Facebook silences Hong Kong Opposition

South China Morning Post yesterday broke news about how Facebook repeatedly deleted groups of political opposition in Hong Kong:

"A Facebook group with 84,298 members formed to oppose the pro-establishment DAB was deleted

Kelvin Sit Tak-O, who runs a discussion group that opposes the pro-establishment party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), said his group’s Facebook page was shut down without notice on Thursday. The group had 84,298 members and was aiming for 100,000... The closures could have been triggered by opponents flagging the group as “abusive” with Facebook administrators, Mr. Sit speculated. A spokesperson for Facebook was not immediately available for comment."

As blogger Joanne Ooi cites:

"'Apart from my own group, I've heard that other groups with an anti-DAB message have also been closed. We've written complaint letters, but we've only received standard replies about how [Facebook] is working on this case,' Sit said. ...

Kelvin told me that although the original page is still down, he relaunched a new page, which has already hit 50,000 members since it launched 3 days ago."

Hong Kong's DAB is a pro-Beijing political party. Party leader Ma Lik denies the Tiananmen massacre, as Wikipedia has it.

Hong Kongers have always seen themselves as China's last bastion of free speech -- it's sad to see how this is jeopardized by Facebook's supposed anticipatory obedience.

Facebook beschneidet Redefreiheit von Hong Konger Opposition

South China Morning Post berichtete gestern drüber, wie Facebook wiederholt Gruppen der politischen Opposition in Hong Kong gelöscht hat:

"A Facebook group with 84,298 members formed to oppose the pro-establishment DAB was deleted

Kelvin Sit Tak-O, who runs a discussion group that opposes the pro-establishment party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), said his group’s Facebook page was shut down without notice on Thursday. The group had 84,298 members and was aiming for 100,000... The closures could have been triggered by opponents flagging the group as “abusive” with Facebook administrators, Mr. Sit speculated. A spokesperson for Facebook was not immediately available for comment."

Blogger Joanne Ooi ergänzt:

"'Apart from my own group, I've heard that other groups with an anti-DAB message have also been closed. We've written complaint letters, but we've only received standard replies about how [Facebook] is working on this case,' Sit said. ...

Kelvin told me that although the original page is still down, he relaunched a new page, which has already hit 50,000 members since it launched 3 days ago."

Hong Kongs DAB ist eine pro-Peking Partei. Parteichef Ma Lik hat laut Wikipedia das Tiananmen-Massaker geleugnet.

Hong Konger sehen sich gerne als Chinas letzte Bastion der freien Meinung. Schade, wie das von Facebook (vermutlich in einem Akt von vorauseilendem Gehorsam) torpediert wird.

:P <- Lutz

If you write, you stay

Google reported cyber attacks to its network, originating from China and reportedly targeting email-accounts of Chinese human rights activists, as David Drummond, Google's Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer writes:

"In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google...

...we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists... Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves."

Drummond concludes that Google will react by not un-censoring all results on Google.cn from now on, which might even lead to shuttering their service in Mainland.

An impressive reaction -- with only a minor flaw. Google never had a substantial footing in China; according to various sources its market penetration is around 30%, whereas Baidu -- China's largest search-engine has a share of over 90%. I am guessing that their revenue from Mainland is insubstantial. I don't want to sound cynical, but it's a convenient moment to push human rights if it doesn't cost you anything. Google might even utilize this opportunity to exit the Mainland market without loosing their face before they fall flat like Facebook.

Wer schreibt der bleibt

Googles Netzwerke wurde von China aus attackiert, wie David Drummond, Googles Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer berichtet. Insbesondere wurden die Emailkonten von chinesischen Menschenrechtlern zum Ziel:

"In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google...

...we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists... Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves."

Drummond berichtet, daß Google als Reaktion die Zensorvorgaben für Google.cn von nun an nicht weiter befolgen wird -- was eventuell sogar zur Schließung der Google-Seite in China führen könnte.

