A Taiwanes activist posted an article protesting against Facebook's suspension of his account.

On June 1st, Facebook suspended the accounts of several Hong Kong activists, causing speculation that the suspension was related to the 23rd anniversary of Tiananmen Protest in the absence of any other clear information or explanation from the company. Coincidentally, several Taiwanese activists and politicians also had their accounts suspended on the same day, which triggered Taiwanese users’ concern over the limitation on free speech.

Ho Tsung-hsun, the activist who has long devoted to social movements in Taiwan, posted an article [zh] describing the incident on the citizen journalism platform Peopo. According to Ho, after he saw the notice page of deactivation on Facebook, he clicked the FAQ link and tried to look for the reason of the suspension. Facebook listed four general reasons for account deactivation which Ho claimed he violated none of them.  He complained that the deactivation has seriously impacted his social movement campaigns [zh]:

  我從臉書網址根本找不到任何可以了解原因的連結，而我在臉書耕耘幾年的資料與開設社群就這樣無故消失，對工作與人際交際產生不便影響。

I couldn't find any link which provides explanation to the deactivation on Facebook. The information I've collected and the Facebook groups that I've created and maintained all disappeared, which has caused inconvenience to my work and interpersonal relationship.

Ho told the Global Voices Advocacy that he complained to Facebook, but only got an email which was generated by the automatic replying system. He wrote again and claimed that he would take further action. The suspension was eventually lifted at 9 pm on June 1st. But till now, he hasn't received any apology or explanation from Facebook.

A Taiwanese political Facebook fan page “Xien Ma Tong” （掀馬統）[zh] was also disabled and reactivated on the same day. The fan page was created to ridicule the Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou. Another Facebook fan page “New Taiwan GoGoGO“[zh] which relates to a Taiwanese television station also reported that the messages could no be posted though the page was still being there on Facebook. Liu Jian-Kuo, a legislator from the Democratic Progress Party also said his Facebook account was suspended without any warning from Facebook.

Taipei City Councilor Ho Zhi-Wei has written an official statement to Facebook, expressing his concern over Facebook's unreasonable account deactivation which has resulted in hindrance to free speech.

Global Voices co-founder Rebecca MacKinnon has communicated with executives at Facebook, requesting an explanation of the deactivation incidents in Hong Kong and Taiwan. They say that these incidents were due to a global technical problem that has since been fixed. Here is a statement she received from Facebook spokeswoman Debbie Frost:

  “To protect the millions of people who connect and share on Facebook every day, we have automated systems and a dedicated team that reviews reports made by users in order to maintain a trusted environment and protect the nearly billion people that use our site.  In this instance, we mistakenly took action on a number of accounts and temporarily suspended them. When this happens, we try our best to resolve the situation, apologize to those affected and make any necessary changes to  our processes to help prevent such mistakes happening again. We have already remediated the majority of these accounts, and expect to complete the process soon.”

Written by Weiping Li · comments (4)
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Most Chinese-language blogs and microblog messages emphasize  the disastrous outcomes that the bill could bring. What people worry about most are bill's endorsement of surveillance by web services and Internet companies to prevent “infringing” content, and the implications for individual privacy. A post written by blogger Richard (pseudonym) on the Taiwan-based website inside.com.tw introduces key concepts of SOPA and asks readers to imagine what it will be like to live under the bill. This post has been widely circulated around websites  Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China:

“試想著有一天你在台灣，過著像這樣的生活：各網站必須被迫和政府合作接受審查，你平日每天要上的網站隨時可能會被封鎖，你寄出的每封信也都會受到審查，再也沒有私人隱私。大陸的狀況？唉，一聲長嘆啊！”

“Try to imagine that, one day, you’re in Taiwan and live a life like this: every website is forced to cooperate with the government and subject to be censored. The websites that you visit everyday can be blocked anytime. Every mail you send will also be censored. There is no more privacy. As for what will happen in China [under the same scenario]? Sigh…a long long sigh…”

The Taiwanese media company Next media Animation has even made an animated clip about SOPA, in which black-suited Hollywood businessman battle Internet company guys who are backed up by net users. SOPA is personified with cops using pepper spray against people who might use pirated works.

The comments from China weibo users are even more bitter, and scorning –both at the United States and Chinese government.

“s7evenz:看來咱們終於可以向老美輸出技術和價值觀了，咱們是強大的，先進的，無比正確的！”

“s7evenz: It looks like that we can finally export our technology and value to the Americans. We’re strong, advanced, and absolutely right!”

“SemKem:期待美國佬享受與天朝子民同等待遇”

“SemKem: I expect to see that the Americans enjoy the same treatment as what the subjects of the Holy Empire have.” ["Holy Empire" is a sarcastic term used by Chinese netizens for the Chinese government.]

Aside from those sarcastic comments, Chinese blogger Michael Anti sees the introduction of SOPA into legislation as a conflict between opposing interests among rival groups.

“簡單地說，SOPA是傳統媒體和消費品行業延長黃金歲月的保護傘，卻是互聯網行業和用戶權利的扼殺者，前者只是懷念舊時光，而後者卻要誓死消滅這個法案，因此反對者必然會全力廝殺到最後。隨著今後法案在眾院委員會的審查，對它的阻擊還會越來越強烈。”

“To put it simply, traditional media and consumer products companies use SOPA as a shield to prolong their golden days. However, the same bill will kill Internet industry and users. The former is only being nostalgic, but the latter has sworn to kill the bill. Therefore, the groups who oppose the bill will definitely fight to the last minute. The blow on the bill will be getting fiercer as it is scrutinized in the House committee.”

