Daily Archives: January 31, 2014

China’s Sina Weibo is in danger of becoming boring – just how the authorities want it

Posted: January 31, 2014 at 9:42 am

It's easy to be glib about social media. Page upon page of selfies, pleas for attention from celebrities, misogynist trolls and angels-on-pinhead arguments.

But as the Telegraph's research shows, the Chinese authorities take the web very seriously indeed.

Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter, is a huge platform, with over 200 million users. And for a while, it functioned freely, or as freely as anything does in China. It was, of course, monitored, and thousands of people were employed to post pro-government opinions and stories on the network.

But the old-style censorship didn't seem to be working as well as it should. Partly because it was just too obvious. In March 2012, rumours spread that the son of a Communist Party Official had been involved in a fatal crash while driving his Ferrari. As people discussed the story, they suddenly found that the word Ferrari had been blocked. For many, this made it clear that someone powerful had something to hide, and people openly wrote about their frustration with the system.

Shortly afterwards, Weibo introduced new contracts concerning conduct. Anonymity went out the window. Spreading 'umours' became an offence. High profile users were put on alert - if a story you shared went viral, you were personally responsible. On a platform dependent on sharing, this was bound to cause people to think twice before sending their messages out to the world. And on a reactive, interactive and instantaneous platform like Weibo or Twitter, that slowing of pace is lethal. It would appear that Weibo is in danger of becoming boring. Just how the authorities want it.

Could this happen elsewhere? Look at the debate in the UK: every week a fresh cry goes up for something to be 'done' about Twitter trolls, often beyond the existing laws that govern free speech and communication - with the ending of anonymity being a particularly popular (and ill thought out) demand. While these calls may be well-meaning, they are part of a broader uncertainty about how to deal with the fact people now have an unprecedented ability to publish to the world.

The Chinese government (and others, such as the highly tech-savvy Iranians) will tell you that this comes with an unprecedented ability to monitor and censor. As China becomes more and more powerful, its model of web censorship, both internal and external, could become the norm.

Padraig Reidy is a senior writer at Index on Censorship

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China's Sina Weibo is in danger of becoming boring - just how the authorities want it

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Patriotism lies in unbiased journalism not in censorship, Mr Abbott

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A billboard calling for the protection of the ABC goes up in Rushcutters Bay. Photo: Edwina Pickles

There's probably a great deal more to Prime Minister Tony Abbott's criticism of the ABC on Sydney commercial radio on Wednesday.

It is less likely to have been some off the cuff comment born out of frustration that the ABC may have got the odd story wrong and more likely to be the launch of a new attack on the nation's public broadcaster.

This is certainly not the first time an Australian prime minister has publicly criticised the ABC in the way it handles its news and current affairs. Practically every prime minister since Bob Menzies has at some stage complained that the ABC either got it wrong, or demonstrated bias in reporting a story. We all remember Bob Hawke's accusation that the 7.30 Report coverage of the Gulf War in 1991 was ''loaded,'' ''biased'' and ''disgraceful'' because of the views expressed by an analyst invited on to the show.

However, Tony Abbott is going a lot further by now suggesting the ABC should censor its news coverage and withhold information to the public when it portrays Australia in a bad light.

On Sydney commercial radio 2GB on Wednesday, the Prime Minister suggested the ABC ''instinctively takes everyone's side but Australia's'' and he wanted to see ''some basic affection for the home team''.

He criticised the ABC for running a story alleging the Australian navy was the cause of some asylum seekers being burned and that the navy should have been given ''the benefit of the doubt''. In the same interview, he made it clear the ABC should not have broadcast the revelations that Australian spy agencies had tapped the mobile phones of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his wife Kristiani Herawati because the information came from documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden. According to Abbott, the ABC ''seemed to delight in broadcasting allegations by a traitor''.

The inference to be drawn from this is that patriotism should now become part of the ABC editorial responsibility and the ABC should deny the public access to news and information that would portray Australia, and presumably its government, in a poor light.

