This is really quite horrifying

[sid]

http://www.dailydot.com/geek/in-china-20-people-women-arrested-for-writing-slash/

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

I heard about this several months ago; it really upset me. I hate this.

[sid]

It's so nasty and bigoted and pointless. I'm pretty sure that China has bigger problems to worry about.

[ivorygates]

:(

[sid]

*nods*

[discodiva76]

Absolutely horrifying....


*weeps*...

[sid]

Those poor young women... *chokes*

[jdjunkie]

Wow. Just ... It's unbearable. Hateful.

[sid]

I'll never understand. Who has the energy to spend on hating people who aren't harming you in any way? Do something pleasant and productive with your time. Leave happy young women alone. ARGGGH.

[jdjunkie]

There was no mention of femslash in the article. I wonder if it's just that it's been lumped in with the m/m as homogenous "slash" or if it's more acceptable, culturally, or something. Either way, just, eugh.

It makes me so sad.

[sid]

I failed to notice that. Hmm.

Go watch a nice Daniel vid and make yourself happy again. :-)

[jdjunkie]

Flagpole Sitta by Little Heaven is the perfect Daniel vid pick-me-up.

"I'm not sick but I'm not wellllll" (sing along ...)

[synecdochic]

Ugh, I have such a problem with the style of the reporting in that article, and I'm sorry, but you get to hear the rant about why!

This is not news. Or rather, it's not news in the sense that "dog bites man" is not news. China is not free, "people getting arrested for saying things the government thinks they shouldn't or violating a very (very) long list of things you cannot say or do on the internet" happens frequently, and China has millions of people employed as "internet police" whose job it is to find "undesireable" internet posts and filter, block, and prosecute people for them. (And that's not including the people individual web services employ to censor the service, required as a condition of being allowed to put a server on the internet.)

The Chinese internet is so massively constrained, through technical filtering and blocking at the national level, that the outside-China tech world calls the project "The Great Firewall of China".

This is not a case of "innocent Chinese slashers get arrested out of nowhere! Isn't that sad!" This is a case of China's censorship machine in "welp, must be Tuesday" mode. The article is incredibly misleading, or at the very least is incredibly ignorant of the actual regulations around internet use in China. Living in China and operating a website outside the Great Firewall will get you arrested! Bypassing the Great Firewall to participate on a website that exists to bypass the censorship regulations (which, yes, include "pornography") will get you arrested! This has been happening for fifteen years or so now! This happens thousands of times a month!

This is not a case of "China arrests women for writing slash", this is a case of "China labels as dissidents and arrests people who bypass the censorship the Chinese internet operates under as a matter of course", and presenting it as being about slash fic sweeps hundreds of thousands of human rights violations committed annually under the rug. (And erases the work of a ridiculous number of activists who work to bypass that censorship and allow people in China to communicate freely, but that's an entirely separate rant.)

Aja should not be writing about Chinese internet censorship if she does not know anything about it past "isn't it horrible that people can't say what they want?"

[sid]

You can rant informatively any time you want, dear!

The big picture hurts the heart even more...

[annejack]

This is, sadly, just a small part of how cencored and restricted the Chinese are in their freedom of press - and anything at all. It's so sad. And pointless :(

[sid]

This touched close to home, but the entire ongoing situation is just unthinkable.

[magnavox_23]

It reminds us just how forunate we are to live where we live. As the article said, it is technically illegal here in Australia also, but rarely enforced as most slash writers archive their works on servers outside of Australia.

[sid]

I knew Australia was conservative in a lot of ways, but I was really surprised to learn about that! I'd rather think of it as the land of tinnies and barbies and footy, than of silly laws.

[magnavox_23]

The government is far more conservative than the people. They apply draconian laws to the internet because they don't understand it, and our isolation lends itself to rule through ignorance and fear.

[sid]

rule through ignorance and fear

We sure have our share of that. Except of course it's presented as wisdom and courage. Like bravely standing up for teaching Creationism in public schools, because science is scary and wrong.

[magnavox_23]

The US tea party recently said they should be looking towards our Prime Minister Tony Abbott for guidance. *THAT* is scary.

[sid]

*shudders*

[imagineireann]

It's even more horrendous when you look further into the internet censorship issues in China, this is just one tiny fraction and clearly being reported for shock factor for fandom. The whole sitation is just utterly fucked up and makes me so glad to live in a more or less free state

[sid]

It's the fandom aspect that grabbed me, as they intended, but the larger picture is almsot beyond comprehension. Those of us living in better situations forget how extremely lucky we are.

Need to chat with you RE: Radical IDea for Socializing and Housekeeping Online

[magdalenazdreem]

Realy need to chat with you, Sid! Please message me if you can! I don't know how that works on dreanwidth.