RConversation

links for 2007-08-31

• Telegraph Blogs : Foreign : Richard Spencer : August 2007
  "Dong Lin, chief technology officer of Xirang, a Beijing-based hosting service provider, said police have mobilized all forces, from China Netcom, the country's second largest fixed-line operator, to information security companies such as Symantec, to joi
  (tags: china internet business censorship surveillance)
• Swarming Media: Comparing Texts in Social Media Courses
  "I thought it might be interesting to look at their respective reading lists to see what these courses are emphasizing in the study of social media...."
  (tags: education newmedia internet)

Oiwan Lam's indecency case: demanding more transparency

The good folks at the Hong Kong-based web company Outblaze have posted a hilarious cartoon (above - click through to their website for a larger version) accompanied by a cleverly written blog post about Oiwan Lam's indecency case. Remember the case of the blogger who is facing a possible jail sentence and/or a crippling fine because she posted a photo containing exposed female nipples in a commentary on InMediaHK, a non-profit citizen-media website, in the context of a political discussion about Hong Kong's Obscene Articles Tribunal and indecency laws? The Outblaze editorial team concludes:

While the world laughs at Hong Kong, let us make an appeal for a bit more common sense to be deployed in this fair city. Let us stop being automatically terrified of nipples or other parts of the human body, particularly in artistic context. Let us treat the Internet as a new medium and realize that we cannot shoe-horn outdated laws to apply to new media, because they will fit extremely poorly in the new digital framework. Let us proclaim to the prudes: “if you don’t like, don’t look”. And, above all, let us reform and modernize TELA and OAT before we are forced to endure further silliness. Organs that are supposed to safeguard the public good – not oppress it – should be informed, open, and transparent, and neither TELA nor OAT appears to be anything of the sort.

Read the whole thing. It's a great read.

In my last post updating Oiwan's case last month, I reported how Oiwan was having trouble getting the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority (TELA) and the Obscene Articles Tribunal (OAT) to answer her questions - answers which she believes are important so that she can adequately prepare her defense.  In her new blog, she posted the full text of her reply to OAT, which requested that she "Please tell the Tribunal the relevance of the questions in relation to the full hearing."  Her letter begins:

In response to your letter dated July 24 2007 concerning the relevance of my questions in relation to the full hearing, I would like to refer to the mission statement of Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority (TELA) that they follow the principle of “Transparency to the public”. I believe that the information that I asked for should be open to the public inquiries not to mention the fact that I am the applicant in this classification proceedings.

As I said in my previous letter, the information that I asked for “is necessary for my preparation of witness statement, expert opinions, submissions, etc. as they directly affect the classification of the article – which can lead to a serious criminal charge.”

However, to entertain TELA and OAT’s question, I would like to refer to CAP 390, section 7(2), which states: “Subject to subsection (3), in the event of any difference between the members of a Tribunal, the decision of that Tribunal shall be that of the majority of them or, in the event that they are equally divided, that of the presiding magistrate.”

Questions 1-4 from my letter dated July 17 are to seek further information on the above process described by the law. If such process had not taken place, I would seek judicial review for the interim classification.

Click here to read the rest. Then on August 19th Oiwan received a reply from OAT. Here is her full post:

Got the latest update from the Obscene Article Tribunal. It is really amazing to read their letters.

Upon receiving my letters for further info, OAT is now writing to Television and Entertainment Authoring to seek inquiries about “point of law” regarding its duty. Here is the OAT letter to TELA cc to me:

"Dear Sir,

Case No. OAGO000147/2007

We refer to the letter from the applicant dated 9.8.2007.

Question 3 and 4 in the letter probably involve point of law.

The tribunal would like to have your response to inter alia
(1) whether the Tribunal has a duty to disclose the process of interim classification, which according to s.14(1)(a) of Cap. 390 is held in private without the attendance of anyone and
(2) if there is such a duty, the degree of disclosure; within 6 weeks from today."

Is it usual that a judicial body would seek advice from an administrative body on its duty? Anyone with a legal mind can throw some light?

