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Sina Weibo
China's Twitter
- Founded By: Unknown
- Blog: Unknown
- Twitter: Unknown
- Alexa Rank: 26,320
- Compete Rank: 15,575
- Known For:
Summary
Sina Weibo is a microblogging service. It is similar to Twitter and, in China, it is as popular as Twitter is popular in the United States. Even though there are many "weibo" (microblogging) services in China, Sina Weibo is by far the most influential of them, so usually "Weibo" means "Sina Weibo".
Because of Sina Weibo, information can travel so quickly that the Chinese internet censors cannot stop it before people all over the country learn of the news. This has rendered a blow to the Great Firewall and bureaucratic censorship in general. Weibo's a great way to check what Chinese people think about various issues, and it is perhaps the most "free" mode of discussion in China.
While Weibo has a 140 character limit, like Twitter, Chinese people can use fewer characters to say more. 140 Chinese characters is about 70 to 80 words, while 140 English characters is more or less one sentence, so Chinese people can use Weibo to say more. On top of that, Weibo lets people post videos and pictures directly on their microblogs, while they may not be posted directly on Twitter accounts.
Weibo has been used by Chinese people to expose corruption (yes, Weibo posts resulted in some Chinese politicians having to resign from office!!) and to promote various citizen campaigns.
When political controversies erupt, Weibo prevents searches of caustic terms (such as Bo Xilai, Wang Lijun, Neil (for Neil Haywood), etc.) to squelch discussion. But then Chinese people come up with clever ways of bypassing the filters by using code names ("Not thin" for Bo Xilai, or "tomato" for Chongqing) and use them until Weibo blocks those terms too.
Current status
Oh, boy! It's going along fine!
Facts
- Sina Weibo has censors who delete posts and even close accounts deemed troublesome
- After the Beijing city government decreed on December 16, 2011 that Weibo users should use real names, Sina Weibo is trying to make everyone use their real names, but it hasn't really been enforced. There's a fear that if that happens, it'll lose popularity and people will move to a new site
- People who had their accounts closed just make new ones. They join the "reincarnation party" - Accounts often state which "life" they are on (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc) as a way of pointing out the account deletion. It's been so well populated that the phrase "reincarnation party" even has an entry in Baidu Baike of all places!
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