Eine beeindruckende Reaktion, mit nur einem kleinen Schönheitsfehler: Google war nie ein größerer Erfolg in China beschieden. Die Marktdurchdringung von Google in China liegt -- laut verschiedenen Quellen -- bei etwa 30 Prozent, während der Anteil von Baidu, Chinas größter Suchmaschine, bei über 90% liegt. Ich vermute, daß Googles Geschäftseinnahmen in der Volksrepublik immateriell sind. Ohne zynisch erscheinen zu wollen, ist es ein bequemer Augenblick, für Menschenrechte einzutreten, wenn es einen nichts kostet. Google könnte diese Gelegenheit sogar beim Schopfe packen, um aus dem chinesischen Markt auszusteigen, bevor es sein Gesicht verliert und auf die Nase fällt -- wie bereits bei Facebook geschehen.

:) <- Lutz

Twitter: economy of the incommunicative friends?

I only use Twitter periodically, normally during business trips, to let my friends and colleagues know what I'm doing -- which was the primary reason for having a Twitter-account in the first place. My tweets are admittedly scarce and of no interest for people who do not know me (and even for them, well....) -- all the more noticeable, that I steadily gained a few more followers during the past year (whom I do not know and do not follow back). I wonder about the motivation behind that; do all these people bet on the horse of old-fashioned Twitter-etiquette, where you were supposed to follow somebody who follows you? Or is this some weird sort of competition to follow as many people as possible -- ideally those, who would tweet as little as possible?

Twitter: Ökonomie der schweigsamen Freunde?

I benutze Twitter nur zeitweilig, normalerweise nur während Geschäftsreisen, um meine Kollegen und Freunde über meine Aktivitäten auf dem Laufenden zu halten -- was übrigens der Grund für mich war, überhaupt ein Twitter-Konto zu haben. Meine Tweets sind selten und wohl ohne jede Bedeutung für alle, die mich nicht persönlich kennen (und selbst für diese, aber lassen wir das...) -- umso merkwürdiger, daß mein Konto während des letzten Jahres einige neue Follower gesammelt hat (die ich nicht kenne und denen ich selber nicht folge). Was ist die Motivation dafür, frage ich mich? Setzen diese Follower alle auf die aus der Mode gekommene Twitter-Etikette, daß man denen folgt, die einem auch folgen? Oder ist dies ein seltsamer Wettbewerb, die meisten Nutzer zu verfolgen, idealerweise natürlich denen, die möglichst wenig neue Tweets einstellen?

:P <- Lutz

Beware of Facebook's Privacy Changes

Since yesterday, Facebook has introduced a new transition-tool to change privacy settings, seemingly in an effort to create more public activity for itself; all users who have never changed the default settings (everything set to private) will now have all their stuff set to public by default, unless you use the transition tool and set all radio-buttons to "old settings".

Obacht bei Facebooks Datenschutz-Änderungen

Sei gestern hat Facebook ein neues Tool eingestellt, um seine neuen Datenschutzänderungen auf den Weg zu bringen -- offensichtlich, um mehr öffentliche Aktivitäten für FB zu erzeugen. Bei allen Nutzern, die zuvor die Default-Einstellungen verwendet haben (alles privat), werden nun alle Einträge als "öffentlich" eingestuft. Um dies zu vermeiden, sollte man das Transition-Tools verwenden und alle Radio-Buttons auf "Old settings" einstellen.

:P <- Lutz

My Name is Magic Mouse

Mein Name ist Magic Mouse

Last.fm crashes Safari

I've had a mixed experience with Last.fm on my MacBook so far, even though I really love Last.fm as a source of Korean and Cantonese Pop -- as of now, Safari plainly crashes completely after the current video-commercial has played back. Sigh, everything could be so easy... :P

Last.fm schießt Safari ab

Ich bin nachwievor ein Fan von Last.fm (für mich die beste Quelle für Korea- und Kanto-Pop), obwohl ich auf meinem MacBook bereits einige Probleme mit Last.fm hatte; meine neueste Erfahrung: Safari raucht einfach komplett ab, nach dem die Video-Werbung im Player abgespielt wurde. Seufz, es könnte alles so einfach sein.... 

:P <- Lutz 

New Coobico Screenshots

Woot, new screenshots of Coobico are available -- quite a lot has been going on under the hood, so make sure to check out the all-new up-to-date images here!

Neue Coobico Screenshots
Endlich -- es gibt eine Rutsche neuer Screenshots der aktuellen Arbeitsversion von Coobico. Es hat sich eine Menge getan in der Zwischenzeit, also: reinschauen!

:) <- Lutz