The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is “civilizing” the internet within its borders and proposing similar crackdowns globally in what should be a wake-up call to people who value their online freedom.
The CCP apparently wants us to do what it says, not what it does.
What China innovates in terms of cyber control has global implications, and it’s innovating fast. Internet firms should improve self-discipline, according to Zhuang, with social engineering in the form of promoting “good” role models rather than behaviors such as cyberbullying. CCP cyberbullies, such as the many coordinated Chinese diplomatic accounts on Twitter, are exempt from this.
“Historical nihilism,” which uses history to criticize the CCP’s leading role, and any disputation of the “inevitability” of Chinese socialism, would be shut down in the CCP’s future internet dystopia, making room for the promotion of socialist moral values and model communist workers.
Domestic users would have to show their city or province, and international users would be required to show their country.
In 2017, China began requiring internet users, including microbloggers and instant messenger users, to verify their identities with a form of ID, mobile phone, and other documentation. These requirements are based on the regime’s 2017 cybersecurity law, which mandates a “clean and healthy” internet, void of not only dissenting political voices, but of celebrity gossip and stock analysis as well. Rock bands are frowned upon—unless they wear the proper (Maoist?) attire and put old communist ideas to new tunes. Party on, comrades.
This fall, the CAC issued guidelines that encouraged online platforms and content managers to increase censorship, including self-censorship, by all users. The CAC has worked to decrease algorithm use by app operators, presumably of the type that doesn’t privilege CCP propaganda. A 10-point notice has ordered online administrators to decrease exposure to celebrities and online fan clubs, as well as violence and vulgarity.
An August campaign by the CAC suppressed citizen journalists and stock analysts who “misinterpret economic policies and forecast doom and gloom in financial markets.” Independent “self-media” accounts that allegedly spread fake news and rumors in order to blackmail companies were targeted. Expect blindingly sunny financial predictions to go with those Maoist boy bands.
Along with Beijing’s recent crackdowns on the technology, education, and entertainment industries in China, the CAC’s global war against internet freedom is bringing the brave new world of communist automatons to a computer near you. Unless the “uncivilized” internet strikes back.
