China lists 100 topics citizens can't include in online vids

China's Netcasting Services Association has issued a list of 100 topics local netizens must not include in short videos posted online. The list, officially the "Online Short Video Content Review Standard Rules (2021)", includes predictable prohibitions on mocking China's leadership, or suggesting that history did not unfurl …

[Pascal Monett]

"Just like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter"

The main difference being that, if they don't do better, somebody's going to jail.

That is something we can't do in The West.

[T. F. M. Reader]

Re: "Just like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter"

Eh... Someone will go to jail for a while and then will promise to do better...

[NoneSuch]

Re: "Just like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter"

Fight this horse plop with all your might, because when governments see others clamping down on freedoms without any push back, it's inevitable they try to do the same to yours.

[Khaptain]

Re: "Just like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter"

"That is something we can't do in The West."

Not yet !

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "Just like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter"

"Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."

--Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

[bombastic bob]

Re: "Just like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter"

flouting the rules can reduce access to jobs, education, and even access to high-speed internet.

Apparently in China, it is "cancel culture on steroids".

I wonder what they'd do to you for a WINNIE THE POOH costume...

I ran the list through google translate, saw some specific mention of the use of hats and clothing that had faces of Chinese communist party leaders on them, and the practice of folding or otherwise distorting the hats and clothing to produce (assume humorous) facial expressions. That actually sounds kinda funny!

[CountCadaver]

Re: "Just like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter"

Or a firing squad depending on how angry it makes Winnie the Pooh

[Nameless Faceless Computer User]

Re: "Just like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter"

When we in the West are naughty on social media we loose our jobs, our source of income, and our health insurance in the hopes that we will die a long lingering death in poverty when nobody will employ us.

[TheMeerkat]

Re: "Just like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter"

“The main difference being that, if they don't do better, somebody's going to jail.”

Have not the police already visited some people for posting “wrong thoughts” in Britain?

[Anonymous Coward]

A weak man can bare no criticism

A rotten tree falls without warning.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Discussions of extreme nationalistic politics or fascism are barred"

So you can't discuss historical subjects such as e.g. Nazi Germany?

Why ever not?

[Precordial thump]

Re: "Discussions of extreme nationalistic politics or fascism are barred"

The parallels are too obvious.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "Discussions of extreme nationalistic politics or fascism are barred"

So they're banning 'The History Channel'

[gotes]

Re: "Discussions of extreme nationalistic politics or fascism are barred"

Because the Party says so.

[Anonymous Coward]

<insert name of totalitarian regime> has just 2 TV channels.

Channel 1 is the official government propaganda channel

Channel 2 has a message from the secret police telling you to switch to Channel 1

[Hubert Cumberdale]

(icon) ->

[Boris the Cockroach]

What about

Winnie the pooh

Are discussions about him banned as well?

When you look at china you see the future of the internet for the rest of us

[Anonymous Coward]

> Discussions of extreme nationalistic politics

China is extremely nationalistic. Are you sure?

[Zippy´s Sausage Factory]

I think so long as your extreme nationalism is pro-Chinese Community Party, you'll probably be OK.

[TheMeerkat]

“Nationalistic” in Communist party terms means ideas the minority might have about creating their potential nation.

[batfink]

Fig Leaves are out huh

So are other forms of leaves to cover one's naughty bits acceptable then? What's China's national tree?

[HildyJ]

Re: Fig Leaves are out huh

I suppose honeypots are right out.

[yetanotheraoc]

Genius

"The Register has sought to understand how China's citizens respond to rules of this sort, since they greatly restrict self-expression. We understand they do so stoically ..."

Without expression then. Sly writing like this is why I'm here.

[sanmigueelbeer]

Only 100 topics? Pffft, amateurs!

[msobkow]

It is a lot harder to put the genie back in the bottle than it is to keep it in the bottle in the first place.

I do believe the Chinese are learning that; too much of the population has tasted life beyond the borders, either directly or indirectly, much as we've experienced life beyond our own borders.

Well, 'cept for the Yanks. They seem to think their borders demark the end of the known world, 'cause that is the only way the "Leaders of the Free World" can be qualified to deserve that phrase... not to mention the "World" series that never leaves the continent, and so on and so forth. But watch their media, and it is no surprise - where the BBC, CBC (Canada), ABC (Australia), et. al. provide global news segments that are usually as long as the national news segment, the American news channels don't really do that save for CNN. Their news is all about themselves, so most of their population has no idea what is going on with those "danged foreigners."

[very angry man]

alas i can only up vote once

[Tomato42]

Historically accurate?

> historically accurate socialism welcome

methinks what they consider "historically accurate" and what would pass peer review by a drunk historian not even specialising in socialism history are two different things...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd say the only part not on fhe wishlist of the American right is the bit about cryptoscams. If they'd just put "CRT" in it, they'd be BFF.

[pop_corn]

Seems to me that President Xi Jinping has been reading Plato's The Republic!