Chinese censors scrubbing the internet of any words or symbols that could be used to reference the Tiananmen Square massacre in the run-up to Sunday’s anniversary have a new target in their sights: a bridge in Beijing where a rare protest was staged last year. As the 34th anniversary of the 1989 massacre approaches, anyone searching in Chinese for Sitong Bridge on Baidu maps will draw a blank. On 13 October 2022 white banners with large red characters criticising the Chinese Communist party (CCP) were hung over the bridge near…
Tag: Media
Twitter and Tesla’s interests at odds in Elon Musk’s quiet China visit
Followers of Elon Musk didn’t know what to expect from his trip to China. Would he speak about Tesla, a company with a large market and manufacturing footprint there? Or SpaceX, with its symbiotic relationship with the American state? Or even Twitter, the social network he bought because “free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy”? The one thing no one expected: silence. Musk sent his last tweet late on Monday night. The uncharacteristic hiatus was broken only on Thursday morning when he returned to the US and wrote…
Blocked, censored, jailed or laid off: why it’s never been harder to be a journalist
Taisia Bekbulatova, Russia In December 2021, I was declared a “foreign agent” by Russia’s justice ministry. I now have to declare this status on every post, even on Instagram selfies. I refuse to comply. As a result, I could face criminal charges in Russia at any moment. After the Ukraine war began, I had to evacuate the editorial team of my news website, Holod, from Russia because even writing the word “war” became illegal, and sharing unapproved information risked up to 15 years in prison. It’s difficult for me to…
Indian ministers rebuke Der Spiegel for ‘racist’ cartoon mocking population size
A cartoon in the German magazine Der Spiegel poking fun at India as it becomes more populous than China has been castigated as “racist” by Indian ministers. The cartoon shows a rickety old Indian train packed with people and swarms of passengers atop it. On a parallel track, a sleek Chinese bullet train is seen with just two drivers, looking surprised at the sight of the Indian train. According to United Nations projections published on Monday, India has a population of 1,425,775,850, surpassing China for the first time. Kanchan Gupta,…
Chinese journalist arrested on charges of espionage
A Chinese journalist at one of the country’s major state media outlets known for his relatively forthright and liberal writings has been arrested on charges of espionage, his family have said. Dong Yuyu was detained in February 2022 after meeting with a Japanese diplomat who, it was reported at the time, was also taken for interrogation before being released. Dong’s family kept his detention secret in the hope of securing his release, but last month were told his case was progressing to trial. Under China’s espionage laws – which are…
Fears grow for Taiwan book publisher believed held in China
Concerns are mounting for a Taiwan-based book publisher believed to have been detained in China, in a case that has echoed the disappearances in 2015 of five Hong Kong booksellers. Li Yanhe, also known by the pen-name Fucha, reportedly travelled to Shanghai last month to visit relatives but has been uncontactable since Thursday. His alleged detention was first reported by Bei Ling, a Chinese writer and activist, who said on Facebook that he had been told by various sources that Li had been arrested by authorities in Shanghai. Taiwan’s government…
Taiwan warns local media against spreading false news from China
Taiwan’s defence ministry has raised the alarm about disinformation attacks during the recent Chinese military drills and alerted local media to the dangers of helping spread disinformation. Last week Beijing launched three days of military exercises near Taiwan, in retaliation for President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with the US House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, in the US. Taiwan’s military and civilian analysts confirmed that Taiwan was also targeted with information warfare. “Last year’s military exercise and this year’s military exercise both used a combination of information and military actions to affect our…
TikTok unveils European data security plan amid calls for US ban
TikTok has announced a data security regime for protecting user information across Europe, as political pressure increases in the US to ban the social video app. The plan, known as Project Clover, involves user data being stored on servers in Ireland and Norway at an annual cost of €1.2bn (£1.1bn), while any data transfers outside Europe will be vetted by a third-party IT company. TikTok is under pressure in the US and Europe over its links to China via its Beijing-based parent, ByteDance. On Tuesday the White House gave its…
TikTok has been spying on reporters – exactly no one is surprised
Hello and welcome to TechScape. Alex is now off on paternity leave, and in his place a rotating cast of writers will give their takes on the world of tech. Apologies to any readers who have begged Alex for fewer stories about Elon Musk and crypto, but in a post-Twitter takeover world there are no quiet weeks for tech reporters. In the last few weeks, Musk has handed over documents for the latest edition of the “Twitter Files” to controversial author Alex Berenson (with the not-so revelatory news that Twitter…
Job cuts and falling shares: how did it all go so wrong for the US tech sector?
Amazon announced 18,000 job cuts, Apple’s share price fell below $2tn (£1.7tn) and there was more bad news from Tesla: it has been another tough week for big US tech firms. But this has not been a one-off. The ongoing drama at Twitter since its takeover by Elon Musk in October has taken place against a backdrop of global economic uncertainty, retrenchment from aggressive expansion plans and China’s disruptive transition from Covid lockdowns to rocketing case numbers as restrictions ease. In fact this week’s events have been a continuation of…