop a black limousine covered in white chrysanthemums, the flower used for mourning in both Koreas. Several dozen other sedans followed behind, carrying members of Mr. Kim's family and leaders of his authoritarian government.
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Mr. Kim's third son, Kim Jong Eun, walked at the right-front corner of the limousine during brief ceremonies on the palace grounds before and after the procession, which lasted about two hours.
Kim Jong Il's brother-in-law Jang Song Thaek and several generals who were close to him also flanked the car during the ceremonies at the palace, reinforcing other TV images since his death that his son, who is now expected to take control of North Korea, is being protected and guided by his associates.
And, the crying began in earnest along the funeral procession.
It's a Crying Shame (Click To Enlarge Images)
Even the ruthless dictator's youngest sun Kim Jong Eun who takes over for his departed father cried too. He's crying because he is taking over the reins of power, and probably thinking, "Oh, shit, I'm in charge now."
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Choi Jong-kun, professor of international relations at Yonsei University in Seoul said.
"The point they're trying to make is the leadership is pretty stable. The key thing they want to put out is that succession is going smoothly."
North Korea provided few details about the event and its state-run news agency didn't release information about it until TV broadcasting began, which was at least two hours after it started. Some South Korean TV stations relayed the North's broadcast of the procession for about an hour, then returned to regular programming.
The coverage occasionally showed mourners along the procession route speaking fondly of Kim Jong Il. The mood appeared predominantly somber and calm, although North Korean TV cameras picked out some scenes of people doubled over and even flailing their arms in apparent anguish.
A woman soldier whose name wasn't given said on the North Korean broadcast said.
"The falling snow brings me even more tears because of thoughts about the general's toils. It's as if my heart is being torn to pieces."
The event clearly stretched the capabilities of North Korea's TV broadcaster, one of the chief manufacturers of the regime's projection of might and power. The organization didn't have enough cameras and transmission equipment to cover the motorcade route, resulting in several long stretches in which the procession was out of view. During those times, the broadcaster simply showed shots of crowds waiting for the procession. The 40-kilometer route took the motorcade through much of central Pyongyang .
The procession resembled the one held after Kim Il Sung's death in 1994. At that time, Kim Jong Il walked beside his father's hearse, which appeared to be the same vehicle used Wednesday.
North Korea plans a nationwide memorial event at noon Thursday, when citizens will be asked to observe three minutes of silence. After that, gun volleys will be fired in Pyongyang and nine other provincial capitals, and vehicles will blow whistles, horns and sirens in a final salute.
North Korean state TV broadcast a two-hour tribute to Kim Jong Il on Wednesday morning, chiefly showing images of him as a young man.
Many of the images appeared to be from the 1970s and '80s, when Mr. Kim was rising up in his father's government and aiming to secure his role as the country's eventual leader. The last 30 minutes of the broadcast were devoted to his time as leader.
A narrator said as the image showed Mr. Kim handling products like toilet paper and children's clothes.
"He always took responsibility for the living of all people. He always took care of all North Korean people with his warm love."
COMMENTARY: The death of Kim Jong Il does not end of pain and suffering that the Kim family has inflicted on its people. An estimated 1 million North Koreans are imprisoned in Russian-style gulags where they work as slaves and hundreds them die every day of exposure and starvation. Let there be no doubt, that although the North Korean people are crying for their fallen dictator, they are probably deeply relieved he is gone. But, don't hold your hopes. His son Kim Jong Eun is a real work of art from what I have read. Kim Jong Il by-passed his two older brothers because they lacked the "meanness," wanted in a future leader and dictator. I have a feeling we will be hearing from him very soon, as he tries to proove himself to his little rat rogue nation. In a previous blog post dated December 20, 2011, I reported on Kim Jong Il's death, and you can see more images of the young pudgy new dictator.
When Western companies pulled back from Iran after the government's bloody crackdown on its citizens two years ago, a Chinese telecom giant filled the vacuum.
Huawei Technologies Co. now dominates Iran's government-controlled mobile-phone industry. In doing so, it plays a role in enabling Iran's state security network.
Huawei recently signed a contract to install equipment for a system at Iran's largest mobile-phone operator that allows police to track people based on the locations of their cellphones, according to interviews with telecom employees both in Iran and abroad, and corporate bidding documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. It also has provided support for similar services at Iran's second-largest mobile-phone provider. Huawei notes that nearly all countries require police access to cell networks, including the U.S.
