MicroBlogging

Follow us on TWITTER: twitter.com Like us on FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com In news-censored mainland China, the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) controls information. Many can only guess the state of disasters. Microblogging platforms are quickly becoming a channel for rare, real facts. On August 3, the CCP’s mouthpiece media, CCTV questioned whether microblogging misinforms people about the crash, and accused microblogging of sending out false messages. Netizens believe it to be a sign that the CCP is trying to attack microblogging. “Godfather, godmother and daughter; Red mansion, Red Songs and the Red Cross; “Speedy train, moving people and spirits; Iron face, iron heart and Ministry of Railways.” The scroll reads “No Truth.” These are the recent rapidly spreading microblogging couplets. They mock officials’ mismanagement of the train crash and the corruption in Red Cross. Netizens express their anger in doggerels, so as to avoid immediate deletion from online forums. In just a few years, microblogging has become a new kind of network media, and a useful tool for public information. How fast is microblogging? Four minutes after the train crash, A Netizen Yuan Xiaoyuan who was on the train blogged: “D301 train crashed in Wenzhou.” A sudden emergency stop and then two big crashes! All the power is off! I am in the last carriage.” This message was two hours quicker than China’s mainland “news agency.” Li Tianxiao, Columbia University Ph.D. in political science: “This time the …