Some agree better control is needed but others fear govt will exploit new rulesTHE reflex response to China's ongoing crackdown on "online rumours" is that it is aimed at repressing free speech and silencing critics of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or the government.迷你倉But take a closer look at China's cyberspace, especially since 2009 with the advent of the massively popular Twitter-like Weibo microblogs, and one may find reasonable grounds for some form of cleaning up that might benefit netizens over the long term.For one thing, Internet-based rumour-mongering in China can truly get out of hand.A joint portal launched on Aug 1 by six Internet firms has posted 100,000 statements of online rumours and falsehoods. Some rumours, like how foreigners involved in a train crash were getting 200 times more in government-funded compensation than locals, have fanned public anger.The latest involves a 16-year-old student in north-western Gansu province, who alleged online that local police in Zhangjiachuan county assaulted relatives of a man who had committed suicide.The student has been detained, according to news reports on Thursday, making him the first offender caught under a new rule released last Monday that expands existing law to punish perpetrators of online rumours.Those behind online rumours visited by 5,000 Internet users or re-posted more than 500 times will be charged with defamation and could face up to three years in jail.There has also been a proliferation of Internet marketing firms that allegedly make up lies and conduct smear campaigns against their clients' rivals.The highest-profile of these firms is one reportedly run by a man named Qin Zhihui, who goes by the online moniker Qin Huohuo and was nabbed by police in Beijing last month.Through the firm Beijing Erma, he and founder Yang Xiuyu allegedly concocted 3,000 rumours over three years about public figures and institutions to advance their interests and those of their clients. The firm earned more than 10 million yuan (S$2 million) in the past seven years, said state media."On Weibo, China appears as if it's an evil country. It's seriously affecting China's social stability and political governance," former newspaper editor Wang Wen,迷你倉最平now a researcher urging tightened controls on microblogs, told The New York Times on Tuesday last week.Such abuses of the Internet were cited by China's supreme court and prosecutor's office as key reasons for the judicial interpretation.Some cleaning up may not be a bad thing, some influential microbloggers have acknowledged to The Straits Times. They include romance counsellor Su Qin, who has more than 40 million fans on her Sina and Tencent Weibo accounts."Many microbloggers tend to re-tweet unverified information to attract new fans and increase their popularity," she said, adding that such actions could hurt stability in the society.But many fear that the authorities will exploit the new rules to protect corrupt officials, silence valid criticism of government policies or cover up their mistakes.The CCP's track record in suppressing critics and deleting sensitive online postings about corrupt officials and topics such as human rights adds to the perception.University of Chicago analyst Yang Dali believes the clampdown reflects the CCP's fears that it has ceded too much room to non-party and non-state forces. "The fear is compounded by an accelerating decline in viewership of official channels, especially TV. This current crackdown is also an attempt to take back control over cyberspace," he said.Other analysts, however, believe there is a need to better control cyberspace, though they also point out the need for a balance in the authorities' efforts.Fudan University international relations expert Shen Yi, writing in the Global Times newspaper this month, said the long-term strategy should not be using the law to deter bad behaviour but self-regulation among the netizens and Internet firms.But University of Sydney analyst Kerry Brown thinks the authorities have no clear way of dealing with the need to harness the "immense economic benefits" of the Internet on the one hand, and the threats posed to the CCP by the unbridled freedom of expression in cyberspace on the other hand."This will be a long attritional struggle but, in the end, it will result in a more open Chinese society. But it will be a tough path and I'm sure it will contain many surprises," he told The Straits Times.kianbeng@sph.com.sg迷你倉
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