Blogging Citizens to Blogging Officials: China's New Propaganda Blogs
Go to my UPDATE: Chinese Blogging Hoax: Bloggers Play Prank to Validate Love from Readers
"Chinese people can access the Web freely, except when blocked from 'a very few" foreign websites whose contents mostly involve pornography or terrorism,'" says Liu Zhengrong, deputy chief of the Internet Affairs Bureau of the State Council Information Office (posted by Asia Pundit).
Two of China's most popular blogs, Massage Milk and Milk Pig, hosted on Yculblog and Pro State in Flames hosted on Sohoxiaobao, have disappeared. Both were non-pornographic and non-terrorist.
Global Voices write that "Hellomedia, a blog dedicated to tracing the development of new media, analyzes the reasons leading to the blocking. Showing a screenshot, he thinks that it is the mention of FaLungong that close the blog Milk Massage. For Milkpig, it seems quite unreasonable since she only talk about celebrities stories and gossip. And the “Pro State in Flames” has long been politically aggressive and it’s blocked because the two major political conferences are undergoing in Beijing:CPPCC and CPC."
Can we say there is a new shift from shutting down Blogging Citizens to Promoting Blogging Officials?- Refer to my earlier post this week about government bloggers. Blogs seem to be the new Mao Great Leap Chants. Danwei provides a translation of recent post by CPPCC member Zhang Zia's, an official party approved blog:
I’m very happy to be able to communicate with internet users through the People’s Daily ‘Strengthen the Country’ blogging platform. As a CPPCC committee member, one must always remember one’s historical responsibility to reflect the interests of the people, to enlighten the people, and to try one’s utmost to promote economic development, fairness and rectitude, and societal harmony.
Hmmm blogs as state propaganda? Genius I say! Mussolini would've been proud. It will be interesting when Hu Jintao and our next President Hilary Clinton start blogging. Hey the pope just got an ipod - so anything is possible!
Here is a post of a translated portion of Massage Cream -one of the blogs that were shut down.