Anti also predicts that there is slim possibility for the bill to become law. However, “the introduction of the bill does also stage a grand legislation war,” Anti concludes.

Written by Weiping Li · comments (18)
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According to local report in June 2011, the blogger Miss Lau is a restaurant, public service critic. She also writes comment on internal design and lifestyle. The “defamatory” food critics was written back in July 2008 in which she commented upon the environment and food quality of a beef noodle shop in Taichung city. The post says “the food is too salty, there is cockroaches in the shop, not very hygienic. Moreover, the owner allows its customers to have parallel parking outside the shop, acting like local thug.

In the first trial (in early 2010), the district court stated that Lau's comment is not fair and sentenced her to 30 days imprisonment. In her appeal, she defended that her comment on the taste of the food was based upon her experience while her comment on the restaurant's environment was based upon facts. However, as the local government's hygiene control authority had not found any cockroach in the noodle shop, the court decided that Lau's defense is ungrounded. The higher district court suggested a settlement deal between the two parties and eventually Miss Lau had to apologize to the noodle shop and pay a TWD200,000 compensation. In return, she got a 2 year probation for the 30 day detention.

Written by Oiwan Lam · comments (9)
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“Freedom of speech and press are among the most lauded achievements of Taiwan’s democratic transition since martial law was lifted more than two decades ago. Yet many observers say that the glitter of the island republic’s free press has been overrated, especially in a highly commercialized news culture that is both deeply partisan and prey to political favors. For the past two years Freedom House has downgraded Taiwan’s rating in its annual report on global press freedom.”

Blogger Shu Flies, Taiwanese American expatriate living in Taipei, says that press freedom is being curtailed in the country through various laws. She writes about The Children and Youth Welfare Act and the loopholes that could land a well meaning journalist in trouble.

Writer He Qinglian, in an opinion piece at The Epoch Times, blames “Red Infiltration” for growing curtails in the Taiwanese media,

“Unfortunately, under the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) “red” infiltration, some of Taiwan’s mainstream media have not only failed to support Taiwan’s political independence, but have become cheerleaders for Beijing.

One prominent example is Taiwan’s media giant China Times Group. In 2008 it was taken over by Tsai Eng Meng, chairman of Want Want Group, who previously invested billions of dollars in China. Now China Times only covers positive news about China and almost never cover negative news, such as the CCP’s human rights violations.”

Whether Beijing is involved in regulating media scene in Taiwan is up for debate and may never be completely answered, but the role of Taiwan's government cannot be ignored-although it does seem convenient to dump all the blame to China.

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According to Frank Hsieh, human rights lawyer and leader of DPP, pointed out that unless the court deems it necessary for criminal investigations, it is illegal for the police to breach Plurkers’ privacy.

However, it has been an usual practice for the Taiwanese police to ask websites for user IP information. In fact, upon the inquiry of a DPP Taipei city councilor, the police confirmed that they on average would make about 10 inquiries to Plurk every month. Since Alvin Poon is not a local Taiwanese and Plurk server is in North America, he did not comply to the police's demand. However, some websites, such as the PTT bulletin board system, in Taiwan are “cooperative” with the police and give the user information to the police without any court order.

Since the case has been widely reported in the mainstream media, webmasters and users would be more aware of the privacy issue.

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I have just announced the launching of Info-Rhizome: Report on Independent Media in the Chinese-speaking World at interlocals.net. Individual can download free copy from here.

The book is consisted of reports on the development of independent media in four regions: China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Taiwan, with special focus on regulation and control and citizen initiatives in counteracting information manipulation and media monopoly. Below a some quotes taken from our introduction:

Hu Yong: Audience revolt is a consequence of a legitimacy crisis in journalism… We thus see the emergence of new and decentralised forms of citizen engagement in government monitoring, political discussion, and agenda framing. In a word, “the previous audiences” have now become potential contributors to political dialogue, and potential actors, in the political scene.

Rebecca MacKinnon: How can independent media communities a across the Chinese-speaking world share experiences, support, and promote one another? …Will Asia's Chinese-language independent media largely focus inwards on their local communities and polities? Or can some transcend the nation-state and bring together various like-minded Chinese-speaking communities formed around interests or beliefs? What will then be the implications?

Feng Chien-san: In order to proclaim our media independent and alternative, we first need to equip ourselves with the spirit of Sisyphus and believe that, one day, we too will reclaim the sea and move the mountain. At the same time, we need to be prepared to penetrate the mainstream through both guerrilla and regular warfare, hand-in-hand like Ying and Yang, in both dream and in reality.

More information can be found here. All revenue generated from this book will be used to sustain interlocals.net and research publication on media activism. So you may consider ordering a printed copy for your affiliating organizations or institution to support the work.

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The report pointed out that there are two major kind of filters in Hong Kong, one is based on keyword filtering, another one is based on black list. The former will censor away academic and useful information on sex education and health care while the latter will be affected by majority's bias, especially towards sexual minority. A major lesbian forum, blur-f.com, was forced to close down by local ISP even though there isn't even a single nude photos on the websites.

Leslovestudy urges the government not to implement mandatory filtering service at the ISP level and should not subsidy private sector for developing and marketing client-end filters as there isn't any mechanism for monitoring abusive filters provided by private companies.

Leslovestudy chose a number of local and overseas LGBT community websites, as well as academic websites on LGBT and sexuality issues to test the filters. Below is the outcome:

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