Huawei's role in Iran demonstrates the ease with which countries can obtain foreign technology that can be used to stifle dissent through censorship or surveillance. Many of the technologies Huawei supports in Iran—such as location services—are available on Western networks as well. The difference is that, in the hands of repressive regimes, it can be a critical tool in helping to quash dissent.
WSJ's Steve Stecklow has the story of Chinese telecom firm Huawei, which dominates Iran's government-controlled mobile industry. Photo: AP Photo/Kin Cheung
Last year, Egyptian state security intercepted conversations among pro-democracy activists over Skype using a system provided by a British company. In Libya, agents working for Moammar Gadhafi spied on emails and chat messages using technology from a French firm. Unlike in Egypt and Libya, where the governments this year were overthrown, Iran's sophisticated spying network remains intact.
In Iran, three student activists described in interviews being arrested shortly after turning on their phones. Iran's government didn't respond to requests for comment.
Iran beefed up surveillance of its citizens after a controversial 2009 election spawned the nation's broadest antigovernment uprising in decades. Authorities launched a major crackdown on personal freedom and dissent. More than 6,000 people have been arrested and hundreds remain in jail, according to Iranian human-rights organizations.
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This year Huawei made a pitch to Iranian government officials to sell equipment for a mobile news service on Iran's second-largest mobile-phone operator, MTN Irancell. According to a person who attended the meeting, Huawei representatives emphasized that, being from China, they had expertise censoring the news.
The company won the contract and the operator rolled out the service, according to this person. MTN Irancell made no reference to censorship in its announcement about its "mobile newspaper" service. But Iran routinely censors the Internet using sophisticated filtering technology. The Journal reported in June that Iran was planning to create its own domestic Internet to combat Western ideas, culture and influence.
In winning Iranian contracts, Huawei has sometimes partnered with Zaeim Electronic Industries Co., an Iranian electronics firm whose website says its clients include the intelligence and defense ministries, as well as the country's elite special-forces unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. This month the U.S. accused a branch of the Revolutionary Guards of plotting to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the U.S. Iran denies the claim.
Huawei's chief spokesman, Ross Gan, said,
"It is our corporate commitment to comply strictly with all U.N. economic sanctions, Chinese regulations and applicable national regulations on export control. We believe our business operations in Iran fully meet all of these relevant regulations."
William Plummer, Huawei's vice president of external affairs in Washington, said the company's location-based-service offerings comply with "global specifications" that require lawful-interception capabilities. He said.
"What we're doing in Iran is the same as what we're doing in any market. Our goal is to enrich people's lives through communications."
Huawei has about 1,000 employees in Iran, according to people familiar with its Iran operations. In an interview in China, a Huawei executive played down the company's activities in Iran's mobile-phone industry, saying its technicians only service Huawei equipment, primarily routers.
But a person familiar with Huawei's Mideast operations says the company's role is considerably greater, and includes a contract for "managed services"—overseeing parts of the network—at MTN Irancell, which is majority owned by the government. During 2009's demonstrations, this person said, Huawei carried out government orders on behalf of its client, MTN Irancell, that MTN and other carriers had received to suspend text messaging and block the Internet phone service, Skype, which is popular among dissidents. Huawei's Mr. Plummer disputed that the company blocked such services.
Huawei, one of the world's top makers of telecom equipment, has been trying to expand in the U.S. It has met resistance because of concerns it could be tied to the Chinese government and military, which the company denies.
Last month the U.S. Commerce Department barred Huawei from participating in the development of a national wireless emergency network for police, fire and medical personnel because of "national security concerns." A Commerce Department official declined to elaborate.
Building F1, home to the exhibition hall, stands at the Huawei Technologies Co. campus in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China, on Thursday, May 19, 2011.
In February, Huawei withdrew its attempt to win U.S. approval for acquiring assets and server technology from 3Leaf Systems Inc. of California, citing opposition by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. The panel reviews U.S. acquisitions by foreign companies that may have national-security implications. Last year, Sprint Nextel Corp. excluded Huawei from a multibillion-dollar contract because of national-security concerns in Washington, according to people familiar with the matter.
Eight Republican lawmakers have called on the Obama administration to reconsider a telecommunications bid by a company with links to China's People's Liberation Army, or PLA.The company, Huawei, wants to supply equipment to cell phone company Sprint Nextel. Huawei's founder and CEO, Ren Zhengfei, is a former PLA member. Lawmakers wrote in a letter that they were concerned that allowing this Chinese company to be a supplier could undermine U.S. national security.
