美《外交政策》:新浪微博是世界上最好的造谣机

来源:百度文库 编辑:超级军网 时间:2024/05/01 19:43:13
没有发表URL的权限



The People's Republic of Rumors
Whether Jiang Zemin is dead or alive, one fact is beyond question: China's Sina Weibo is the world's best rumor-mongering machine ever.

BEIJING — Last Friday, July 1, one familiar face was missing from the usual lineup of past and present Chinese Communist Party leaders at the CCP's 90th-anniversary parade: Where was former President Jiang Zemin? Was he very ill, recently deceased, or for some reason not wanted there? No explanation was given for his absence -- not even an official acknowledgment of his nonattendance. And in the absence of reported and verifiable information, rumors in China breed like rabbits.

Chatter began over the weekend on the microblogging platform Weibo-- which has some 100 million users -- about Jiang's whereabouts, but there wasn't much to go on except speculation that, at age 84, his health might have failed. But on Wednesday, July 6, some Weibo users noticed that outside Beijing's best military hospital, Hospital 301, there was suddenly a large crowd of traffic-control officers. Using Google Maps, which shows real-time traffic information in China, Weibo users confirmed that the main road outside Hospital 301 had been blocked. Some passers-by also noticed and blogged that the small parade of black cars driving into the hospital were not the standard government-issue Audis, but black Mercedes-Benzes fit for VIPs.

No one seemed to have any specific evidence linking the road closure with Jiang, but by the evening it seemed to be taken as almost fact on Weibo that he had passed away and that an official announcement was coming soon. Top Party leaders, the microbloggers claimed, had been summoned back to Beijing! Editors at state-run newspapers had been told to hold the front pages of Thursday's edition for the big news! And then … nothing. Thursday morning came and went, the papers published the usual mix of stories, and still no news. (One Hong Kong TV station jumped the gun and ran an obituary, but then retracted it.)

Now, this saga might sound like a mere curiosity, an instance of people shouting in a virtual echo-chamber, but for the fact that China's censors seemed to give credence to the rumors (or at least their fear of them) by ordering certain search terms to be blocked on Weibo: "Jiang" -- a very common word in Chinese, which also means "river" -- and "301" among them. Instead a search would yield the error message: "Due to relevant rules and regulations, the results can't be displayed."

Then on Thursday, China's state-run news agency, Xinhua, finally issued a short statement denying the rumors of Jiang's death, but also failing to offer any alternative explanation for his recent absence: "Recent reports of some overseas media organizations about Jiang Zemin's death from illness are 'pure rumor,' said authoritative sources Thursday." And that was it. Never mind that the rumors were in fact homegrown, or that what any reader really wants to know is not what isn't true (a denial), but what is true. But as of Friday afternoon, the line between fact and fiction remained unclear. Jiang Zemin remains unaccounted for.

It's worth noting that most of the conversation -- save for the Hong Kong TV blooper-- occurred over Chinese social media, in particular Weibo, where Jiang was the top-trending topic on July 6 (before the censors clamped down, of course). I asked a few Chinese friends who aren't close followers of social media for their take on the rumors, and their response was: "What? I hadn't heard."

Weibo is often said to be China's equivalent to Twitter, but in some key ways it's different. First, it allows users to more easily and directly share photos and videos -- more like a Facebook wall than a 140-character text-only entry. This is handy for sharing visual tips like Google traffic maps more virally. (It's also handy for busting seminude officials using the service to sext with mistresses.) Second, and more importantly, is who uses the website. This is admittedly hard to quantify, but among Chinese and expat users of both platforms whose opinions I've solicited, the consensus is that there seems to be a greater percentage of China's business, media, and academic elite actively using Weibo than is true of their counterparts in the United States or Europe using Twitter. The reason? In the West, Twitter is just one of many sources of unfiltered information, whereas in China, access to unfiltered information is harder to come by; microblogs are almost the only game in town. This gives the platform special potency in China.

Weibo spreads fact and fiction alike, at warp speed. It has been used by top businessmen to personally announce their resignation ("Friends, relatives and colleagues, I am giving up everything and eloping with Wang Qin," the tycoon Wang Gongquan blogged in May) and meanwhile used by pseudo-scientists to allege that dam construction impacts the weather. Sometimes it's hard to separate the untrue from the merely unusual.

