Umbrella Revolution: Censorship In China

Improved Essays
Censorship in China
The year was two-thousand and fourteen and hundreds of reporters from all over the globe migrated to China for a few months to watch the events of the Umbrella Revolution unfold. Thousands of protesters had gathered in Hong Kong to fight for democracy through peaceful protests. However, they were armed only with umbrellas which they used to shield themselves from the countless attacks of tear gas from the Chinese police and military departments. Through this extensive coverage, millions watched the cruel treatment of peaceful protestors, however, the citizens of China farther away from these protests were in the dark, unaware of the violence and revolution going on just miles away. Through China’s censorship, it’s citizens
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As stated previously, thousands across the globe watched to see what would happen to the protesters fighting for something that many take for granted, democracy. However, most of the millions of citizens of China were deprived of any of this knowledge. Many of these citizens had a similar mindset to those of the protestors but had no idea that such a large group was gathering. That was exactly the intended use of the censorship plan as it kept protests and revolutions to a minimum if not none at all. During the Umbrella Revolution, the situation was so large that the government claimed that it was a small demonstration led by just a few political extremists. The CCP was able to completely fool the public and they did it so effortlessly as they were able to keep any mainland reporters from the scene (Lorentzen). Although the censorship plan worked in this scenario in the minds of Chinese leaders, this is just one example of how China’s leaders have been able to totally control the weak and innocent Chinese …show more content…
This large growth in the level of censorship in China can be mainly credited to the recent bans of more popular social media programs. Facebook and Twitter have been banned for about a decade but as a result of protests like the Umbrella Revolution and other censored information that has been found on many social media sites, many other programs have been prohibited. Some of the more recent programs that have been forbidden are Instagram, Flickr, Google, Microsoft Outlook and other companies such as Yahoo and Apple have been targeted by the CCP. The Great Firewall has also being worked on to get it to a point at which the Internet can act like an intranet, so that the government can tap into anything that anyone is saying at any given time (Denyer). The Great Firewall of China has always been an obstacle for companies such as Yahoo and Google and most of these social media programs that have now been banned, but as it is growing the concern will not be a lack of information, it will become a superior amount of government control and lack of freedom for the public of

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