Any ideas, anyone?

links for 2007-08-30

• Video: Social Bookmarking in Plain English | Common Craft - Video Production and Consulting
  A great how-to for people who haven't yet started using del.icio.us (yes they exist...) Via Mindy.
  (tags: del.icio.us howto video tagging web web2.0 newmedia education)
• Outblaze Blog » Hong Kong Essay: Mammillaphobia, or Fear of Nipples
  "While the world laughs at Hong Kong, let us make an appeal for a bit more common sense to be deployed in this fair city."
  (tags: oiwan hongkong freespeech internet)
• Cambodian Bloggers’ Summit
  1.) how young Cambodians are leading their country’s cultural integration into the rest of the world, 2.) how IT companies are trying to expand the reach of broadband penetration throughout Cambodia, and 3.) how old school Cambodian journalists are havi
  (tags: cambodia blogs bloggers blogging globalvoices risingvoices internet newmedia)
• Inside DCSNet, the FBI's Nationwide Eavesdropping Network
  "The FBI has quietly built a sophisticated, point-and-click surveillance system that performs instant wiretaps on almost any communications device, according to nearly a thousand pages of restricted documents newly released under the Freedom of Informatio
  (tags: surveillance privacy freespeech humanrights technology internet mobile wireless u.s.a. law FBI government security tech)
• When to remove online content - CyberJournalist.net - Online News Association - Ethics and Credibility
  "news organizations are facing growing questions about whether, how and when to unpublish...."
  (tags: newmedia journalism internet trust credibility)
• China Media Project » Chinese leaders meditate loudly on the philosophy of censorship as 17th Congress nears
  "As the 17th National Congress nears...party leaders are cranking up the volume and urging media not to forget their duty to public opinion guidance (舆论导向)."
  (tags: china censorship law regulation politics internet freespeech)

links for 2007-08-29

• BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Virtual police patrol China web
  "Chinese authorities are to send two virtual police officers to patrol the internet, in a bid to combat "illicit activities", state media has reported."
  (tags: china internet surveillance privacy freespeech humanrights law)
• Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | The blog haters have barely any idea what they are raging against
  "...we can see the unique way in which blogging has redrawn the line between private communication and mass publication. When anyone can publish anything, the moment of truth isn't when you press the post button, it's when others choose to read what you'v
  (tags: blogs blogging internet media newmedia web2.0 citizenmedia)
• Global Voices Online » GV Advocacy: Toward a Global anti-censorship Network
  "In conjunction with that mission of documenting threats on online free speech and providing a comprehensive overview of online and offline anti-censorship efforts, we are seeking to build a global network of bloggers and activists involved in online free
  (tags: censorship freespeech humanrights circumvention privacy globalvoices blogging bloggers)

links for 2007-08-28

• David Weinberger: Andrew Keen's Best Case - Media on The Huffington Post
  David gives the world's best rebuttal to Andrew Keen's "Cult of the Amateur."
  (tags: books ideas journalism web2.0 citizenmedia weinberger newmedia)
• "Yahoo Asks Court In U.S. to Dismiss Suit Over China" By Sam Diaz
  Yahoo yesterday asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit accusing the Internet giant of abetting torture and abuse of pro-democracy writers in China.
  (tags: yahoo! china internet freespeech privacy humanrights law)

Full legal documents: Yahoo! asks court to dismiss jailed Chinese dissidents' lawsuit

Yesterday Yahoo! filed a request to dismiss the U.S. lawsuit against it for its role in the jailing of Chinese dissidents Wang Xiaoning, Shi Tao and others. As the Washington Post reports:

Yahoo acknowledged releasing personal user information about the writers to the Chinese government, but said it had to comply with the country's lawful request and therefore cannot be held liable. Its 40-page response was filed yesterday in U.S. District Court for Northern California.

I just got hold of the original documents that Yahoo! filed. Four PDF's:

• SPECIALLY APPEARING DEFENDANT YAHOO! HONG KONG LIMITED’S NOTICE OF MOTION AND MOTION TO DISMISS FOR LACK OF PERSONAL JURISDICTION
• MOTION TO DISMISS PLAINTIFFS' SECOND AMENDED COMPLAINT
• ALTERNATIVE MOTION FOR A MORE DEFINITE STATEMENT
• SPECIAL MOTION TO STRIKE PLAINTIFFS’ STATE LAW CAUSES OF ACTION PURSUANT TO THE CALIFORNIA ANTI-SLAPP STATUTE

I have not had a chance to through them in detail yet. It would be great to know the legal opinions of any lawyers out there.