But let's qualify: Weibo users only really have access to initially unfiltered information. Like all Chinese Internet companies, Sina, the company that owns and operates Weibo, must maintain its own in-house censorship staff. Part of what they do is routine: ensuring that topics that are clearly always sensitive (critiques of current party leadership; the Dalai Lama; etc.) do not become flashpoints. Part of what these censors do is respond to real-time government directives about discussion topics that have arisen suddenly and are deemed too sensitive, and so need to be contained. In such instances, through a combination of automated mechanisms (i.e., rendering certain search terms temporarily inoperable) and manually taking down content,the censors try to put the cat back in the bag, as it were. This is what happened in the case of the Jiang Zemin rumors.

Of course, this means that the censors -- both government directors and in-house corporate censors -- are always a few steps behind the rumors, waiting and watching for discussions to erupt and then trying to quiet them again. It's a precarious effort. A few years ago, several competing microblogging platforms existed in China, but Weibo has since emerged as the clear winner -- in no small part because its parent company, Sina, has figured out how to manage the tricky balance between allowing enough discussion to satisfy users and acting quickly to stifle it when need be. Of course, the company needs the government's approval to keep from being shut down, and for now, it's earned it.

Still, the Jiang Zemin rumors, whatever truth lies behind them, seems to have caught everyone off guard -- spreading nationally, and then internationally, extremely quickly. And speculation still simmers.


没有发表URL的权限



The People's Republic of Rumors
Whether Jiang Zemin is dead or alive, one fact is beyond question: China's Sina Weibo is the world's best rumor-mongering machine ever.

BEIJING — Last Friday, July 1, one familiar face was missing from the usual lineup of past and present Chinese Communist Party leaders at the CCP's 90th-anniversary parade: Where was former President Jiang Zemin? Was he very ill, recently deceased, or for some reason not wanted there? No explanation was given for his absence -- not even an official acknowledgment of his nonattendance. And in the absence of reported and verifiable information, rumors in China breed like rabbits.

Chatter began over the weekend on the microblogging platform Weibo-- which has some 100 million users -- about Jiang's whereabouts, but there wasn't much to go on except speculation that, at age 84, his health might have failed. But on Wednesday, July 6, some Weibo users noticed that outside Beijing's best military hospital, Hospital 301, there was suddenly a large crowd of traffic-control officers. Using Google Maps, which shows real-time traffic information in China, Weibo users confirmed that the main road outside Hospital 301 had been blocked. Some passers-by also noticed and blogged that the small parade of black cars driving into the hospital were not the standard government-issue Audis, but black Mercedes-Benzes fit for VIPs.

No one seemed to have any specific evidence linking the road closure with Jiang, but by the evening it seemed to be taken as almost fact on Weibo that he had passed away and that an official announcement was coming soon. Top Party leaders, the microbloggers claimed, had been summoned back to Beijing! Editors at state-run newspapers had been told to hold the front pages of Thursday's edition for the big news! And then … nothing. Thursday morning came and went, the papers published the usual mix of stories, and still no news. (One Hong Kong TV station jumped the gun and ran an obituary, but then retracted it.)

Now, this saga might sound like a mere curiosity, an instance of people shouting in a virtual echo-chamber, but for the fact that China's censors seemed to give credence to the rumors (or at least their fear of them) by ordering certain search terms to be blocked on Weibo: "Jiang" -- a very common word in Chinese, which also means "river" -- and "301" among them. Instead a search would yield the error message: "Due to relevant rules and regulations, the results can't be displayed."

Then on Thursday, China's state-run news agency, Xinhua, finally issued a short statement denying the rumors of Jiang's death, but also failing to offer any alternative explanation for his recent absence: "Recent reports of some overseas media organizations about Jiang Zemin's death from illness are 'pure rumor,' said authoritative sources Thursday." And that was it. Never mind that the rumors were in fact homegrown, or that what any reader really wants to know is not what isn't true (a denial), but what is true. But as of Friday afternoon, the line between fact and fiction remained unclear. Jiang Zemin remains unaccounted for.

It's worth noting that most of the conversation -- save for the Hong Kong TV blooper-- occurred over Chinese social media, in particular Weibo, where Jiang was the top-trending topic on July 6 (before the censors clamped down, of course). I asked a few Chinese friends who aren't close followers of social media for their take on the rumors, and their response was: "What? I hadn't heard."

