1. Nicole Muth
Cybercities- China
March 23, 2016
Urban Topic
China’s Censorship of the Internet, Social Activism, and Democracy
Social activism for human rights is not a new topic. Social activism has been a
constant and ongoing struggle for people of all places, times, and situations throughout
the history of established government. The way these activists of various causes organize,
protest, demonstrate, and seek their goals has changed with the help of modern
technologies throughout centuries. The most modern technology that activists use is the
Internet, with social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter being the newest tools.
Activists often use these sites seeking change within government policy, treatment of
people, environment, business, etc. China is one specific country where social activism
via the web is most interesting, as well as most complicated. Since China is not a
democracy, many people have complaints about their rights, which they are not allowed
to express. The Internet is a vessel for this type of activism, but it works differently in
China, where the Internet is strictly censored. This censorship drastically affects the
freedom of activist groups in the expression of their various causes, values, and beliefs.
Before fully understanding China’s role in Internet activism, it is important to
examine modern social activism through use of the Internet. The Internet is the latest and
greatest tool for modern activists. It is a vessel that allows for the extremely fast and
otherwise impossible organization of groups, spread of information, and un-silencing of
the masses, all with a basic anonymity attached. First and foremost, the web allows for
people from all places, backgrounds, and social structures, who have a common goal, to
organize and plan. The web facilitates for the formation of “communities centered

2. around issues rather than ‘residency’” (McCaughey 43). These Internet-based activist
groups can often be more powerful than local protestors or groups. This is mainly
because Internet groups have a chance of being more widespread. They also are made up
of people with different connections, knowledge, and perspective. This is especially
important for activists groups trying to change a government, because each group
member can report to the others the local events in their area that would not otherwise be
shown. Once groups are organized and connected with the same goal in mind, the
Internet can work as a loophole for sharing articles with one another that are banned from
being published. This still allows people to read the articles, without the threat of criminal
charges for publishing them (MacKinnon 21). The spread of information in this way is
the next main advantage of Internet activism.
Internet activism is enabled by a faster spread of information. The Internet allows
for events to be written about as they happen. People can also use the Internet in cases of
protest, to quickly and effectively tell a group where to meet and what to do, while going
undetected. It takes away the aspect of activist groups that would need to meet in person
to organize and create a plan by sharing information in person. Other ways that this faster
information spread is used for activism is through “web campaigns, signature petitions,
outright verbal protests, and online direct action such as virtual sit-ins and hacktivism”
(Yang 18). The fast spread of information through the Internet was realized very quickly.
In the 1990s and early 2000s Internet activism was mostly text-based. This means online
petitions, large groups of people emailing for the same cause, sharing text-based pages,
etc. (McCaughey 30). Modern Internet activism still involves a heavy amount of text, but
information sharing is more complicated today. With the introduction of social networks,

3. blogs, mini blogs (like twitter), social activism is more complicated and has more
opportunity to successfully flourish than in the past. Information sharing now has a much
greater impact than simply alerting a lot of people of something at once. It is cause for
inspiration, “Web protests reinforce our sense that real communities can and do take root
in Internet-based spaces” (McCaughey 43). It is the information sharing among activists
on the Internet that allows for these web communities to form.
The result of these close-knit web communities is a network of activist bloggers,
their followers, and a widespread un-silencing of the masses. Rebecca MacKinnon wrote
about one of these groups, “A group of young activists found it to be particularly useful
in organizing street protests, as well as to call attention to the arrests of their friends”.
Giving the masses a voice is especially important in countries where activism can lead to
arrest and disappearances. When the threat of being an activist is possible criminal
charges and persecution, anonymity is also of the utmost importance. However,
anonymity does not always stop loyal followers and fellow activists from speaking out
when one of their own goes missing.
All aspects of Internet social activism are important, but in countries like China,
consequences can be severe. China has strict Internet censorship rules, as well as
speaking out against the government rules, and breaking them can be detrimental to a
person’s life. Because of this, most protestors in China feel deeply enough about their
cause that they are willing to risk their personal freedom in hopes of a countrywide
change. Some of the issues that Chinese activists feel passionate about are government
policy, social problems, human rights, and laws. While the internet has surely aided
activists in their goals, it has also in a way caused a lot of the passionate feelings of