For further reference, here are three original PDF documents posted by the World  Organization for Human Rights, which is representing the families of Wang and Shi:

• Complaint against Yahoo!
• Yahoo!: Plaintiff's second amended complaint, adding Chinese journalist Shi Tao as a plaintiff
• Court's Denial of Yahoo's request for early case management and bifurcation of issues

Previous blog posts I have written with relevance to this case:

• Victims' lawsuit against Yahoo! (April 20th)
  The Yahoo! lawsuit: picking through Chinese and English legal documents (April 20th)
• Shi Tao's case: Yahoo! knew more than they claimed (July 29th)
• More Yahoo! China documents emerge (July 31st)

Chinese bloggers thumb their noses at "self discipline"

As I was digging myself out of the vacation e-mail backlog, I found a pile of alarmed messages. They contained various versions of this story on the Chinese self-discipline pledge that a number of blog hosting services including MSN and Yahoo! signed last week.

Before doing anything I checked in with some Chinese bloggers. I found people doing the literary equivalent of thumbing their noses with tongues sticking out and making loud "pppllhhhh" noises. They seem to view the pledge as a bunch of bureaucrats making yet another meaningless pledge to justify their existence. Keso points to a long list of other self-discipline pledges made over the past few years which, he says "other than giving us joke material, they've pretty much not amounted anything." Meanwhile "xucx" thinks the pledge amounts to "loud thunder with light rain." Memedia is dismissive too, although it also points out that this kind of thing will just drive more Chinese bloggers to solutions like the Digital Nomads Project, which aims to help Chinese bloggers set up their own independent blogs so that they don't have to rely on these blog hosting companies. 

Memedia also points to another, very encouraging development showing that Chinese bloggers are less and less inclined to take censorship lying down. Beijing-based blogger Liu Xiaoyuan is suing Sohu for censoring several of his blog posts. He says he fails to see what law or regulation the censored blog posts were violating. He says there was nothing in them that violated Sohu's terms of service. This is now the second blogger who is going to court over censorship. The more these companies institute terms of service, and the more their censorship can't be explained by those terms of service, I predict we will see evan more lawsuits.

All of the Western press coverage of the pledge that I have found online is based on this statement from Reporters Without Borders. Interesting none of the stories I found even quote any Chinese bloggers. Nor have I seen any stories quoting directly from translations of the original Chinese-language pledge document.  Reporters Without Borders have done some important work in calling attention to global affronts to freedom of speech and abuses by governments around the world (including the U.S. government) against people who say things those governments don't like. However, the last time I blogged about a story that came from a RWB statement without separately checking the original Chinese documents, Roland Soong made me look really dumb. Not wanting that to happen again, I decided I had better read through the original Chinese document before commenting.  The meat of the pledge is in items 5-14. Below are my notes roughly summarizing them - perhaps somebody may feel inspired to do a more accurate and careful translation.

5. blog service should obey chinese laws and regulations, protect the legal rights of blog users and the public
6. a good blog service needs:
(1) comprehensive management
(2) sufficient technical and content management staff
(3) sufficient data security measures, including user data privacy, blog content security etc
(4) obey all other existing laws
7. provide good creative environment for blog usersguide them to create excellent cultural works
8. blog service provider should have user agreement with user, and blog host has a right not to give service to those who refuse to agree to terms of service
9. terms of service should include:
(1) blogger agrees to abide by china's laws, regulations, etc, will use the web in a civilized manner, not disseminate pornography, rumors, or illegal information
(2) blogger agrees not to denigrate and insult other ethnicities and religions
(3) blogger agrees not to disseminate rumors and false information, or information that harms others or violates the legal rights of others
(4) blogger agrees not to disseminate information that violates the copyrigths of others
(5) blogger agrees to monitor and manage postings, and to delete postings that are illegal or bad
(6) blogger wont use blog to disseminate viruses or other things that would harm other people's computers
10. if blogger doesnt adhere to the terms, the service provider has a right to delete any illegal or bad information, or terminate the blogger's service
11. encourage blogger to use real name, and register real full name, contact address, phone number etc.
12. blog service will use proper security to manage the information of bloggers who use their real names, protect the user private data, and not give it to third parties or publicize it without the blogger's permission except under circumstances when law requires.
13. blog service should reserve the right to manage the bloggers postings, and the blogger should manage their postings and delete illegal or inappropriate information.
14. blog service should establish online customer service window, and set up a hotline, to accept public comments and complaints about the blog service and content, and resolve things in a timely manner

The RWB statement says:

“The Chinese government has yet again forced Internet sector companies to cooperate on sensitive issues - in this case, blogger registration and blog content,” the press freedom organisation said. “As they already did with website hosting services, the authorities have given themselves the means to identify those posting ‘subversive’ content by imposing a self-discipline pact.”

