BBC Learning English
Words in the News
Monitoring microblogs

11 March 2013

Words in the News

© British Broadcasting Corporation 2013

Page 1 of 2

bbclearningenglish.com

If you write something politically sensitive on China's microblogs, or Weibo, how
quickly might it be deleted? Researchers in the United States have been looking
into the issue and found some surprising results. Viv Marsh reports for the BBC:

With more than half a billion Chinese online, and many of them avid
microbloggers, the speed of censorship uncovered on Sina Weibo is astonishing.
The researchers mined data on microblog comments removed by administrators,
and found that nearly a third of the deleted posts were taken down in the first 30
minutes.

Unsurprisingly, criticism of the government, local scandals and complaints about
China's one-child policy were blocked most quickly. But the team worked out that
if none of the process was automated, Sina Weibo would need to employ more
than 4,000 speed-reading censors a day, just to keep up.

The researchers uncovered a range of devices aimed at bringing bloggers into
line. They included: hiding posts from other users, flagging repeat offenders for
closer scrutiny, and tracking backwards to delete sensitive topics everywhere
they arose.

With China's media so strictly controlled, the study has raised questions about
why microblogs allow people to post before censorship at all. One of the
researchers, Professor Dan Wallach, told the BBC that Sina Weibo had to satisfy
government censorship requirements without seeming heavy-handed to its
bloggers. He said it had to walk a fine line.

Words in the News

© British Broadcasting Corporation 2013

Page 2 of 2

bbclearningenglish.com

Vocabulary and definitions

avid

extremely keen, enthusiastic and interested

censorship

deleting parts of books, films, newspapers, etc.
that are believed to be unsuitable

mined

found by searching carefully for a long time

scandals

situations in which important people behave in a
dishonest or immoral way that shocks a lot of
people

bringing bloggers into line

forcing bloggers to follow the rules

flagging

making a note of; highlighting something for
more attention

scrutiny

detailed and very close attention or examination

to satisfy

to please someone by giving them what they
want or need

heavy-handed

using too much force

to walk a fine line

to be very careful in finding the right balance

Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2013/03/130311_witn_china_microblogs.shtml

Related News story:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20857480