Weibo (officially Sina Weibo) is a popular, self-censoring Chinese micro-blogging website. Established by the Sina Corporation in 2009, in operation, Weibo functions essentially like the Twitter platform. Users are limited to posting 140-character status updates. They may also share photos, videos, or audio clips along with these updates. Posts may be "forwarded", the equivalent of Twitter's "retweeting". (Back to index)
Contents
Background and Popularity
The name derives from the Chinese portmanteau for "microblogging".
Weibo has over 100 millions users.
China blocks Twitter
Censorship
Weibo censors certain keywords that those in charge (who?) deem sensitive.
Ethical Implications
One reason why Weibo is so popular in China is because it is supported by the Chinese government that has direct control over its content, whereas it does not with other social networking sites like Facebook that has servers located across the world. The fact that Weibo has the Chinese government over its content leads to the debates in censorship, particularly whether such censoring of user-generated content is morally and ethically correct.
See Also
References
- "The train crash heard around the world" aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2011-11-03.
- "China Censors Occupy Movement" blogs.law.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2011-11-03
