Oiwan Lam
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Am now a free lance researcher, translator and editor.
Latest posts by Oiwan Lam
11 June 2013
US Spying Whistleblower Edward Snowden Takes Refuge in Hong Kong
The man behind the bombshell intelligence leaks that revealed top secret US phone and Internet surveillance programs said he fled to Hong Kong because they "have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent". But some in Hong Kong aren't so sure about the government's willingness to him.
10 June 2013
The Business Behind China's Internet Real Name Registration System
One company stands to profit in a big way as China pushes forward with a policy to require Internet users to register their real names and their national identification numbers in order to participate online.
22 April 2013
Hong Kong Citizen Media Site Faces DDoS Attack From China
Hong Kong-based citizen media platform inmediahk.net was hit by a DDoS attack last week, coming mainly from China. Inmedia, a volunteer citizen media network, has been blocked in mainland China since 2007. Inmedia members believe that recent coverage of controversial issues, including a dock workers' strike in Hong Kong and the construction of a military pier in the city's center, may have triggered the attack.
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20 March 2013
New Study: Manipulating China's Most Influential Microbloggers
As China's largest online social forum and most popular micro-blogging platform, Sina Weibo is subject to heavy censorship and manipulation by government actors. Earlier this week, Global Voices Advocacy explored the implications of recent findings by a group of US-based computer scientists on Sina Weibo's filtering techniques. Today, we look a new study from a group of researchers at Hong Kong University, who worked to measure the influence of certain groups of micro-bloggers on the site.
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18 March 2013
China: Researchers Uncover Microblog Filtering Mechanisms
In a recent paper entitled "The Velocity of Censorship: High-Fidelity Detection of Microblog Post Deletions," a group of computer scientists describes their study of censorship practices on Sina Weibo, China's most popular microblogging service. Sina Weibo employs a large number of site moderators to monitor and, when necessary, stop the flow of dissenting ideas on the social media platform.
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19 February 2013
China: Bloggers “Forced to Drink Tea” with Police
Tea-drinking culture has a very long tradition in China. However, since around 2007, Chinese netizens have started using the term "tea talk" or "forced to drink tea" (被喝茶) to describe interrogations by the internal security police. Online opinion leaders, people who write about or host online platforms for political dissent, and signatories of online petitions are all frequently "forced to drink tea" with police and asked to give up sensitive information about their political activities. This post includes tips from online opinion leader Wu Gan on how to approach a tea talk with police.
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5 February 2013
Chinese Hackers Spy on Journalists to Track Sources
In January, the New York Times reported that its computers had been under constant attack by Chinese hackers over the past four months. Shortly thereafter, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post also reported that they were targeted by Chinese hackers. The story is familiar to Chinese journalists, who, together with citizen reporters from mainland China, are very vulnerable to hacking and online harassment compared to their peers overseas.
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