Is China the New Los Angeles Trend Machine?

August 28, 2017

I was last in China in 2007 and then in Hong Kong in 2010. My information is, therefore, out of date. That’s no big whoop for me, since I am ready to tally 74 years in our thrilling world.

I read “In China You Now Have to Provide Your Real Identity If You Want to Comment Online.” The main point of the write up is that the free and open Internet is going the way of the dodo. The goal of “real name registration” is to make it easy for certain official to track down individuals without the expensive, time consuming, and sometimes messy “traditional” identity investigations.

I noted this passage:

So what exactly constitutes forbidden topics on the Chinese internet? An unnamed CAC official told a journalist the following when asked about the new rules (first translated by The Diplomat):

  1. opposing the principles of the constitution of China
  2. endangering national security, revealing state secrets, subverting state power, and undermining national reunification
  3. damaging national honor and interests
  4. inciting national hatred, ethnic discrimination, and undermining national unity
  5. undermining the state’s policies on religion or promoting cults and feudal superstitions
  6. spreading rumors or disrupting social order
  7. spreading obscenity, pornography, violence, or terror, or abetting a crime
  8. insulting or slandering others and infringing upon the lawful rights and interests of others
  9. violating any other laws and regulations

My reaction to the write up is that censorship, China-style, may be the latest trend to emerge from the Middle Kingdom. Once Los Angeles on the left coast generated the “in” fads which would then roll toward Harrod’s Creek.

My thought is that censorship may be the new black or whatever the hot color is for fall fashion. I am not particularly surprised because similar governmental actions seem to have emerged from the deliberative bodies in Russia, Turkey, and other countries. One African nation state just turned off the Internet, an Iran-style touch.

One idea struck me. Is now the time for individuals to generate an alternative or optional Internet identity. Creating a “legend” or an alternate Internet identity is important. Just ask the person who ran the illegal Dark Web site AlphaBay. The mistake that individual made was to use an identity which was not “clean.

The procedure for setting up a legend or clean Internet identity is not easy. There are a number of steps. Human mistakes can render a clean identity traceable; that is, dirty. If you are able to verify that you are working for a recognized law enforcement or intelligence entity, you can obtain a legend from the Beyond Search Overflight team. This is our WITSEC Light bundle. More comprehensive legends are also available to qualified LE and intel professionals.

To explore this package which contains an alias, matching email address, and other necessary elements like a Walmart pay as you go phone, just write darkwebnotebook at yandex dot com. Remember. We verify that you have a legitimate LE or intel role prior to providing the legend, a workable biography, and summary of what one has to do to build out the legend.

Those who do not qualify will have to look elsewhere for a way to deal with censorship constraints in countries other than the US. If the China censorship trend moves outward from that country, more than one online identity may be needed for some operations.

Stephen E Arnold, August 28, 2017

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