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China cracks down on ‘uncivilised’ online puns used to discuss sensitive topics (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 day ago by lemmee_in@lemm.ee to c/world@lemmy.world

28 comments fedilink hide all child comments

China’s internet regulators have launched a campaign cracking down on puns and homophones, one of the last remaining ways for citizens to safely discuss sensitive subjects without recriminations or censorship.

“For some time, various internet jargons and memes have appeared frequently, leaving people more and more confused,” said an editorial by the Communist party mouthpiece, the People’s Daily

China’s online spaces are strictly monitored and censored. Some sensitive topics and terms are strictly banned, such as references to the Tiananmen massacre, or criticism of President Xi Jinping. Insulting individuals or China generally is also frowned upon.

In response, users have adapted, using funny or obscure references and in-jokes to get around the censorship. Many rely on homophones, using phrases that sound very similar in Mandarin, but were written with different Chinese characters, such as the word for “paratrooper” (sǎn bīng) instead of “idiot” (shǎ bī).

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[-] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 4 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

That's not really an accurate translation of 傻屄 (shǎbī), it's a very vulgar way to say "stupid cunt", and you'd usually substitute the second character for, e.g., 比/逼 or even an actual "B" because the character itself is considered offensive (meaning components are 尸 "body" + 穴 "hole/cavity", worsened by the fact 尸 is actually the "corpse" radical).

[-] YeetPics@mander.xyz 11 points 19 hours ago

China could just make explosive collars that read minds and when the thought criminals have that thought that crosses the line; boom.

No more thought crime after the first few weeks AND a boost to employment for a month or two as the janitorial service backup with work.

You're welcome, China.

[-] ravhall@discuss.online 66 points 1 day ago

Crickets from the ML crowd

[-] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 32 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

https://lemm.ee/post/45588849

Hopefully you can follow that link. Ml mods removed the article lmao.

Edit. Holy shit, they banned me from .ml all together for posting the article! It wasn't even lemmygrad ml, it was just the ml world news comm. Lmao.

The reason was "rule 1", which is:

Please only post links to actual news sources, no tabloid sites, etc.

That's hilarious

[-] boredtortoise@lemm.ee 5 points 7 hours ago

You can bet that their mascot users post links from the same source

[-] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 2 points 6 hours ago

Yup. There are four articles from the guardian on that comms front page right now.

[-] ravhall@discuss.online 9 points 14 hours ago

Basically anything out of an ML mouth I distrust. If they’re trying to promote china and destroy the west, they’re doing a really shitty job at it.

[-] Hubi@feddit.org 23 points 22 hours ago

Of course, The Guardian - the famous tabloid without any actual news lol

[-] barsquid@lemmy.world 9 points 20 hours ago

I think you're supposed to accept only articles from the Grayzone, and those without any fact checking whatsoever.

[-] barsquid@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago

"This is western propaganda, actually everyone can write what they like. Furthermore censorship is necessary to keep capitalist lies out of the country, so being banned from criticizing the government is a good thing."

[-] GuyDudeman@lemmy.world 33 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

They see nothing wrong with this because “it’s necessary in the short term”.

You know, like state capitalism!

[-] otp@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 day ago

Took me a moment to realize you weren't talking about Machine Learning

[-] ravhall@discuss.online 5 points 1 day ago

Haha, that would make the sentence very confusing!

[-] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago

The wrongthink list just keeps growing and growing

[-] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 1 day ago

I hope these poor souls learn to use TOR and a VPN

[-] ravhall@discuss.online 38 points 1 day ago

It’s more complicated than that. Your isp knows when you use a vpn. Your isp sometimes knows when you use tor. That’s why end to end encryption is so important. But in china, these activities are banned. So connecting to the wrong vpn could get them in trouble.

I hope these poor souls get a new damned government.

[-] InverseParallax@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

It's ironic that they need to line the CCP against a wall.

While having a conveniently sized wall right there.

[-] ravhall@discuss.online 6 points 1 day ago

They only use that wall to catch stray bullets when executing Muslims.

[-] hddsx@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago

Clearly you have never been to China. It can take extra steps to VPN

[-] Exec@pawb.social 8 points 1 day ago

Now that's an old thumbnail picture. Android 4.x on an old-style LG phone, along with the "green blocks" design play store (just after the android market rebrand)

[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Likely the article author (or editor) simple searched their stock photography subscription with the keywords "chinese text on smart phone" and went with the first result.

[-] GuyDudeman@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

I’m not an android guy. How old?

[-] i_am_not_a_robot@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 day ago

Android 4 was the reunification of Android 2 for phones and Android 3 for tablets. I think it coincided with the launch of the original Nexus 7 and Google Assistant, and I think I was installing third-party Android 4 builds on one of the first US phones with 4G LTE.

[-] Ghoelian@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 23 hours ago

Android 4 released in 2011

[-] ogmios@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago

Imagine demanding that the world make sense to you.

[-] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Andy Zaltzman will be devastated.

https://www.thebuglepodcast.com/

[-] YaDownWitCPP@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Move along, nothing to see here.

this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024

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