Huawei has operated in Iran's telecommunications industry since 1999, according to China's embassy in Tehran. Prior to Iran's political unrest in 2009, Huawei was already a major supplier to Iran's mobile-phone networks, along with Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture between Nokia Corp. and Siemens AG, according to MTN Irancell documents.
Iran's telecom market, which generated an estimated $9.1 billion in revenue last year, has been growing significantly, especially its mobile-phone business. As of last year, Iran had about 66 million mobile-phone subscribers covering about 70% of the population, according to Pyramid Research in Cambridge, Mass. In contrast, about 36% of Iranians had fixed-line phones.
As a result, mobile phones provide Iran's police network with far more opportunity for monitoring and tracking people. Iranian human-rights organizations outside Iran say there are dozens of documented cases in which dissidents were traced and arrested through the government's ability to track the location of their cellphones.
Many dissidents in Iran believe they are being tracked by their cellphones. Abbas Hakimzadeh, a 27-year-old student activist on a committee that published an article questioning the actions of Iran's president, said he expected to be arrested in late 2009 after several of his friends were jailed. Worried he could be tracked by his mobile phone, he says he turned it off, removed the battery and left Tehran to hide at his father's house in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
A month later, he turned his cellphone back on. Within 24 hours, he says, authorities arrested him at his father's house. He said.
"The interrogators were holding my phone records, SMS and emails."
He eventually was released and later fled to Turkey where he is seeking asylum. In interviews with the Journal, two other student activists who were arrested said they also believe authorities found them in hiding via the location of their cellphones.
In early 2009, Siemens disclosed that its joint venture with Nokia, NSN, had provided Iran's largest telecom, government-owned Telecommunications Company of Iran, with a monitoring center capable of intercepting and recording voice calls on its mobile networks. It wasn't capable of location tracking. NSN also had provided network equipment to TCI's mobile-phone operator, as well as MTN Irancell, that permitted interception. Like most countries, Iran requires phone networks to allow police to monitor conversations for crime prevention.
NSN sold its global monitoring-center business in March 2009. The company says it hasn't sought new business in Iran and has established a human-rights policy to reduce the potential for abuse of its products.
A spokesman for Ericsson said it delivered "standard" equipment to Iranian telecom companies until 2008, which included built-in lawful-interception capabilities. The Ericsson spokesman said.
"Products can be used in a way that was not the intention of the manufacturer."
He said Ericsson began decreasing its business in Iran as a result of the 2009 political upheaval and now doesn't seek any new contracts.
As NSN and Ericsson pulled back, Huawei's business grew. In August 2009, two months after mass protests began, the website of China's embassy in Tehran reprinted a local article under the headline, "Huawei Plans Takeover of Iran's Telecom Market." The article said the company "has gained the trust and alliance of major governmental and private entities within a short period," and that its clients included "military industries."
The same month the Chinese embassy posted the article, Creativity Software, a British company that specializes in "location-based services," announced it had won a contract to supply a system to MTN Irancell. The company said.
"Creativity Software has worked in partnership with Huawei, where they will provide first and second level support to the operator."
The announcement said the system would enable "Home Zone Billing"—which encourages people to use their cellphones at home (and give up their land lines) by offering low rates—as well as other consumer and business applications that track user locations. In a description of the service, Creativity Software says its technology also enables mobile-phone operators to "comply with lawful-intercept government legislation," which gives police access to communications and location information.
A former telecommunications engineer at MTN Irancell said the company grew more interested in location-based services during the antigovernment protests. He said a team from the government's telecom-monitoring center routinely visited the operator to verify the government had access to people's location data. The engineer said location tracking has expanded greatly since the system first was installed.
An official with Creativity Software confirmed that MTN Irancell is a customer and said the company couldn't comment because of "contractual confidentiality."
A spokesman for MTN Group Ltd., a South African company that owns 49% of the Iranian operator, declined to answer questions, writing in an email,
"The majority of MTN Irancell is owned by the government of Iran."
He referred questions to the telecommunications regulator, which didn't respond.
In 2008, the Iranian government began soliciting bids for location-based services for the largest mobile operator, TCI's Mobile Communication Co. of Iran, or MCCI. A copy of the bidding requirements, reviewed by the Journal, says the contractor "shall support and deliver offline and real-time lawful interception." It also states that for "public security," the service must allow "tracking a specified phone/subscriber on map."
