Issue: China’S Big Data Sweep
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Internet Surveillance in China
The Architecture of Control: Internet Su rveillance in China James A. Lewis , Center for Strategic and International Studies July 200 6 Security concerns shape China’s official internet and information technology strateg ies . Th ese include concerns shared by many cou nt ries: promoting a strong and growing economy , providing information assurance , and defending against foreign intrusions into China’s information space . Most importantly for the Chinese, information security include s a political element not foun d in many other nations – c ontrol by the party and the state over communications and the flow of informa tion . The rapid spread of internet access and mobile communications pose a serious challenge to this goal. In response, China’s security apparatus is reorienting its informational defenses. In the past, the emphasi s was on blocking access - the “great firewall.” In the future, the emphasis will be on the monitoring and surveillance of online activities. China’s primary objective in internet securi ty is political – preventing IT from eroding the regime’s authority. Information security is defined in China as “a comprehensive concept understood in a broad sense, and it involves political, economic, cultural, ideological, media, social and military l evel or field. ” It includes “data, system, network, infrastructure .”1 Chin ese officials worry about the potential of the Internet to contribute to the loss of state secrets , offer new avenues for organizing dissent and opposition , and spread “harmful inf ormation. ” This makes controlling access to "harmful network information” and the ability to monitor and intercept communications top priorities .2 For China’s leadership, one particular set of event s demonstrated the risks of not securing networks. -
Retweeting Through the Great Firewall a Persistent and Undeterred Threat Actor
Retweeting through the great firewall A persistent and undeterred threat actor Dr Jake Wallis, Tom Uren, Elise Thomas, Albert Zhang, Dr Samantha Hoffman, Lin Li, Alex Pascoe and Danielle Cave Policy Brief Report No. 33/2020 About the authors Dr Jacob Wallis is a Senior Analyst working with the International Cyber Policy Centre. Tom Uren is a Senior Analyst working with the International Cyber Policy Centre. Elise Thomas is a Researcher working with the International Cyber Policy Centre. Albert Zhang is a Research Intern working with the International Cyber Policy Centre. Dr Samanthan Hoffman is an Analyst working with the International Cyber Policy Centre. Lin Li is a Researcher working with the International Cyber Policy Centre. Alex Pascoe is a Research Intern working with the International Cyber Policy Centre. Danielle Cave is Deputy Director of the International Cyber Policy Centre. Acknowledgements ASPI would like to thank Twitter for advanced access to the takedown dataset that formed a significant component of this investigation. The authors would also like to thank ASPI colleagues who worked on this report. What is ASPI? The Australian Strategic Policy Institute was formed in 2001 as an independent, non‑partisan think tank. Its core aim is to provide the Australian Government with fresh ideas on Australia’s defence, security and strategic policy choices. ASPI is responsible for informing the public on a range of strategic issues, generating new thinking for government and harnessing strategic thinking internationally. ASPI International Cyber Policy Centre ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre (ICPC) is a leading voice in global debates on cyber and emerging technologies and their impact on broader strategic policy. -
Effective Censorship: Maintaining Control in China
University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons CUREJ - College Undergraduate Research Electronic Journal College of Arts and Sciences 2010 Effective Censorship: Maintaining Control In China Michelle (Qian) Yang University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/curej Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Yang, Michelle (Qian), "Effective Censorship: Maintaining Control In China" 01 January 2010. CUREJ: College Undergraduate Research Electronic Journal, University of Pennsylvania, https://repository.upenn.edu/curej/118. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/curej/118 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Effective Censorship: Maintaining Control In China Keywords censorship, china, incentives, Social Sciences, Political Science, Devesh Kapur, Kapur, Devesh Disciplines Political Science This article is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/curej/118 Effective Censorship: Maintaining Control in China Michelle Yang April 09, 2010 Acknowledgments My initial interest in this thesis topic was generated during the summer of 2009 when I was interning in Beijing. There, I had found myself unable to access a large portion of the websites I’ve grown so accustomed to in my everyday life. I knew from then that I wanted to write about censorship in China. Since that summer, the scope of the topic has changed greatly under the careful guidance of Professor Devesh Kapur. I am incredibly grateful for all the support he has given me during this entire process. This final thesis wouldn’t be what it is today without his guidance. Professor Kapur, thank you for believing in me and for pushing me to complete this thesis! I would also like to extend my gratitude to both Professor Doherty-Sil and Professor Goldstein for taking time out of their busy schedules to meet with me and for providing me with indispensible advice. -
