Monday, September 14, 2009

Forum rules

These are the rules to a Chinese newsite's tennis forum I look at to read about the US Open:

请您注意
Please note:
自觉遵守:爱国、守法、自律、真实、文明的原则
Consciously follow the principles of patriotism, lawfulness, self-control, truth and civilisation.
尊重网上道德,遵守《全国人大常委会关于维护互联网安全的决定》及中华人民共和国其他各项有关法律法规
Observe online morality and follow the government's decision regarding internet safety and other relevant laws and regulations of the Peoples Republic of China.
严禁发表危害国家安全,破坏民族团结、国家宗教政策和社会稳定,含侮辱、诽谤、教唆、淫秽等内容的作品
It is strictly forbidden to jeopardise national safety, harm racial unity, national religious policies and social stability, including content with abuse, slander, ___ and ____ etc.
承担一切因您的行为而直接或间接导致的民事或刑事法律责任
You accept all the direct and indirect responsibility for civil and criminal acts caused by any of your behaviour.
您在新浪新闻评论发表的作品,新浪网有权在网站内保留、转载、引用或者删除
New Wave Net has the right to retain, republish, quote or delete the opinions you express here on New Wave News .
参与本评论即表明您已经阅读并接受上述条款
Participating in this discussion indicates that you have read and accepted the above conditions.

Considering the recent crackdown on Internet in China, especially Facebook and Twitter, some of these are clearly not window dressing. Some are humorous such as patriotism given as the first principle to adhere to. Civilised behaviour should really be more strictly enforced considering that on this particular site comments calling Selena Williams an orangutan (or gorilla) have been abounding for this whole tournament and probably every other tournament, without moderation.

2 comments:

lightspirits said...

You'll probably disappear from FB once you are in China eh?
I wonder if it'll still be possible for you to post freely on your blog

Crypticity said...

Well, I have a few Chinese friends who have obviously worked out a few tricks to retain some presence on Facebook, but probably I'll just board it up with my contact details :-)

Blogger.com was funny last time I was there. Let me quote myself:

"Surprising though is the fact that despite blogs on blogspot being inaccessible from China, blogs are still publishable (through www.blogger.com) - hence freedom of speech is unhindered, while freedom of information is not." (http://crypticity.blogspot.com/2007/12/brief-reflection-on-7th-of-january-i.html)

But we'll see how we go this time. I'm pretty sure I can operate the blog even without going to blogger.com; you can e-mail blogs in and receive comments via e-mail too. I don't think I'll be able to reply to comments though on the blog.