Weibo is often said to be China's equivalent to Twitter, but in some key ways it's different. First, it allows users to more easily and directly share photos and videos -- more like a Facebook wall than a 140-character text-only entry. This is handy for sharing visual tips like Google traffic maps more virally. (It's also handy for busting seminude officials using the service to sext with mistresses.) Second, and more importantly, is who uses the website. This is admittedly hard to quantify, but among Chinese and expat users of both platforms whose opinions I've solicited, the consensus is that there seems to be a greater percentage of China's business, media, and academic elite actively using Weibo than is true of their counterparts in the United States or Europe using Twitter. The reason? In the West, Twitter is just one of many sources of unfiltered information, whereas in China, access to unfiltered information is harder to come by; microblogs are almost the only game in town. This gives the platform special potency in China.

Weibo spreads fact and fiction alike, at warp speed. It has been used by top businessmen to personally announce their resignation ("Friends, relatives and colleagues, I am giving up everything and eloping with Wang Qin," the tycoon Wang Gongquan blogged in May) and meanwhile used by pseudo-scientists to allege that dam construction impacts the weather. Sometimes it's hard to separate the untrue from the merely unusual.

But let's qualify: Weibo users only really have access to initially unfiltered information. Like all Chinese Internet companies, Sina, the company that owns and operates Weibo, must maintain its own in-house censorship staff. Part of what they do is routine: ensuring that topics that are clearly always sensitive (critiques of current party leadership; the Dalai Lama; etc.) do not become flashpoints. Part of what these censors do is respond to real-time government directives about discussion topics that have arisen suddenly and are deemed too sensitive, and so need to be contained. In such instances, through a combination of automated mechanisms (i.e., rendering certain search terms temporarily inoperable) and manually taking down content,the censors try to put the cat back in the bag, as it were. This is what happened in the case of the Jiang Zemin rumors.

Of course, this means that the censors -- both government directors and in-house corporate censors -- are always a few steps behind the rumors, waiting and watching for discussions to erupt and then trying to quiet them again. It's a precarious effort. A few years ago, several competing microblogging platforms existed in China, but Weibo has since emerged as the clear winner -- in no small part because its parent company, Sina, has figured out how to manage the tricky balance between allowing enough discussion to satisfy users and acting quickly to stifle it when need be. Of course, the company needs the government's approval to keep from being shut down, and for now, it's earned it.

Still, the Jiang Zemin rumors, whatever truth lies behind them, seems to have caught everyone off guard -- spreading nationally, and then internationally, extremely quickly. And speculation still simmers.


2011-7-12 11:09 上传

方言看不懂啊
加翻译是种美德,方便广大手机党
方言看着眼痛,求翻译帝
这是在提醒有关人士,赶紧上新浪微博造谣去。
中华人民共和国的谣言
江泽民是否是死是活的,有一个事实是毫无疑问的:中国的新浪微博是世界上最好的造谣机器不断。
北京 - 上周五,7月1日,一个熟悉的面孔,从过去和现在的中国共产党领导人在中国共产党的90周年阅兵通常的阵容缺少:前国家主席江泽民?是他病得很厉害,最近死者,或出于某种原因不希望那里?没有解释他的缺席 - ,甚至没有一个正式承认他nonattendance。报告和可核查的信息的情况下,在中国的谣言像兔子繁殖。

颤振的微博平台微波上上周末开始 - 其中有大约100万用户 - 关于江泽民的下落,但没有太多的去除了炒作,84岁,他的健康可能失败。但是,7月6日(星期三),一些微波用户注意到,北京最好的军队医院,301医院外,突然有大群的交通控制人员。微波用户使用谷歌地图,这表明中国实时交通信息,证实301医院外的主要道路已被封锁。一些路​​人也注意到,博客,黑车的小游行,开车进入医院并没有标准的政府的问题奥迪,但黑色奔驰Benzes贵宾适合。

似乎没有人有任何具体的证据,与江泽民封路,但晚上,它似乎是几乎微波其实,他已经去世,并正式宣布即将采取的。党的领导人,microbloggers声称,被召唤回北京!国营报纸的编辑曾告诉举行周四版头版的大新闻!然后... ...没有。周四早上来了又走,论文发表平常的故事组合,仍然没有任何消息。 (香港电视台偷步跑了讣告,但随后收回它。)

现在,这佐贺可能听起来像一个单纯的好奇心,一个人在一个虚拟回声 - 腔喊实例,但是,中国的检查员似乎来给订购某些搜索轻信的谣言(或至少他们的,他们的恐惧)条款来将挡伟博:“江” - 在中国很常见的单词,这也意味着“河” - “301”其中。相反,搜索会产生的错误消息:“由于相关的法规和规章,结果无法显示”

