CHINA: Social Networking Sites Vibrant and Thriving Among Activists

By Gordon Ross

BEIJING, May 31 (IPS) - Last June, when thousands of Iranians – many organised through social networking websites such as Twitter – took to the streets to protest the outcome of the country’s presidential election, a Chinese English-language newspaper, ‘Global Times’, published an editorial critical of the Western media’s coverage of the protests.

The article said the Western press was giving too much credit to websites like Twitter and others like it. "Not every posting on Twitter has been reliable, and even noted US journalists have said Twitter is more about reflecting a mood than actual facts," the editorial read.

Less than a month later, the next "Twitter Revolution," as some in the press had dubbed the Iran protests, looked to be China, where ethnic violence had erupted in remote Xinjiang province. The central government, fearing protesters might use social networking tools to organise, severed Internet access in the restive province and shut down sites such as Twitter and Facebook across the mainland.

Today, those two websites remain blocked, as are others, including YouTube and many personal blogs. But despite China’s ongoing efforts to censor the Net – often called ‘The Great Firewall of China’ – social networking sites and other tools of the Web are widely used by Chinese activists to organise and spread their messages.

"The Internet has changed a lot of things – the way people fight against injustices," says Zeng Jinyan, 26, the go-to source for information about China’s human rights activists. "Because of the Internet, we have so many supporters and followers. I don’t know how we would do it without it."

Zeng, who started out as an advocate for people living with HIV/AIDS, became what she calls a "defender of human rights defenders" after her husband, activist Hu Jia, was sentenced to prison in 2006. To disseminate information about her husband and other activists, she uses the very tools the Chinese government tries to block. On Twitter, Zeng has over 6,000 followers.

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