Computational Propaganda in Taiwan: Where Digital Democracy Meets Automated Autocracy
Working Paper No. 2017.2 Computational Propaganda in Taiwan: Where Digital Democracy Meets Automated Autocracy Nicholas J. Monaco, Google Jigsaw Table of Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 3 Case study ................................................................................................................... 5 Media and social media landscape in Taiwan ................................................................... 5 Overview of computational propaganda in Taiwan .......................................................... 9 Automation and propaganda .......................................................................................... 10 Fake news ........................................................................................................................ 13 Cross-Strait propaganda ................................................................................................. 15 The 2016 Diba Facebook expedition .............................................................................. 22 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 25 About the Author ...................................................................................................... 27 References ................................................................................................................ -
How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts
American Political Science Review (2017) 111, 3, 484–501 doi:10.1017/S0003055417000144 c American Political Science Association 2017 How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, Not Engaged Argument GARY KING Harvard University JENNIFER PAN Stanford University MARGARET E. ROBERTS University of California, San Diego he Chinese government has long been suspected of hiring as many as 2 million people to surrep- titiously insert huge numbers of pseudonymous and other deceptive writings into the stream of T real social media posts, as if they were the genuine opinions of ordinary people. Many academics, and most journalists and activists, claim that these so-called 50c party posts vociferously argue for the government’s side in political and policy debates. As we show, this is also true of most posts openly accused on social media of being 50c. Yet almost no systematic empirical evidence exists for this claim https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055417000144 . or, more importantly, for the Chinese regime’s strategic objective in pursuing this activity. In the first large-scale empirical analysis of this operation, we show how to identify the secretive authors of these posts, the posts written by them, and their content. We estimate that the government fabricates and posts about 448 million social media comments a year. In contrast to prior claims, we show that the Chinese regime’s strategy is to avoid arguing with skeptics of the party and the government, and to not even discuss controversial issues. We show that the goal of this massive secretive operation is instead to distract the public and change the subject, as most of these posts involve cheerleading for China, the revolutionary history of the Communist Party, or other symbols of the regime. -
The Danger of Deconsolidation Roberto Stefan Foa and Yascha Mounk Ronald F
July 2016, Volume 27, Number 3 $14.00 The Danger of Deconsolidation Roberto Stefan Foa and Yascha Mounk Ronald F. Inglehart The Struggle Over Term Limits in Africa Brett L. Carter Janette Yarwood Filip Reyntjens 25 Years After the USSR: What’s Gone Wrong? Henry E. Hale Suisheng Zhao on Xi Jinping’s Maoist Revival Bojan Bugari¡c & Tom Ginsburg on Postcommunist Courts Clive H. Church & Adrian Vatter on Switzerland Daniel O’Maley on the Internet of Things Delegative Democracy Revisited Santiago Anria Catherine Conaghan Frances Hagopian Lindsay Mayka Juan Pablo Luna Alberto Vergara and Aaron Watanabe Zhao.NEW saved by BK on 1/5/16; 6,145 words, including notes; TXT created from NEW by PJC, 3/18/16; MP edits to TXT by PJC, 4/5/16 (6,615 words). AAS saved by BK on 4/7/16; FIN created from AAS by PJC, 4/25/16 (6,608 words). PGS created by BK on 5/10/16. XI JINPING’S MAOIST REVIVAL Suisheng Zhao Suisheng Zhao is professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver. He is executive director of the univer- sity’s Center for China-U.S. Cooperation and editor of the Journal of Contemporary China. When Xi Jinping became paramount leader of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 2012, some Chinese intellectuals with liberal lean- ings allowed themselves to hope that he would promote the cause of political reform. The most optimistic among them even thought that he might seek to limit the monopoly on power long claimed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). -
The Internet Beyond Borderless Versus Balkanized