There is no doubt that Tony Abbott and his more conservative Coalition colleagues genuinely believe the ABC is too left wing and needs to be brought to heel. Privately, they still grumble that the likes of Kerry O'Brien was once a young press secretary in a federal Labour government and Barrie Cassidy was once the press secretary for Hawke.

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Ron Paul: Obamacare is a Total Disaster – Video

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Ron Paul: Obamacare is a Total Disaster
Real News @ http://RevolutionNews.US "The Drug Companies And Insurance Companies Are The Ones Who Write These Laws!" Ron Paul Dismantles Corporate Boondogg...

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Libertarians become vocal critics of exhortation

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Column

The most interesting criticisms of Pope Francis's apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, have come from libertarians who are closest to the economic views the pope denounced.

In this document, Francis did not mince words. He condemned "trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and nave trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system." He warned against laissez-faire adherents who "reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules." The pope chastised "the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose."

"Speaking for libertarians, my objection to what the pope wrote derives from two things," the Cato Institute's Marian Tupy said in an interview with NCR. "First, there is the factual statement. The pope says the world is becoming worse, but that can be measured. In almost 200 pages, he never cites a single study, a single number, to support his claim." Tupy, who wrote an article encapsulating his objections in The Atlantic, cites a host of statistics to support his claim that "capitalism, compared to other systems, does very well at bringing people out of poverty."

Tupy's second objection has to do with the lens through which he and the pope view the prevailing economic situation. "The pope compares the world to a future utopia," Tupy said. "I look to the past and find data to support my views." Francis would, no doubt, plead guilty to the charge, but he would be unlikely to use the word "utopia." In the language of the Catholic church, that future to which Catholics are called is "the kingdom of God."

"My factual disagreement with the pope has no bearing on my respect for the man nor on my belief that everyone has a moral duty to help the poor," Tupy said. But, he sticks by his conclusion in his Atlantic article: "Pope Francis has a big heart, but his credibility as a voice of justice and morality would be immeasurably improved if he based his statements on facts."

A similar critique of Evangelii Gaudium came from the pro-market Acton Institute, which is run by a Catholic priest, Fr. Robert Sirico. In a video discussing Evangelii Gaudium, Sirico posed a series of questions: "Where are these unhampered markets?" he asked. "Where is the market absolutely autonomous?" Sirico seems to be suggesting that the pope was creating straw men and attacking them, and expresses the hope that future exhortations will confront the economic questions Sirico poses.

Francis has not been lacking in defenders. "The Catholic apologists for libertarianism -- and, sadly, there are a few who try to do this -- always begin with condescension," said Stephen Schneck, director of The Catholic University of America's Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies. "The pope's pity for the poor is understandable, they say, but he's naive about the miracle of the market. Baloney. Not only are such remarks patronizing, they're proof that the apologists don't understand the papal teachings. Pope Francis is not telling Christians to stoop to pity the poor. He's saying private charity, however wonderful and holy it is, can never be enough. He's saying that the poor also need justice. They need social justice, distributive justice, redistributive justice. He's saying that private charity by itself can never provide that justice given the moral deficiency of economic and social systems governed only by heartless invisible hands."

Lew Daly, a fellow at the secular think tank Demos in New York, thinks Francis hit the nail on the head in Evangelii Gaudium. "Pope Francis is not an innovator of church teaching in any way," Daly told NCR. "The innovation, compared to other voices in the Catholic church, is in his correct and properly urgent analysis of what is wrong in the church's eyes. Capitalism is not just 'broken'; it is inherently out of control, in a late phase of development, because a libertarian creed with mistaken precepts about human nature has infected political institutions, economic elites and even the church."