Ericsson participated in the early stages of the bidding process, a spokesman said. Internal company documents reviewed by the Journal show Ericsson was partnering with an Estonian company, Reach-U, to provide a "security solution" that included "Monitor Security—application for security agencies for locating and tracking suspects."
The Ericsson spokesman says its offering didn't meet the operator's requirements so it dropped out. An executive with Reach-U said,
"Yes, we made an offer but this ended nowhere."
One of the ultimate winners: Huawei. According to a Huawei manager in Tehran, the company signed a contract this year to provide equipment for location-based services to MCCI in the south of Iran and is now ramping up hiring for the project.
One local Iranian company Huawei has done considerable business with is Zaeim Electronic Industries. An engineer who worked on several projects with Zaeim inside the telecom ministry said.
"Zaeim is the security and intelligence wing of every telecom bid."
Internal Ericsson records show that Zaeim was handling the "security part" of the lawful-interception capabilities of the location-based services contract for MCCI.
On its Persian-language website, Zaeim says it launched its telecommunications division in 2000 in partnership with Huawei, and that they have completed 46 telecommunications projects together. It says they now are working on the country's largest fiber-optic transfer network for Iran's telecom ministry, which will enable simultaneous data, voice and video services.
Zaeim's website lists clients including major government branches such as the ministries of intelligence and defense. Also listed are the Revolutionary Guard and the president's office.
Mr. Gan, the Huawei spokesman, said:
"We provide Zaeim with commercial public use products and services."
Zaeim didn't respond to requests for comment.
Huawei Technologies tenticles reach throughout the world. They do business in 144 countries worldwide. Below are their most recent financial statements:
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COMMENTARY: Don't worry my dissident Persian friends whose internet access has been censored by the government of The Islamic Republic of Iran. The Obama administration has come to your rescue, leading a global effort to deploy “shadow” Internet and mobile phone systems that dissidents can use to undermine repressive governments that seek to silence them by censoring or shutting down telecommunications networks.
Map of Countries Restricting or Censoring Internet Use
The effort includes secretive projects to create independent cellphone networks inside foreign countries, as well as one operation out of a spy novel in a fifth-floor shop on L Street in Washington, where a group of young entrepreneurs who look as if they could be in a garage band are fitting deceptively innocent-looking hardware into a prototype “Internet in a suitcase.”
Financed with a $2 million State Department grant, the suitcase could be secreted across a border and quickly set up to allow wireless communication over a wide area with a link to the global Internet.
The Obama administration’s initiative is in one sense a new front in a longstanding diplomatic push to defend free speech and nurture democracy. For decades, the United States has sent radio broadcasts into autocratic countries through Voice of America and other means. More recently, Washington has supported the development of software that preserves the anonymity of users in places like China, and training for citizens who want to pass information along the government-owned Internet without getting caught.
The new American initiatives, revealed in dozens of interviews, planning documents and classified diplomatic cables obtained by The New York Times, ranges in scale, cost and sophistication.
The new initiatives have found a champion in Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose department is spearheading the American effort. “We see more and more people around the globe using the Internet, mobile phones and other technologies to make their voices heard as they protest against injustice and seek to realize their aspirations,” Mrs. Clinton said in an e-mail response to a query on the topic. She said.
“There is a historic opportunity to effect positive change, change America supports. So we’re focused on helping them do that, on helping them talk to each other, to their communities, to their governments and to the world.”
WATCH: Sascha Meinrath of the New America Foundation opens up the "Internet in a Suitcase" and shows us what's inside.
It looks like a normal suitcase, but it's anything but. Inside you will find a laptop, a small wireless antenna, flash discs, and CDs. Together they can be used to set up a shadow Internet anywhere you like -- say, in a repressive country where the government shuts down communication avenues in times of crisis.
The project is informally called "Internet in a Suitcase," and it is being developed by a team of experts at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan research group, with funding from the U.S. State Department. RFE/RL correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari spoke to the head of the project, Sascha Meinrath, to find out more.
Internet in a Suitcase is an open-source project, which means that people can download it for free today and start playing around with it. The New America Foundation hasn't been actively involved in any place around the globe in deploying it.
Looks like Huawei Technologies has found its nemesis in countries where free and uncensored internet access is the norm, as it appears to be in most Communist, former Communist or islamic countries. This includes the usual suspects: Iran, People's Republic of China and Syria. Hopefully, Libya will no longer censor internet service with the overthrow of Moammar Gadafi.