4. protest. The reason for this is simply the difference in Chinese government ideals, and
those of the modern web. The Chinese government is Communist, but the Internet is
arguably democratic. “The democratization of communications… will bring about the
democratization of the world”, and this is not what the Chinese government wants
(Bremmer 86). However, with the web’s growing democratic influence, it has sparked
new ideals in some Chinese citizens. It is for this reason that the Chinese government’s
censorship of the Internet has evolved and grown as the Internet has. The Chinese
government would like their internet and communications to reflect their government
ideals, which are communist, so their solution is to censor the internet and prevent
activism. In fact, “Many Chinese thinkers worry that by embracing the economic benefits
of globalization, China risks being ‘flattened’ by an accompanying American political
ideology” (Leonard 13). Overall, China has different values, a different culture, and
different politics then democratic nations do. The Internet allows people to look into
other cultures and get foreign ideas. Many traditional Chinese politicians do not want to
go towards democracy, just as traditional American politicians do not want to be
communist. Of course, there are citizens of China who disagree with their government
and want democracy, and solutions to some of their social issues that come with
democracy. A lot of activism in China comes from this disagreement between the people
and government, and a lot of the disagreement has been inspired by what citizens have
seen and learned about on the Internet (Leonard).
The movement towards democracy that some Chinese activists are participating in
has only fueled the fire of the protective Chinese government. The Internet is an
important part of this because the Chinese government views the Internet as something to

5. be controlled reflects their views on their citizen’s opinions and rights. This is a stark
contrast to President Barak Obama, who said, “Historically, part of what makes for a
healthy democracy, what is good politics, is when you’ve got citizens who are informed,
who are engaged….And what Facebook allows us to do is make sure this isn’t just a one-
way conversation; makes sure that not only am I speaking to you but you’re also
speaking back and we’re in a conversation, we’re in a dialogue” (MacKinnon 6). It is this
ideology that activists and government in China do not share. In turn, this leads directly
to China’s censorship laws.
China’s censorship laws were not always at strict as they are today. Of course,
when the Internet first became relevant, it was not really a means for politics and social
activism. So, Chinese censorship laws have grown and adapted as the Internet has. In the
beginning, “early control of the data network” in China was held by “educational and
academic sectors of the central government” (Harwit 384). As soon as the number of
service providers of the Internet in China grew, so did the restrictions the Chinese
government places on the providers. The Chinese government never had the intention of
allowing the Internet to become as deep, socially important, and influential as it is today.
So, as the government saw this happening, it imposed hefty fines early on that non-
government backed service providers had to pay, but could not afford. This allowed the
government to gain more control of the Internet sources (Harwit 392). The Ministry of
Information Industry (MII) went along with this because it gained profits as a company
by being an Internet monopoly and saw itself as a “government guardian” (Harwit 392).
This network wanted “as much control as possible” over the economic market for
Internet providers in China (Harwit 392). It gained power by being favorable to the

6. government, but this led to losing control over what information is allowed. MII owner
Wu cared more about the economics of his business than content, so he and the
government were in a mutual agreement. This was all very early on, but eventually came
more laws, and an Internet Police Force. Some of the topics that are banned from Chinese
Internet are porn, gambling, and publication of counterrevolutionary materials (Harwit
395).
One purpose of the Chinese Internet laws is to keep control over people’s world
views. A man named Ding Guan’gen is the Publicity Department chairman in China and
a Communist Part politburo member, with the job of keeping Internet content “focused
within allowable political boundaries” (Harwit 394). His goals are for the government to
“tighten control and delete ‘harmful’ material from Internet news reporting” (Harwit
394). This control of the Internet is to control the masses. When Google was in China, it
was restricted to not show “Websites promoting Falun Gong, a government-banned
spiritual movement; sites promoting free speech in China, or any mention of the 1989
Tiananmen Square massacre” (Thompson 2).
Google is actually an important part of the history of Chinese censorship and its
citizens’ understanding of it. When Google was still in China, Chinese firewalls would
block sites that Google lead people to, but people could see that the sites were there, and
the government was not allowing them to view the sites. This brought awareness to
censorship issues by accident, and eventually the government shut down all access to
Google (Thompson 4). Even though some people in China are aware of censorship, they
do not know the full extent of it. They know that they are not allowed to write and share
certain things. However, when shown the iconic picture of a man standing in front of the

7. tanks at Tiananmen Square Chinese university student did not recognize it. This
“blinkered knowledge and understanding of their own society, past and present, is one of
the regime’s most deliberate and profound achievements” (MacKinnon 33). This means
that China’s censorship is successful in twisting its citizens’ worldviews. Many of them
know of the censorship but do not understand it to its full extent, whatsoever. For the
people that do feel strongly about censorship in China, and actively want to get around it
for Internet activism and other purposes, the task is a difficult one that not many can
complete.
In China, only one percent of the population knows how to bypass censorship
through hacking. So, many activists cannot bypass the censored network and reach the
free Internet. Instead, they use loopholes and other means. Activists use twitter, which is
less censored than other sites and blogs, and also allows for political debates, the sharing
of ideas, and the sharing of personal and group opinions. Activists groups also use twitter
to give organization-wide announcements, to organize, and to turn information into
trends through re-tweeting. Twitter is important in Chinese activism because it opens up
the Internet and crosses boundaries that other blogs cannot do. This is because of its
character limit per tweet, categorizing twitter as a “micro-blog” (Benney). This dynamic
importance is described as “online networks of Chinese Twitter users are making links
with real-life activists networks, and suggests that, in China at least, Twitter can be a
valuable medium not only for resistance but also for discussion of public policy”
(Benney). Twitter is the way Chinese activists find a loophole in Internet censorship, but
it is not the only way they use the Internet for activism.