It is true that while Francis' speaking and writing style is more accessible than that of his predecessors, the content of what he says exhibits deep continuity with previous doctrinal statements. In 1891, Pope Leo XIII issued the first major papal statement on socioeconomic issues and he warned against the excesses of both capitalism and socialism. In 1931, Pope Pius XI wrote, "Just as the unity of human society cannot be founded on an opposition of classes, so also the right ordering of economic life cannot be left to a free competition of forces. For from this source, as from a poisoned spring, have originated and spread all the errors of individualist economic teaching." And, just one year ago, in his World Day of Peace message, Pope Benedict XVI stated, "It is alarming to see hotbeds of tension and conflict caused by growing instances of inequality between rich and poor, by the prevalence of a selfish and individualistic mindset which also finds expression in an unregulated financial capitalism."

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Libertarians become vocal critics of exhortation

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Ahead of Super Bowl, a push to raise awareness about human trafficking

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There are disputes about whether sex trafficking spikes in advance of events such as the Super Bowl. Nevertheless a New Jersey coalition, as well as others, are taking anti-trafficking steps.

New Yorks attorney general announced charges Thursday against 18 people for allegedly peddling party packs of cocaine and prostitutes often aimed at wealthy out-of-town visitors, including people coming to the area for Sundays Super Bowl in East Rutherford, N.J.

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It was the culmination of an 11-month investigation, and the attorney generals office says its still looking into whether human trafficking was involved.

Advocates for preventing sex trafficking and labor trafficking say the lead-up to major sports events around the world is a ripe time for educating people about these often-hidden crimes.

There are disputes about whether sex trafficking spikes in advance of events such as the Super Bowl, and some prominent anti-trafficking organizations say it would be difficult to document such a trend. Nevertheless, a coordinated effort is often launched to boost the training of hotel and transportation workers as well as law enforcement officers and to reach out with messages to potential customers and victims of the sex trade.

A big push around any big sporting event gives us an opportunity ... and raises awareness that will carry over, says Carol Smolenski, executive director of the nonprofit End Child Prostitution and Trafficking-USA. Its important for [sex trade] customers to understand that sexually exploited children are mixed in with the adults.

The New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking has taken a number of steps leading up to this years Super Bowl. It trained more than 200 volunteers to engage hotel managers in anti-trafficking efforts, for instance. Some of them took along bars of soap bearing the National Human Trafficking hot line number (888-373-7888) part of a project called S.O.A.P.: Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution.

In Indiana, similar outreach took place in advance of the 2012 Super Bowl. A report from the Indiana attorney general noted that the KlaasKids Foundation tracked Backpage.com female escort ads and found that four weeks before the Super Bowl, there were 17 ads, and the number rose steadily each week, culminating in 118 ads on Feb. 2 and 129 on Feb. 3. Many of the ads appeared to involve underage girls.

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Ahead of Super Bowl, a push to raise awareness about human trafficking (+video)

Posted: at 9:40 am

There are disputes about whether sex trafficking spikes in advance of events such as the Super Bowl. Nevertheless a New Jersey coalition, as well as others, are taking anti-trafficking steps.

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition

It was the culmination of an 11-month investigation, and the attorney generals office says its still looking into whether human trafficking was involved.

Advocates for preventing sex trafficking and labor trafficking say the lead-up to major sports events around the world is a ripe time for educating people about these often-hidden crimes.

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Ahead of Super Bowl, a push to raise awareness about human trafficking (+video)

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Europe Letter: European Court of Human Rights has profoundly shaped Irish law

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Britain used its six-month chairmanship of the Council of Europe two years ago to call for change, with David Cameron arguing the sheer volume of cases meant the very purpose of the court to prevent the most serious violations of human rights is under threat. Photograph: Jason Alden/Bloomberg

This weeks judgment by the European Court of Human Rights on a case brought by Irish woman Louise OKeeffe is the latest ruling by the court that could have deep implications for Irish law.

Irish social history has been dotted with rulings by the Strasbourg-based court that have profoundly shaped the law of the land over the last 50 years. David Norriss landmark action against the State in 1979 led to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Ireland. The more recent ABC abortion case, which found that the State was in breach of the Convention on Human Rights, exerted political pressure on the government to legislate for the X-case ruling.

In the public response to the OKeeffe judgment, many commentators have coyly remarked that it took a European court to hold the State to account, welcoming the existence of an alternative legal avenue for citizens.

