What's the explanation? That they are explicitly allowed for some strategical reason? Something else?

Edit: @dang: Sorry in advance. I do feel like we got some pretty good discussion around this explosive topic, at least in it's first hour. Folks, keep up the good behavior — it makes me look good.

China, and all other (supposedly) top-down-economies, survive only because their control is not airtight. If they were to actually have complete control, things would fall apart rapidly. “No one knows how Paris is fed” and all that.

"the kind of control you're attempting simply is... it's not possible. If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us it's that life will not be contained."

Humans are clever and typically find workarounds given enough time/hope. Sure you could argue that this is some kind of authoritarian 4D chess/matrix scenario to let off steam for an unruly populace, or it's just the natural course of things.

Also an analogy re how the image is of communist central planning, but post Deng, it's maybe even more of a freewheeling capitalist economy in some regions than the US....(especially in Shenzhen - see Bunnie Huang's write-ups of the ecosystem/economies there)

Remember this: freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they’ve already enlisted in the cause.

Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.

And remember this: the Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear.

Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empires’s authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege.

Remember this: try.

I don’t see any implication of this news which would undermine their society, or cause disruption, or make people riot. If anything it is a tepid warm “do your job correctly and don’t be too clever by half or else…” story.

Why would they flex their muscles for this one?

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-08-14/china-...

It doesn't really concern the everyman on the street.

The few high profile cases where it was used to punish individuals who ran afoul of some politically powerful person or caused some huge outrage are red herrings - if the system didn't exist, theyd've found some other way to punish them.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/1157

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/1157...

Oh. Had to look it up.

(6) to expose misinformation and disinformation of the Chinese Communist Party’s or the Government of the People’s Republic of China’s propaganda, including through programs carried out by the Global Engagement Center; and

(7) to counter efforts by the Chinese Communist Party or the Government of the People’s Republic of China to legitimize or promote authoritarian ideology and governance models.

——-

Feels like the defense sector is determined to make China a perpetual enemy.

1. There is no such thing as a single entity of government, CCP is not a person, each individual member of the party and government has his/her own agenda. Each level of government has its own goals. But ultimately it's about gaining control and privileges.

2. It is impossible to control 1.3-1.4 billion people all the time, so you make compromises.

3. The main point is: the tight control is both for and rooted from hierarchical power. To put it plainly, anything goes if it doesn't undercut CCP's control. OSHA? WTF is that lol. Law? "If you talk to me about law, I laugh in your face" says the head of a municipal "Rule of Law Office". "Don't talk to me about law this and law that", says the court. But the moment you order a picture of Winnie the pooh carrying wheat (Xi once said he carries 100kg of wheat on his single shoulder) on Alibaba, your account gets banned.

Off topic thoughts: Because CCP has total control, there is no split of power to speak of, so once they are right, they are so right; but when they are wrong, it is catastrophically wrong and there is no change of course. It's why you see 30-50 million people starve to death and an economy miracle within the same half century. The pendulum seems to have swung back to the other direction now, and I don't see a way out for this country.

"It's just some dangerous information that is censored."

If something is totally forbidden, that holds.

However, the government doesn’t want people to feel oppressed beyond the explicitly forbidden.

What happens instead is, if it’s unfavorable but not forbidden, it will be mysteriously downvoted and removed, but if it keeps bubbling up, the government says “okay clearly this is important to people” and leaves it up.

This happened with some news cases of forced marriage in some rural mountain regions, and the revelation that a popular WeChat person (like YouTuber) was involved with one of the families.

It's mainly just that there's more politically motivated manipulation... versus in the west where those tools would be used on things like copyright infringement, pornography, and misinformation etc.

All communication software (QQ/Wechat are the two most used) have sort of backend scanner that detects topics that are in the "in-season" blacklist and ban accounts accordingly. No one knows what the list is so people could get banned for random reasons, but in general bashing current policies or calling out names of the standing members of Politburo is the quickest way to get banned -- and in many instances also got the Wechat group banned.

On the other side, surprisingly, there are many contents that are apparently inappropriate floating on the social media without getting banned. This also throws people off feet.

What I gathered is:

- Don't shit on current party leaders. Actually don't discuss current politics at all. AIs don't always recognize contents correctly so you could be banned for supporting one side or desisting it at the same time.

- Don't ever try to call up other people to join whatever an unofficial cause, whatever it is. Like, even if it's purely patriotic, just don't do it. You do it and you might go to prison very quickly -- at least someone is going to call you to STFU. Grassroot movements is the No.1 enemy of the government and they don't like it. You have to go through official channels for those.

This leads to the following conclusion:

Essentially, the government wants as much control as possible. You want to be patriotic? Sure, but it has to be controlled patriotic. You can attend party gathering to show your patriotism, but creating your own, unofficial gathering is a big No. They probably won't put you into a prison if the cause is legit, but police are going to bug you from time to time ->

IMO this is how the CCP succeed. It has successfully switched from an ideologic party to an "All-people" party. It doesn't really care about ideology. But it wants to assimilate everyone who potentially can be out of control. If you are a successful businessman, it will invite you to participate in political life. If you are an activist who can call up thousands of people, it wants you in. It is essentially, a cauldron of elitists. It has nothing to do with "Communism". It is essentially, GOP + DEM in the US.

"Item number 12. We feel like this URL is hurtful to the Chinese people"