上周四,中国的国营新闻机构,新华,最后发出一个短声明否认传闻中江的死亡,但也未能提供任何他最近的情况下替代的解释:“最近一些海外媒体对江泽民的死组织的报道远离疾病“纯属谣言,说:”权威来源。“ ,就是这样。没关系,其实本土的传闻,或任何读者真正想知道什么是什么是不正确的的(拒绝),但什么是真正的。但是,星期五下午,事实与虚构之间的界限仍不清楚。江泽民仍然下落不明。

这是值得注意的,大多数的谈话 - 保存香港电视轶事 - 发生在中国社会媒体,特别是微波,江顶级趋势在7月6日主题(前检查员当然,取缔), 。我问了几个中国朋友,接近他们的谣言采取不社会化媒体的追随者的,和他们的反应是:“我没有听说过”

微波是常说相当于中国的到Twitter,但在一些关键方面的不同。首先,它允许用户更容易,更直接共享照片和视频 - 更像是一个Facebook墙超过140个字符的文本条目。这是为方便更多的病毒分享像谷歌交通地图的视觉提示。 (它也是破坏使用该服务的seminude官员与情妇SEXT的便利。)其次,更重要的是,是谁使用的网站。这固然难以量化,但我征求意见,这两个平台的中国和外籍用户之间的共识是,似乎有一个更大的比例,中国的商业媒体,和学术精英,积极利用微波比真正的在美国或欧洲使用Twitter。原因是什么呢?在西方,Twitter的只是许多未经过滤的信息来源之一,而在中国,获得未经过滤的信息是很难得的;微博客几乎都是在镇上唯一的游戏。这使在中国的特殊效力平台。

微波传播事实与虚构的一致好评,在经线速度。它已被顶级商人亲自宣布其辞职(“朋友,亲戚和同事,我放弃一切,与王秦私奔,”大亨王功权的博客在5月),同时通过伪科学家用来指称大坝施工影响天气。有时很难分开只是不寻常的不真实。

但是,让我们的资格:威博用户只有真正获得最初未经过滤的信息。像所有的中国互联网企业,新浪,公司拥有和经营微波的,必须保持自身的内部审查工作人员。他们所做的事情的一部分是常规的:确保有明确总是敏感的议题(当前党的领导的批评,达赖喇嘛等)不成为热点地区。这些检查员做什么是响应政府的指示实时讨论,突然出现,被认为过于敏感的主题,并因此需要包含的部分。在这种情况下,检查员通过一个自动化机制(即,使某些搜索条件,暂时无法使用)和手动取下来的内容相结合,尝试把袋猫,因为它是。这是在江泽民的传言情况下发生。

当然,这意味着检查员 - 无论是政府的董事和企业内部检查员 - 总是谣言背后几步,观望讨论的爆发,然后尝试再次安静的环境。这是一个不稳定的努力。几年前,一些竞争的微博平台在中国的存在,但威博已经出现明显的赢家 - 在没有小部分,因为其母公司,新浪网,已经摸透了如何处理棘手的平衡之间允许足够的讨论,以满足用户,并迅速采取行动来扼杀它,需要时。当然,该公司需要政府的批准,以防止被关闭,现在,它赢得了。

尽管如此,江泽民谣言,在于他们背后的任何真相,似乎已经引起了大家放松了警惕 - 蔓延全国,然后在国际上,非常迅速。和猜测仍然蕴积。
中圞华人圞民共圞和国的谣言
江泽圞民是否是死是活的,有一个事实是毫无疑问的:中国的新浪微博是世界上最好的造谣机器不断。
北圞京 - 上周五,7月1日,一个熟悉的面孔,从过去和现在的中国共圞产党领圞导人在中国共圞产党的90周圞年阅兵通常的阵容缺少:前国圞家主圞席江泽圞民?是他病得很厉害,最近死者,或出于某种原因不希望那里?没有解释他的缺席 - ,甚至没有一个正式承认他nonattendance。报告和可核查的信息的情况下,在中国的谣言像兔子繁殖。

颤振的微博平台微波上上周末开始 - 其中有大约100万用户 - 关于江泽圞民的下落,但没有太多的去除了炒作,84岁,他的健康可能失败。但是,7月6日(星期三),一些微波用户注意到,北圞京最好的军圞队医院,301医院外,突然有大群的交通控圞制人员。微波用户使用谷圞歌地图,这表明中国实时交通信息,证实301医院外的主要道路已被圞封圞锁。一些路​​人也注意到,博客,黑车的小游圞行,开车进入医院并没有标准的政圞府的问题奥迪,但黑色奔驰Benzes贵宾适合。