8. First and foremost, the Internet is “used to mobilize offline protest events” (Yang
17). This means that the Internet helps to accelerate the process of the plans and means
that go into a protest. The first part of this is gathering the masses and getting the
information to everyone. The Internet helps to keep these groups on the same page, while
protecting them from the consequences of showing their identity and meeting in person.
Activists use the Internet to have news go from local to national. Sometimes is takes
weeks for certain local news stories to spread in China, because the government does not
want this spread to happen. An example of this is children in China being sold for slave
labor. It took an anonymous letter published online to spread the news from local
government to national (Yang 20). If the person who wrote this letter were caught, they
would be in jail. The censorship of the Internet and free speech in China muffles the
voice of the people and makes activist goals and organization much more difficult and
dangerous than in democratic nations.
The reality is that censorship has drastic implication for activist groups who are
trying to use the Internet as a tool and means for their causes. Esarey wrote, “In China,
nongovernmental organizations have a furtive, illegal existence that severely limits their
ability to raise funds, expand membership, and communicate through mainstream
media”. This is why the Internet is a necessary means, because it provides the anonymity
and outreach that activist groups need. Censorship, of course, burdens the affectability
that the Internet ideally has to offer. Another way that censorship laws affect activism is
by restricting Internet user options. The Chinese government has tried to convince
companies like Google and Yahoo to go along with censoring material and eliminating
the anonymity of the Internet, but this usually leads to foreign-owned sites pulling out of

9. the country. This happens because the sites do not want to compromise company values
for the sake of an unfamiliar governmental ideology, which through foreign eyes, is often
seen as wrong. In fact, sometimes citizens of China are punished for what they write
online without realizing that they had broken the strict rules, “Still other times, online
discussions are not meant to be political but may be interpreted as such by government
authorities” (Yang 18). The reason the government is so strict in what is interpreted as
political words is because they want to make a statement and send a message. Their goal
is that censorship and strict punishment will encourage Internet users to censor their own
content (Harwit 395). This strict punishment is the consequence that activists risk when
they organize on the Internet in China.
The punishment in China for activism and also for breaking censorship laws is
almost always a harsh jail sentence. It is also not uncommon for activists to disappear. No
one can say for sure where disappeared activists are taken, but evidence suggests forced
labor camps are their destination. In 2000, an activist named Huang Qi was arrested and
tried for his Internet crimes. When charged, Huang faced a 10-year jail sentence, on a
charge called “Subverting state power” (Harwit 395). He was brought up on this charge
because he posted information about the victims of the Tiananmen demonstrations. His
website also posted about other activists disappearances, and cases of police violence and
brutality. Another activist named Guo protested when a woman was put in jail for
speaking out about being raped by Chinese police officers, and was put in jail. The only
thing that got him out was his tweet saying what jail he was in, that he was able to
publish before officers took his phone away. Luckily, the man was a popular activist, and
many of his loyal followers sent letters to the jail asking for him to come home. This was

10. the other activists’ way of showing the authorities that they knew where Guo was, so that
he could not end up disappeared. If he had not tweeted where he was being taken, it is
likely that he would have disappeared and never came back, and no one would know
where he was, and only local people would know he was missing. This is why the
Internet is even more important in places like China where news is censored. Guo
tweeted “I used Twitter to save myself” when he was released from jail (MacKinnon 41).
The story of Guo highlights all aspects of Internet activism and censorship in
China, showing the roll of (or lack there of) democracy. Social activism has been a
constant mechanism in changing the dynamic between people and government for
centuries. The most modern technology used in social activism in the Internet. When a
country with many social controversies censors the Internet, this new and modern tool, it
is stifling activists and controlling the population. This is an ongoing struggle for Chinese
Internet users, as they use a democracy-grown resource in a Communist run country. Of
course, equally serious consequences follow this use and misuse of what is supposed to
be the free web. In conclusion, the Chinese government may be on its way to developing
an Internet culture that is isolated from, and does not mirror the rest of the world’s
Internet culture. The future outcome of this Internet relationship is truly unpredictable
though, just as the start and growth of the web has been. As history has shown, as the
web grows and changes, so do the censorship laws in China that attempt to control it.

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