POROUS TERRITORIES: THE INTERNET BEYOND BORDERLESS VERSUS BALKANIZED LUKE MUNN Western Sydney University (Australia) [email protected] Abstract: If the internet was once viewed as a borderless realm, critics now warn it is in danger of being “balkanized”, splintering into nationalized fragments. Certainly nation-states increasingly see the Internet as “their” internet, a national space to be regulated and actively shaped. The first half of this article charts the technologies that appear to place this vision within reach: data localization, internet shutdowns, and internet filtering. These moves promise to exert sovereign control, to make the inter- net an extension of national territory. Yet by drawing on two recent events in China, this article argues that these territories are messy and their borders are permeable. Pro-government activists jump across the firewall in order to attack individuals and organizations who threaten the stability and security of their motherland. Simultane- ously, individuals scale the firewall in order to question the party line and express solidarity with democratic movements, undermining the political and technical boundaries established by their nation. Internet architectures create a condition where territorialization is constantly being both amplified and undermined by “extra- territorial” activities. These practices demonstrate the everyday porosity of internet territories, providing a messier portrait that goes beyond the dichotomy of borderless vs balkanized. Keywords: territory, fragmentation, balkanization, internet, China. When nations speak of the internet today, they no longer use the language of the virtual, but of soil. At the dawn of the internet, cyberspace was framed as a new realm decoupled from the state. This digital sphere stretched across the globe, making it essentially ungovernable. -
Redalyc.Characterizing E-Government in China
Desafíos ISSN: 0124-4035 [email protected] Universidad del Rosario Colombia Baquero-Hernández, Ricardo Alberto Characterizing E-Government in China Desafíos, vol. 24, núm. 2, julio-diciembre, 2012, pp. 233-257 Universidad del Rosario Bogotá, Colombia Disponible en: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=359633172009 Cómo citar el artículo Número completo Sistema de Información Científica Más información del artículo Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina, el Caribe, España y Portugal Página de la revista en redalyc.org Proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto Characterizing E-Government in China RICARDO ALBERTO BAQUERO-HERNÁNDEZ* Artículo recibido: 10 de noviembre de 2010 Artículo aprobado: 12 de febrero de 2011 Para citar este artículo: Baquero Hernández, R. A. (2012). Characterizing E-Government in China. Desafíos, 24 (2), pp. 233-257. Abstract Although E-Government (E-G) is one public policy in China, it still has a long way to go in terms of diffusion across the country and interactive participation from citizens. It constitutes a double sided sword since it enhances the features that China needs to show to the world in international competitiveness and status, but also poses challenges to the Communist rule inasmuch as it has to be controlled. Therefore, E-G is both a political and a managerial issue: it is sensitive to the Chinese Communist Party but also leads to economical and administrative pros- perity and efficiency. Some of the keys would be the development of the middle class, further penetration of the Internet, and more education about virtual tools in government issues and services. -
Redefining Digital Citizenship in the Cyber Era
Cybersoverignty: Redefining Digital Citizenship in the Cyber Era By: Sophie Laurence AP Gov May 20, 2019 Cyber: a combining form meaning “computer,” “computer network,” or “virtual reality,” used in the formation of compound words (cybertalk; cyberart; cyberspace) and, by extension, meaning “expressing visions of the future.” Sovereignty: supreme power especially over a body politic; freedom from external control; autonomy. A search in dictionary.com yields the following result: “No results found for cybersovereignty.” Neither this word nor its variations (cyber-sovereignty, cyber sovereignty) appears in any English language dictionary. Yet, the rise of China as the world’s dominant cyber-superpower amplifies the urgent need for international discourse on its meaning and implications. Even as the West is wondering if a change in the global paradigm is underway, China has already dramatically redefined what it means to be a digital citizen in the 21st century. The working meaning of “cybersovereignty” is the full right and power of a governing body over the internet within its own borders, without any interference from outside entities. In the material world, national borders are physical boundaries protected by border guards, demarcated by country lines on maps, and governed by national laws. There is no equivalent universal system to regulate internet borders. Though utopianists routinely frame the internet as an open and free instrument of democracy, this is an ideological fiction; the reality is that the internet is a commodified entity owned by a privileged few and, in the case of China, state-controlled. Correspondingly, it has become a battleground in the struggle for international economic dominance and domestic political control. -
Testimony of James C
