China Bans the Word 'Leica' on Social Media

Re:China Bans the Word 'Leica' on Social Media by nitrogen on Sunday April 21, 2019 @04:47PM (#19714476)

I wonder if a comparison to how US students would react to mentions of Kent State or Rodney King or OWS would be enlightening. There's obviously a big difference in severity, but given student opposition to some of the fubdamentals of freedom of speech in recent years, maybe we can learn what cultural differences and commonalities drive state- and self-censorship and thus better address the root problems.

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Re:China Bans the Word 'Leica' on Social Media by spaced-out on Sunday April 21, 2019 @05:12PM (#19714618)

The key difference is whether or not people in the society are allowed to discuss the incident, or if doing so is heavily censored.

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Re:China Bans the Word 'Leica' on Social Media by nitrogen on Monday April 22, 2019 @01:47AM (#19716818)

You know, it's funny. I originally planned to post that comment under a throwaway, but I thought it was ironic that I was afraid of censorship on an American forum. I decided HN readers would be mature enough to handle honest conversation about how to handle a problem that affects all of us in every country. Guess I was wrong

Censorship in America is vast and pernicious. It takes many forms: taboos, shunning, algorithms, downvotes, shadowbans, no-platforming, heckling, harassment, must-show news segments, advertiser demands, textbook authoring committees, etc.

There are ongoing movements on US college campuses and ongoing development in US tech companies that will undo every bit of progress that was fought for in the free speech movement.

This very thread shows a video on an American site being removed because of Chinese complaints.

I am not trying to detract from the importance of Chinese censorship by muddying the waters. This is not whataboutism. We are standing on a sinking ship ourselves, and if we don't start fixing the damage to our own freedoms, we will sink right along with the rest of the world. We must solve our own problems if we are to have any hope of helping others with theirs.

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Re:China Bans the Word 'Leica' on Social Media by jccalhoun on Monday April 22, 2019 @11:34AM (#19719692)

I did not ask them about Tienanmen Square but about censorship in general so it is a little different.

I am a college professor and I think student opposition to freedom of speech is way way way overblown.

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Re:China Bans the Word 'Leica' on Social Media by tedunangst on Sunday April 21, 2019 @05:27PM (#19714683)

What would you expect an overseas US college student to say or not say about Rodney King?

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Re:China Bans the Word 'Leica' on Social Media by tatersolid on Sunday April 21, 2019 @10:42PM (#19715997)

Whatever the individual US student themselves actually thought about Rodney King and all of the social impacts and causation surrounding those terrible events in Los Angeles.

This is in fact the critical difference between totalitarian society and free society.

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