China's robot censors crank up as Tiananmen anniversary nears
China's robot censors crank up as Tiananmen anniversary
nears
Bu Cate Cadell 25, 2019 / 9:27 PM
BEIJING (Reuters) - It’s the most sensitive day of the
year for China’s internet, the anniversary of the bloody June 4 crackdown on
pro-democracy protests at Tiananmen Square, and with under two weeks to go,
China’s robot censors are working overtime.
Censors at Chinese internet companies say tools to detect
and block content related to the 1989 crackdown have reached unprecedented
levels of accuracy, aided by machine learning and voice and image recognition.
“We sometimes say that the artificial intelligence is a
scalpel, and a human is a machete,” said one content screening employee at
Beijing Bytedance Co Ltd, who asked not to be identified because they are not
authorized to speak to media.
Two employees at the firm said censorship of the
Tiananmen crackdown, along with other highly sensitive issues including Taiwan
and Tibet, is now largely automated.
Posts that allude to dates, images and names associated
with the protests are automatically rejected.
“When I first began this kind of work four years ago
there was opportunity to remove the images of Tiananmen, but now the artificial
intelligence is very accurate,” one of the people said.
Four censors, working across Bytedance, Weibo Corp and
Baidu Inc apps said they censor between 5,000-10,000 pieces of information a
day, or five to seven pieces a minute, most of which they said were
pornographic or violent content.
Despite advances in AI censorship, current-day tourist
snaps in the square are sometimes unintentionally blocked, one of the censors
said.
Bytedance declined to comment, while Weibo and Baidu did
not respond to requests for comment.
SENSITIVE PERIOD
The Tiananmen crackdown is a taboo subject in China 30
years after the government sent tanks to quell student-led protests calling for
democratic reforms. Beijing has never released a death toll but estimates from
human rights groups and witnesses range from several hundred to several
thousand.
June 4th itself is marked by a cat-and-mouse game as
people use more and more obscure references on social media sites, with obvious
allusions blocked immediately. In some years, even the word “today” has been
scrubbed.
In 2012, China's most-watched stock index fell 64.89
points on the anniversary day here, echoing the date of the original event in
what analysts said was likely a strange coincidence rather than a deliberate
reference.
Still, censors blocked access to the term “Shanghai stock
market” and to the index numbers themselves on microblogs, along with other
obscure references to sensitive issues.
While companies censorship tools are becoming more
refined, analysts, academics and users say heavy-handed policies mean sensitive
periods before anniversaries and political events have become catch-alls for a
wide range of sensitive content.
In the lead-up to this year’s Tiananmen Square
anniversary, censorship on social media has targeted LGBT groups, labor and
environment activists and NGOs, they say.
Upgrades to censorship tech have been urged on by new
policies introduced by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). The group
was set up - and officially led - by President Xi Jinping, whose tenure has
been defined by increasingly strict ideological control of the internet.
The CAC did not respond to a request for comment.
Last November, the CAC introduced new rules aimed at
quashing dissent online in China, where “falsifying the history of the
Communist Party” on the internet is a punishable offence for both platforms and
individuals.
The new rules require assessment reports and site visits
for any internet platform that could be used to “socially mobilize” or lead to
“major changes in public opinion”, including access to real names, network
addresses, times of use, chat logs and call logs.
One official who works for CAC told Reuters the recent
boost in online censorship is “very likely” linked to the upcoming anniversary.
“There is constant communication with the companies
during this time,” said the official, who declined to directly talk about the
Tiananmen, instead referring to the “the sensitive period in June”.
Companies, which are largely responsible for their own
censorship, receive little in the way of directives from the CAC, but are
responsible for creating guidelines in their own “internal ethical and party
units”, the official said.
SECRET FACTS
With Xi’s tightening grip on the internet, the flow of
information has been centralized under the Communist Party’s Propaganda
Department and state media network. Censors and company staff say this reduces
the pressure of censoring some events, including major political news, natural
disasters and diplomatic visits.
“When it comes to news, the rule is simple... If it is
not from state media first, it is not authorized, especially regarding the
leaders and political items,” said one Baidu staffer.
“We have a basic list of keywords which include the 1989
details, but (AI) can more easily select those.”
Punishment for failing to properly censor content can be
severe.
In the past six weeks, popular services including a
Netease Inc news app, Tencent Holdings Ltd’s news app TianTian, and Sina Corp
have all been hit with suspensions ranging from days to weeks, according to the
CAC, meaning services are made temporarily unavailable on apps stores and
online.
For internet users and activists, penalties can range
from fines to jail time for spreading information about sensitive events
online.
In China, social media accounts are linked to real names
and national ID numbers by law, and companies are legally compelled to offer
user information to authorities when requested.
“It has become normal to know things and also understand
that they can’t be shared,” said one user, Andrew Hu. “They’re secret facts.”
In 2015, Hu spent three days in detention in his home
region of Inner Mongolia after posting a comment about air pollution onto an
unrelated image that alluded to the Tiananmen crackdown on Twitter-like social
media site Weibo.
Hu, who declined to use his full Chinese name to avoid
further run-ins with the law, said when police officers came to his parents
house while he was on leave from his job in Beijing he was surprised, but not
frightened.
“The responsible authorities and the internet users are
equally confused,” said Hu. “Even if the enforcement is irregular, they know
the simple option is to increase pressure.”
Reporting by Cate Cadell. Editing by Lincoln Feast.
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