Just as EU employment law is widely credited with advancing womens right to equal pay and conditions in Ireland during the 1970s and 1980s, Irelands obligations under European law have been viewed as a welcome instigator of Irelands move away from the entrenched social conservatism that characterised Irish identity post-independence.

Valued ideal At a time when public support for Europe is fading, Irelands obligation to abide by rulings of higher courts is one of the few aspects of the European ideal that people value.

Not so in Britain. Across the water, the European Court of Human Rights is being held up by Eurosceptics as another example of excessive European interference.

Although not a European institution the European Court of Human Rights is attached to the Council of Europe, an assembly of 47 countries the ECHR has nonetheless become embroiled in Britains fraught relationship with Europe.

The court is deeply unpopular with many Conservatives. British prime minister David Cameron criticised the institution at the Conservative Partys autumn conference, while justice secretary Chris Grayling declared last month the court had lost legitimacy.

At issue is a series of judgments on criminals rights. A ruling dating from 2005 which states that prisoners have a right to vote and a separate judgment imposing restrictions on the deportation of foreign criminals have been strongly questioned by the British government.

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‘Radical idealists’ highlighted

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A new local exhibit spotlights an influential and controversial group of early 20th century Italian artists.

"Futurism: Concepts and Imaginings" at the Boca Raton Museum of Art contains almost 40 paintings, drawings and collages from seven artists that depict the Italian Futurism movement's emphasis on portraying energy and motion.

These artists advanced a confrontational credo that embraced the new technology of the period, especially airplanes, as a path toward cultural advancement and military conquests.

"Their vision of the future was machine-driven," said museum assistant curator Kelli Bodle. "They thought machines would take over, do the work for you that you would work less."

The Italian Futurists also advocated controversial ideas like abolishing libraries and museums and supported a fascist political philosophy, Bodle said.

"They were radical idealists. They felt that there was a new age, and that as artists, rather than recycling old ideas and old themes they should be embracing new technologies and new ideas and new approaches," said museum director Steven Maklansky. "The Futurists' legacy was their aggressive pursuit of novelty and experimentation in art."

The exhibit on the museum's second floor begins with an introductory text panel explaining the artistic and political movement. On the same wall is a television screen that plays a video of an actor reciting some of movement leader F.T. Marinetti's important 1909 document, "The Futurist Manifesto."

Although exact dates for the works are unknown, they are believed to have been completed from 1930-1950, according to exhibit materials.

Pippo Rizzo's "Homage to Depero," a collage on cardboard, is one of a handful of works in this show that were completed to honor an esteemed individual. The piece features a man in a theatrical costume with sheet music in the background. In the blue sky with two white clouds is a descending black airplane trailed by its cloud of green and red smoke.

Rizzo's "Squad," an eye-catching tempera on wood painting with geometric shapes and vibrant black and blue colors, reflects the movement's fascination with military culture. The piece depicts four uniformed military members marching in lockstep, each holding a blackjack, or billy club.

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Thinking Strategically About Big Data by Business Technology Futurist and Speaker Jack Shaw – Video

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Thinking Strategically About Big Data by Business Technology Futurist and Speaker Jack Shaw
Hi. I #39;m Jack Shaw, the Business Technology Futurist. This is one in a series of brief videos in which I will discuss intelligent systems and how you, and you...

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Daily Archives: January 31, 2014

China’s Sina Weibo is in danger of becoming boring – just how the authorities want it

Patriotism lies in unbiased journalism not in censorship, Mr Abbott

Ron Paul: Obamacare is a Total Disaster – Video

Libertarians become vocal critics of exhortation

Ahead of Super Bowl, a push to raise awareness about human trafficking

Ahead of Super Bowl, a push to raise awareness about human trafficking (+video)

Europe Letter: European Court of Human Rights has profoundly shaped Irish law

‘Radical idealists’ highlighted

Thinking Strategically About Big Data by Business Technology Futurist and Speaker Jack Shaw – Video

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