Job Discussion Forums

[J.D.]

I saved this post before the censors blocked the story.

Beijing jails 4 in effort to stamp out SARS rumors
By Antoaneta Bezlova, Special for USA TODAY

Beijing police have detained four people for spreading rumors about severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, on the Internet and through mobile phones. The arrests are a sign that authorities are worried about social stability in a city that reports about 100 new SARS cases every day.

Recent rumors on Beijing's SARS grapevine have ranged from suggestions that martial law would be declared in the capital to "internal data" about the "real numbers" of SARS infections to descriptions of night raids by military planes spraying disinfectant over the city.

The four people detained were tracked down after Internet rule enforcers intercepted their messages, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

[Billy]

Yeah, I got a bunch of cell phone "spam" SARS rumors.

And then I got two "spam" messages from the Public Security Bureau warning against doing these things.

When all else fails, spam the spammers.

[gerard]

Why do I need to post everything 2 times? Not like I have nothing to do.

On a teaching site I could not get access they said the computer had a spy attachment. And they were not trying to sell anything. Alarming. If push came to shove they could confront you with sites you have visited.

Rumor-mongering??? You talkin to me??? I read the same on several online papers so I dont think you need to worry about it being censored. Ask the Chinese about it and I am sure you will get a baffled look.

Good post jd.

[J.D.]

Have you ever had a notice appear on your screen that you are visiting an unauthorized site and warned to shut down or face prosecution, in both English and Chinese?

I have so what is this about? (No it was not a porno site or religion. It was an article on China on CNN or was it BBC? I do not remember.)

[hubei_canuk]

"Ting bu Dong"
--------------------
Some mistake in thinking here...
In order to be a rumour monger you have to be able to communicate in a common language.
i.e. to be a chinese rumour-monger you have to speak chinese. And for people to take you seriously you have to be chinese (as a foreigner did you ever try to tell the TRUTH about anything to a chinese? .. then you know what i mean).
...
As far as Foreigners are considered they are rumour mongers by definition.
The point is to stop the chinese from talking to the known rumour mongers (foreigners) who can't be controlled i.e. the Western News media , WHO authorities etc.
...
If they do start to crack down on foreigners that would be a new stage.
At that point they would probably start kicking us out of the country like they did in Beijing 1989 (shorlty after second TianAnMen massacre).

[Owen]

Maybe our school is just more honest with us. Our FAO told me that he didn't care what I viewed on the internet as long as I didn't discuss it with Chinese citizens. At least an honest answer and that is a rarity in China.

Under the guise of being helpful and installing some software for me free of charge, they tried to sneak some spyware onto my machine. (I had formatted the drive immediately when I moved in and installed my own English version of Windows, Office, etc) My virus checker caught the spyware and stopped the download. They tried to tell me that I "must" shut down the virus checker and I told them to get lost. I won.

I also got the SARS rumour spams and then the PSB spams.