Whoever dreamed up the legend of Faust, the sad tale of the man who traded his soul for unlimited knowledge, could well have been thinking ahead to Facebook and its fascination with China.
What to make of Facebook—which holds itself up as an icon of openness—and its flirtation with the largest authoritarian nation on earth?
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of the social-networking behemoth, sees an inevitability to China. He asked a group at Stanford in October,
"How can you connect the whole world, if you leave out a-billion-six people?"
Zuck and "planted" commie spy Priscilla Chan
And then Mr. Zuckerberg hinted at how he'll answer those who worry about compromises Facebook might make to get into China he said:
"I don't want Facebook to be an American company. I don't want it to be this company that just spreads American values all across the world. ...For example, we have this notion of free speech that we really love and support at Facebook, and that's one of the main things that we're trying to push with openness. But different countries have their different standards around that. ...My view on this is that you want to be really culturally sensitive and understand the way that people actually think."
Soon afterward, Mr. Zuckerberg made the rounds of Chinese Internet companies, visiting Baidu and Sina. Facebook continues to explore possible partnerships, and Mr. Zuckerberg, who is studying Mandarin, may travel to China again this year.
Says a businessman in Beijing familiar with China's Internet legacy,
"This is a train wreck waiting to happen."
He and others believe Facebook will be allowed into the country, subjected to the same treatment Google and Yahoo received, and then spit out—its reputation for openness damaged, and its technology metabolized by a China eager to find new ways to spy on its citizens. The potential price for Facebook: its standing in the U.S., its most important advertising market.
Google was forced to censor searches until it couldn't bear to any longer and moved its service out of China to Hong Kong. Yahoo's tie-up with China's Alibaba has been a nightmare of conflict, and the company hurt itself when it turned over information on dissidents to authorities. China currently blocks access to Facebook and heavily censors the rest of the Internet.
This year, activists in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere have used posts on Facebook and other social networks to organize their popular uprisings. The prospect of free expression and assembly, however virtual, concerns China. And Facebook is a standard of both.
Intent on avoiding an Arab Spring at home, China's security forces have imprisoned activist bloggers and monitored discussions online. Surveillance, physical and otherwise, is widespread. Business people and journalists in the country describe the harassment as the worst since the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square killings in 1989.
Human Rights Watch, worried that Facebook will cave to China's security apparatus to win access to the country's 1.3 billion people, wrote Mr. Zuckerberg last month. It warned against being "complicit in the Chinese government's efforts to censor political speech, thwart virtual organizing, or obtain the identities of the government's critics online." Among the concerns: Facebook's requirement that members use their real names, a ticket to jail for those who criticize the government.
Facebook isn't commenting publicly on its China plans, other than to say it is still carefully studying the market, keen to do it right. Indeed, there is some debate at the top of the company, particularly about the timing of any move—why stir controversy in advance of the company's initial public offering, which is expected next year.
Facebook isn't commenting publicly on its China plans, other than to say it is still carefully studying the market, keen to do it right. Indeed, there is some debate at the top of the company, particularly about the timing of any move—why stir controversy in advance of the company's initial public offering, which is expected next year.
But Mr. Zuckerberg seems to have outlined the road map already. He views Facebook as an international company—fully 70% of the company's users are outside the U.S.—sensitive and, one assumes, conforming to local cultures. This approach was reiterated in more detail recently by the company's lobbyist in Washington.
Adam Conner, Facebook's Washington lobbyist (That's right Facebook fans, Zuck got himself a lobbyist) raised some eyebrows when he said,
"Maybe we will block content in some countries but not others. We are occasionally held in uncomfortable positions because now we're allowing too much, maybe, free speech in countries that haven't experienced it before."
Conner is Facebook's evangelist in Washington, a social-networking pro summoned by elected officials and bureaucrats alike to teach them, free of charge, how to leverage Facebook -- within strict government rules and security guidelines. The mere existence of Conner's hand-holding lessons illustrates the cultural gulf between Washington and Silicon Valley, and spotlights the complex web of congressional rules that limit social networking among federal workers.
Conner is certainly grateful for his job as associate manager of Facebook's privacy and public-policy division. Compared with many of his highly educated but underemployed peers in Washington, Conner is doing just fine financially, earning about $75,000 a year, with equity to boot. (He declined to give specifics on his salary or stock options.)
Facebook executives also like to cite the scholar Clay Shirky to underscore their view that social networks can transcend short-term concerns about censorship and restrictions abroad (those troublesome American values).