Reporters Without Borders added: “This decision will have grave consequences for the Chinese blogosphere and marks the end of anonymous blogging. A new wave of censorship and repression seems imminent, above all in the run-up to the Communist Party of China’s next congress.”

This pledge is not by any means a great thing for freedom of speech, and I would point out that quite a number of well-established and Silicon Valley-funded Chinese blog-hosting services and Web2.0 companies are not on the list of signatories. Good for them. Too bad Yahoo! China and MSN China with their big international brands did not have the cojones to stand with them. Having gone through the pledge, however,  I am struck by several things: First, the blog hosting companies pledge they'll encourage bloggers to use their real names but are not going to "force" them to do so, nor are the blog hosting companies "forced" to require bloggers (or even ask them very strongly) to use their real names. Second, the censorship which the blog hosting companies are pledging to do here is nothing more, I'm afraid, than what all major blog-hosting companies have already been doing for quite some time now. The pledge merely makes existing practices much more public, and what's more it institutionalizes the process by which companies will warn new users that their content will be censored. In a twisted way, this could even be helpful if it enables companies to be more transparent and honest with users about how censorship is being done, and also being more clear to users in advance about what will get them into trouble (and which has already been getting people into trouble for some time - without forewarning of any kind, usually). The insistence on privacy protection except in legitimate law enforcement situations could potentially help prevent names being leaked to powerful officials business people who want to use their influence to get friends working in blog hosting companies to tell them who is exposing their corruption - so that's potentially not all bad. The public security bureau has always had access to everything it wants, including via Yahoo as we know all too well. The pledge also requires proper customer service - in part to receive complaints about bad content but in theory this could also be used as a way for bloggers to appeal censorship decisions. Whether or not the pledge gets used in these more positive ways really depends on the companies themselves and how they choose to proceed - and whether their users push them in that direction. But it does seem that one could use the pledge  as an excuse to be more honest and transparent with users if one wanted to take things in that direction. That is of course a big "if". At any rate, it is not quite the disaster that it is painted to be. The part about suggesting people use their real names is mainly throwing a bone to all the officials who lost major face when their attempts to require real name registration by law suffered miserable defeat earlier this year. Blog hosting companies lobbied hard against making real name registration mandatory, don't forget.

Meanwhile, both MSN and Yahoo! have issued explanations for why they signed the pledge. MSN sent this to the Register:

    On August 21, MSN China, a joint venture between Microsoft and Shanghai Alliance Investment, Ltd., did sign - along with the other major Internet Service Providers in China - a self-regulatory code of conduct regarding blog services, sponsored by the Internet Society of China. Such self-regulatory codes are an effective means of helping to protect our customers from cybercrimes and other threats to online security and privacy, and to promoting a safe, friendly environment in which to enjoy our services.

    The principles expressed by the ISC document are broadly in line with what other countries and industry groups have adopted in such self-regulatory codes, including commitments to promote online safety and to prevent misuse of services. While the self-regulatory code does make some recommendations that Microsoft does not support, it should be emphasized that these are indeed recommendations only, and we retain discretion to determine how to best achieve the overarching goals of the agreement. In particular, we do not plan to implement real-name registration for blogging in our Windows Live Spaces service in China.

    Microsoft believes the Internet should be fostered and protected as a worldwide vehicle for reliable information and communications, personal expression, innovation and economic development. We therefore believe that, around the world, government actions taken to address security, safety, or other concerns, and which impact free expression and privacy, should be taken with deliberation and restraint.

    Microsoft also supports international dialogue and bilateral consultations to promote the consistency of national actions and to maximize the openness, security and reliability of the Internet platform, including the development of a clear set of principles that should guide global Internet companies providing services around the world. To this end, Microsoft has joined with a diverse group of companies, academics, investors, technology leaders and human rights organizations to seek solutions to the free expression and privacy challenges faced by technology and communications companies doing business internationally. This effort aims to produce guiding principles, methods for governance and accountability, and to create a forum for collective action and shared learning on free expression and privacy matters.

The following paragraph has been sent around by Yahoo! to human rights groups and others. Naturally, it's Alibaba's fault!

