Daily Archives: November 9, 2013

Though the Twitter website has been blocked on mainland China since 2009, news of Twitters successful IPO was still widely covered by Chinese national media, and Internet users in China took to their Weibo accounts (Chinas version of the microblogging platform and the countrys most popular social media site) to crack jokes about the multibillion-dollar invisible website.

A website that cant even open is now worth $24 billion? Its a crazy world were living in! one blogger posted, according to the South China Morning Post. Twitter is like a ghost, because youve only heard about it, but no one has ever seen it, another joked.

While there were jokes aplenty, the conversation unsurprisingly turned into a debate on censorship. Another blogger pointed out that the jokes about Twitter say a lot about Chinas immense censorship power. This is the moment you realize that China is so apart from the rest of the world, one New York-based Weibo blogger wrote. The post, which drew some 3,000 comments, became a point of argument. Considering the average American knows very little about the world outside their country, who is really apart? one blogger wrote in response. We have our own, better version [of the platform], so how are we set apart?

How can you say it's better when you're denied having Twitter as a choice, said the first blogger. Those who say they dont even like using Twitter are missing the point. How can you be glad when you are deprived of the right in the first place?

Even though they can't tweet, many Chinese netizens addressed the censorship in a humorous way. Here are more jokes about Twitters IPO found on Chinese social media:

I am calling the police they are letting a fake website go public.

I am worried about the bubbles in the U.S. stock market -- how come a nonexistent website walked away with that kind of money?

Wow, do you think I can also make money selling shares in my blank error page?

On Thursday, the San Francisco-based social media platform saw its stock price soar from the IPO opening of $26 to $44.90, a 73 percent increase, by the end of its first day on the New York Stock Exchange.

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China Discusses Twitter IPO Online: Netizens Crack Jokes About Censorship And Social Media

After a lengthy battle in a French court over unwanted S&M pictures showing in Google search results, former president of Formula One racing Max Mosley beat Google in a ruling that said the search engine was to "remove and cease, for a period of five years beginning two months after this decision, the appearance of nine images,Reuters reported.

The images in question depict Mosley engaged in an S&M party with multiple prostitutes back in 2008. Rumors surfaced it was Nazi themed, but Mosley fiercely denied that aspect of the event; the costumes worn were prison garb.

Google said the ruling would require a new algorithm built specifically for this case in order to keep up with anyone who is reposting the images.

"Even though we already provide a fast and effective way of removing unlawful material from our search index, the French court has instructed us to build what we believe amounts to a censorship machine," Google counsel Daphne Keller said in a statement.

Prior to the ruling, Google said it had already removed hundreds of pages for Mosley and would be willing to remove more. But this ruling, said Google, has serious consequences for free expression.

TechDirt.com reported Mosley's take on censorship and Google's role:

"The fundamental point is that Google could stop this material appearing, but they don't, or they won't as a matter of principle. My position is that if the search engines -- if somebody were to stop the search engines producing the material, the actual sites don't really matter because without a search engine, nobody will find it, it would be just a few friends of the person who posts it. The really dangerous thing are the search engines."

Google was ordered to pay 1 euro in damages as well as 5,000 euros of Mosley's court costs. Google said it would appeal the ruling.

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Google Whipped by Censorship Ruling in Max Mosley S&M Case