China Fights To Silence The Social Network -- The TelegraphChina's Communist Party has set out to curtail social networking following years of unfettered growth after its top committee issued an edict launching a new drive to control open messaging.
Websites such as Sina Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter, have been allowed to grow explosively, with some 400 million Chinese now posting opinions and sharing information.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party, a 300-strong body of party, state and army leaders, has signalled its alarm that there is no equivalent to the Great Firewall that marshals the internet. It promised yesterday to "strengthen the guidance and administration of social internet services and instant communications tools" to ensure "orderly dissemination of information".
Anyone spreading "false rumours" was threatened with stern punishment.
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My Comment: For authoritarian regimes like China, it all comes down to controlling the message. But as the Chinese leadership (and others) have now realized, controlling the message on social networks is next to impossible.