September 15, 2005 “Chinese Information Operations Strategies in a Taiwan Contingency” Testimony of James C. Mulvenon, Ph.D. Director, Advanced Studies and Analysis DGI Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis Before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Hearing “China’s Military Modernization and the Cross-Strait Balance” INTRODUCTION Thank you, Mr. Chairman and the other members of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission for the opportunity to take part in the hearings you are holding today on the topic of In the minds of the Chinese leadership, the available evidence suggests that the most important political-military challenge and the most likely flashpoint for Sino-US conflict is Taiwan. In seeking to reunify the island with the mainland, however, it is important to note that the PRC has a political strategy with a military component, not a military strategy with a political component. The PRC would prefer to win without fighting, since Beijing's worst case outcome is a failed operation that would result in de facto independence for Taiwan. Also, the leadership realizes that attacking Taiwan with kinetic weapons will result in significant international opprobrium and make the native population ungovernable. These assumptions explain why China until recently maintained a "wait and see" attitude towards Taiwan, even though the island elected a President from a party committed previously to independence. From 2000 until late 2003, China eschewed saber-rattling in favor of economic enticement and “united front” cooperation with the Pan-Blue opposition, both of which were believed to be working successfully. In November 2003, in response to perceived provocations by Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian, Beijing once again revived the threat of military force to deter what it saw as further slippage towards independence, dramatically increasing tensions in the U.S., China, Taiwan triangle. -
Artificial Intelligence, China, Russia, and the Global Order Technological, Political, Global, and Creative Perspectives
AIR UNIVERSITY LIBRARY AIR UNIVERSITY PRESS Artificial Intelligence, China, Russia, and the Global Order Technological, Political, Global, and Creative Perspectives Shazeda Ahmed (UC Berkeley), Natasha E. Bajema (NDU), Samuel Bendett (CNA), Benjamin Angel Chang (MIT), Rogier Creemers (Leiden University), Chris C. Demchak (Naval War College), Sarah W. Denton (George Mason University), Jeffrey Ding (Oxford), Samantha Hoffman (MERICS), Regina Joseph (Pytho LLC), Elsa Kania (Harvard), Jaclyn Kerr (LLNL), Lydia Kostopoulos (LKCYBER), James A. Lewis (CSIS), Martin Libicki (USNA), Herbert Lin (Stanford), Kacie Miura (MIT), Roger Morgus (New America), Rachel Esplin Odell (MIT), Eleonore Pauwels (United Nations University), Lora Saalman (EastWest Institute), Jennifer Snow (USSOCOM), Laura Steckman (MITRE), Valentin Weber (Oxford) Air University Press Muir S. Fairchild Research Information Center Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama Opening remarks provided by: Library of Congress Cataloging-in- Publication Data Brig Gen Alexus Grynkewich (JS J39) Names: TBD. and Lawrence Freedman (King’s College, Title: Artificial Intelligence, China, Russia, and the Global Order : Techno- London) logical, Political, Global, and Creative Perspectives / Nicholas D. Wright. Editor: Other titles: TBD Nicholas D. Wright (Intelligent Biology) Description: TBD Identifiers: TBD Integration Editor: Subjects: TBD Mariah C. Yager (JS/J39/SMA/NSI) Classification: TBD LC record available at TBD AIR UNIVERSITY PRESS COLLABORATION TEAM Published by Air University Press in October -
The Impact of Media Censorship: Evidence from a Field Experiment in China
The Impact of Media Censorship: Evidence from a Field Experiment in China Yuyu Chen David Y. Yang* January 4, 2018 — JOB MARKET PAPER — — CLICK HERE FOR LATEST VERSION — Abstract Media censorship is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes. We conduct a field experiment in China to measure the effects of providing citizens with access to an uncensored Internet. We track subjects’ me- dia consumption, beliefs regarding the media, economic beliefs, political attitudes, and behaviors over 18 months. We find four main results: (i) free access alone does not induce subjects to acquire politically sen- sitive information; (ii) temporary encouragement leads to a persistent increase in acquisition, indicating that demand is not permanently low; (iii) acquisition brings broad, substantial, and persistent changes to knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and intended behaviors; and (iv) social transmission of information is statis- tically significant but small in magnitude. We calibrate a simple model to show that the combination of low demand for uncensored information and the moderate social transmission means China’s censorship apparatus may remain robust to a large number of citizens receiving access to an uncensored Internet. Keywords: censorship, information, media, belief JEL classification: D80, D83, L86, P26 *Chen: Guanghua School of Management, Peking University. Email: [email protected]. Yang: Department of Economics, Stanford University. Email: [email protected]. Yang is deeply grateful to Ran Abramitzky, Matthew Gentzkow, and Muriel Niederle