似乎没有人有任何具体的证圞据,与江泽圞民封路,但晚上,它似乎是几乎微波其实,他已经去世,并正式宣布即将采取的。党的领圞导人,microBlоggers声称,被召唤回北圞京!国营报纸的编辑曾告诉举行周四版头版的大新闻!然后... ...没有。周四早上来了又走,论文发表平常的故事组合,仍然没有任何消息。 (香圞港电视台偷步跑了讣告,但随后收回它。)

现在,这佐贺可能听起来像一个单纯的好奇心,一个人在一个虚拟回声 - 腔喊实例,但是,中国的检圞查员似乎来给订购某些搜索轻信的谣言(或至少他们的,他们的恐惧)条款来将挡伟博:“江” - 在中国很常见的单词,这也意味着“河” - “301”其中。相反,搜索会产生的错误消息:“由于相关的法规和规章,结果无法显示”

上周四,中国的国营新闻机圞构,新华,最后发出一个短声明否认传闻中江圞的死亡,但也未能提供任何他最近的情况下替代的解释:“最近一些海外媒体对江泽圞民的死组圞织的报道远离疾病“纯属谣言,说:”权威来源。“ ,就是这样。没关系,其实本土的传闻,或任何读者真正想知道什么是什么是不正确的的(拒绝),但什么是真正的。但是,星期五下午,事实与虚构之间的界限仍不清楚。江泽圞民仍然下落不明。

这是值得注意的,大多数的谈话 - 保存香圞港电视轶事 - 发生在中国社圞会媒体,特别是微波,江顶级趋势在7月6日主题(前检圞查员当然,取圞缔), 。我问了几个中国朋友,接近他们的谣言采取不社圞会化媒体的追随者的,和他们的反应是:“我没有听说过”

微波是常说相当于中国的到T圞w1tter,但在一些关键方面的不同。首先,它允许用户更容易,更直接共享照片和视圞频 - 更像是一个Facebооk墙超过140个字符的文本条目。这是为方便更多的病毒分享像谷圞歌交通地图的视觉提示。 (它也是破圞坏使用该服圞务的seminude官圞员与情圞妇S圞EXT的便利。)其次,更重要的是,是谁使用的网站。这固然难以量化,但我征求意见,这两个平台的中国和外籍用户之间的共识是,似乎有一个更大的比例,中国的商业媒体,和学术精英,积极利圞用微波比真正的在美国或欧洲使用T圞w1tter。原因是什么呢?在西方,T圞w1tter的只是许多未经过滤的信息来源之一,而在中国,获得未经过滤的信息是很难得的;微博客几乎都是在镇上唯一的游戏。这使在中国的特殊效力平台。

微波传播事实与虚构的一致好评,在经线速度。它已被顶级商人亲自宣布其辞职(“朋友,亲戚和同事,我放弃一切,与王秦私奔,”大亨王功权的博客在5月),同时通过伪圞科圞学家用来指称大坝施工影响天气。有时很难分开只是不寻常的不真圞实。

但是,让我们的资格:威博用户只有真正获得最初未经过滤的信息。像所有的中国互圞联圞网企业,新浪,公圞司拥有和经营微波的,必须保持自身的内部审圞查工作人员。他们所做的事情的一部分是常规的:确保有明确总是敏感的议题(当前党的领圞导的批圞评,达圞赖喇圞嘛等)不成为热点地区。这些检圞查员做什么是响应政圞府的指示实时讨论,突然出现,被认为过于敏感的主题,并因此需要包含的部分。在这种情况下,检圞查员通过一个自动化机制(即,使某些搜索条件,暂时无法使用)和手动取下来的内容相结合,尝试把袋猫,因为它是。这是在江泽圞民的传言情况下发生。

当然,这意味着检圞查员 - 无论是政圞府的董事和企业内部检圞查员 - 总是谣言背后几步,观望讨论的爆发,然后尝试再次安静的环境。这是一个不稳定的努力。几年前,一些竞争的微博平台在中国的存在,但威博已经出现明显的赢家 - 在没有小部分,因为其母公圞司,新浪网,已经摸透了如何处理棘手的平衡之间允许足够的讨论,以满足用户,并迅速采取行动来扼圞杀它,需要时。当然,该公圞司需要政圞府的批准,以防止被圞关闭,现在,它赢得了。

尽管如此,江泽圞民谣言,在于他们背后的任何真圞相,似乎已经引起了大家放松了警惕 - 蔓延全国,然后在国际上,非常迅速。和猜测仍然蕴积。