John Kennedy · March, 2010

Latest posts by John Kennedy from March, 2010

China: Characters in leaders’ names made sensitive search terms on Google

  25 March 2010

Beginning Wednesday and continuing today, Chinese Internet users have discovered that Google searches containing the Chinese characters for the surnames of China's top leaders (ie. the ‘hu’ [jintao] in carrot, ‘huluobo’) are resulting in a reset connection to the website. Isaac Mao has made a screencast showing how this works.

China: Singing farewell to Google

  23 March 2010

Google has formally closed its mainland Chinese search engine and rival Baidu will not need long to pick up the slack; nonetheless, former users of Google.cn search braved the cold air to show their support outside the company's Beijing headquarters, singing an anti-Internet censorship protest song while they were at it.

China: Verdict postponed in Fujian netizen trial

  19 March 2010

A verdict expected this morning in a case which has seen three netizens in Fujian province held in custody for nine months was quickly postponed pending yet further investigation. Following the decision, locals gathered outside the courthouse had minor scuffles with police while netizens having traveled there from around the country reported.

China: Journalists unite to demand governor's resignation

  13 March 2010

Following the incident last week in which Hubei province governor Li Hongzhong berated a reporter and confiscated her recording equipment, growing demand for an apology and Li's subsequent refusal have led academics and media workers to petition for his resignation. Also up: mouthpiece media and reporting privilege.

John Kennedy's space