In an article in Foreign Affairs in January, Mr. Shirky said social media create a valuable "public sphere" in which societies communicate about all sorts of subjects. U.S. officials should take a longer-term view of the issue and support the expansion of these spheres rather than fixate on problems of censorship. The resulting public discussion, he said, will do more to prompt organic change.
Expect to hear Facebook echo this argument as it begins its bargaining with China.
COMMENTARY: The essence of the above article is very clear to me: Zuck is willing to do whatever is necessary, including compromising American values and freedom of speech to get his hands on that 1.6 billion market of Chinese commie social networkers. If a few Chinese citizens are encarcerated or executed by Chinese authorities for violating censorship rules, that's not his problem.
Adam Conner, Facebook's Washington lobbyist is really naive to think he has China all figured out. Google thought they had China figured out, too. Amid cries of outrage and public criticism, Google entered the Chinese market in January 2006. According to an article dated March 23, 2010 appearing in BBC News, the following is a timeline of how things went down for Google in China:
July 25, 2005 - Google formally announces plans to enter China and appoints Kai-fu Lee, a Microsoft corporate vice-president, as Google China president and head of the new centre.
January 25, 2006 - Google agrees to Chinese censorship rules and opens Google.cn office.
March 1, 2006 - In an effort to protect users of its Google.cn Web site, Google Inc. is moving search records out of China and into the U.S., a company executive said this week.
November 16, 2006 - The first part of the Great Firewall of China - also known as the Golden Shield Project - goes into service. This uses several means to make it difficult to reach sites the Chinese government has deemed illegal.
March 24, 2009 - Chinese government blocks access to YouTube for carrying videos of soldiers beating monks and other Tibetans.
June 9, 2009 - China introduces the Green Dam net filtering software that will be fitted to every new PC sold in the country from July 2009. The software was created to stop people looking at "offensive" content such as pornography and violent imagery. The Chinese authorities say use of the software is not "mandatory".
September 2009 - Google China head, Kai-Fu Lee, resigns to form his own venture fund amid debate about the Chinese government's censorship policies and Google's decreasing share to rival Chinese search giant Baidu.
January 13, 2010 - Google announced that they and other US tech companies had been hacked and that Google is no longer willing to censor searches in China and may pull out of the country.
January 21, 2010 - The US calls on Beijing to investigate the cyber attacks on Google, saying China has tightened censorship.
January 22, 2010 - China denounces U.S. criticism of its internet controls, saying it could harm ties between the two countries.
March 22, 2010 - Google announces it will redirect its mainland China customers to an uncensored Hong Kong-based site. At 3 am Hong Kong Time (UTC+8), Google started to redirect all search queries from Google.cn to Google.com.hk. (Google Hong Kong), thereby bypassing Chinese regulators and allowing uncensored simplified Chinese search results.
March 30, 2010 - Searching via all Google search sites (not only google.cn but all language versions, e.g. google.co.jp. google.com.au, etc.), including Google Mobile, was banned in Mainland China.
So what is this really all about? MONEY. Facebook is not going over to China to fulfill its naive destiny of "connecting the entire world", but to sell advertising to future Chinese Facebook.cn networkers. Without the ability to increase advertising revenues, Facebook can no longer grow, and investor's will begin to question whether it's really worth that $82.5 billion valuation. With future plans of an initial public offering, that could eventually value Facebook at $250 billion, China is clearly part of the equation.
THE SIMPLE FACTS ARE THIS:
The number of potential social network users is a finite number. Facebook is no longer experiencing double-digit growth in the number of users as it reaches saturation in many geographic markets, and its ad-supported revenue has already reached a Critical Inflection Point where growth in users and advertising revenues is no longer exponential. Going forward Facebook will experience a period of rapidly declining growth in the number of users and advertising revenues, finally reaching a point when the number of users and advertising revenues eventually peak.
Facebook needs China, but China does not need Facebook.
Zuck really needs to get beyond his misplaced notion and grand vision that Facebook is an international company that needs to complete its destiny of connecting the entire world even it means complying with Chinese censorship rules and no longer upholding American values like freedom of speech.
Zuck needs to ask himself the following questions:
Are you prepared to put up with an onslaught of Chinese censorship complaints and hacking?
Are you prepared to turnover Facebook.cn's records over to the Chinese censorship authorities at the first sign of a censorship violation?
Are you willing to live with the conscience that any records you turn over to the Chinese authorities could result in the incarceration and even execution of Chinese citizens?
Google thought the same things, and we know how that experiment turned out.
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