Yahoo! China, which is managed and controlled by Alibaba, signed a self-disciplinary pledge that recommends Chinese internet companies encourage real-name blog registration.  While the pledge supports certain generally recognized online safety measures, we believe the real-name registration aspect of the pledge presents potential risks to free expression and privacy.  When we became aware of the possibility of the pledge, we expressed our strong concerns to Yahoo! China.  Alibaba, which has day-to-day decision-making authority over Yahoo! China, chose to have Yahoo! China sign the pledge, although we understand they do not currently plan to implement real-name registration for bloggers.  Yahoo! Inc. is deeply committed to freedom of expression and privacy.  We are actively engaged with the U.S. Department of State on these issues, and we are also working closely with other technology companies, human rights groups and academics to develop a framework to address human rights concerns globally.

My most recent blog post about that framework process is here, and an excellent article about it is here.

links for 2007-08-27

• MediaShift . Digging Deeper::Traditional Journalism Job Cuts Countered by Digital Additions | PBS
  "As newspapers and broadcasters slice their senior-level workforce, they are also quietly building their digital and online teams."
  (tags: journalism newmedia internet education jobs)
• MediaShift . Digital Job Shift::The Difficulty of Putting a Number on Journalism Jobs | PBS
  "If the old-line media are going to evolve into the digital age, then it’s going to take more than doomsday scenarios. It’s going to take hard work and focus to figure out how to successfully compete (and collaborate) online with the Googles and Yahoo
  (tags: journalism newmedia jobs internet education)
• MediaShift . Photo Community::Flickr Changes Lives, Launches Photog Careers | PBS
  "Flickr is truly changing the way photographers learn, work and get discovered. And it’s changed me, too. "
  (tags: flickr photography photos education journalism)
• 《财经》 Hu Shuli: Personal Rights and the Right to Know and Interview
  "only when journalists’ personal safety is guaranteed can a society declare itself to be a transparent one that can cope with emergencies in a mature and professional manner, and to be truly harmonious."
  (tags: caijing freespeech journalism china law humanrights)
• China Media Project: Party leaders in Luoyang target government acts of retribution against Web users
  "top party and government leaders in the prefecture-level city of Luoyang released a notice (通知) recently prohibiting subordinate offices from employing technical means to dig up information on individual Internet users with an eye for retaliation"
  (tags: china internet privacy freespeech politics)
• 三言二拍：被“自律”了的博客 - 对牛乱弹琴 | Playin' with IT - DonewsBlog
  "所谓自律，照我理解，应该是服务商宣誓自我约束，并请公众予以监督"
  (tags: blog blogging china internet freespeech privacy realname)
• Web 2.0 What Went Wrong?
  A great class with slides and syllabus by Trebor Scholz
  (tags: academia media newmedia education web2.0 I&S teaching syllabus)
• New Course by Trebor Scholz: Democratization and the networked public sphere
  Another great-looking course by Trebor Scholz
  (tags: newmedia journalism web2.0 education teaching syllabus publicsphere blogging philosophy internet socialnetworking)
• Here's how reporters use Twitter | The News is NowPublic.com
  "If you are a reporter on the lookout for interesting comments from people on the ground in a particular situation and you know the location, check out http://twittermap.com, which allows you to track down where Twitter users on a big world map are and wh
  (tags: twitter web2.0 journalism journalism2.0 newmedia)
• Toward a Global anti-censorship Network at Global Voices Advocacy
  'During the last six months, since the launch of Global Voices Advocacy, we have been trying to cover the increasingly serious threats to online speech occurring around the globe and the efforts to combat them."
  (tags: globalvoices freespeech humanrights blogging bloggers internet)
• Thailand: Wordpress.com blocked at Global Voices Advocacy
  "On August 22th, 2007, access to wordpress.com blogging platform has been blocked by TOT (Telecommunication Authority) preventing Thai Internet users from accessing Thai Wordpress and all blogs hosted on wordpress.com. "
  (tags: thailand freespeech censorship internet wordpress humanrights)

links for 2007-08-19

• Perspective: Companies need guidance to face censors abroad - CNET News.com
  How should tech companies deal with nations that oppress their citizens? Professors Jonathan Zittrain and John Palfrey lay out their ideas. (Had to post this.. now back to vacation..)
  (tags: humanrights freespeech internet business censorship privacy csr)

On Vacation

I am detoxing in Thailand. Back at the end of August. No new posts and limited comment moderation till then.