Problem-solution essay draft 4
Social media has become an essential ingredient of the lifestyle in China; people depend heavily on social media for almost everything; for example, the exchange of information. Because of the broadness of social media, information shared by a single internet user can spread throughout the whole world in the blink of an eye. It definitely benefits users with the speed and range in which information can be accessed. This is vastly superior to the capacities of the past. It is not an exaggeration to say that the fast pace of development in today’s China depends heavily on social media. However, social media, like all other advanced technologies, not only brings advantages, but at the same time also brings about disadvantages to the country. An example of this disadvantage is the circulation of false information. Due to the circulation of false information, which can lead to serious problems like social unrest, it is necessary for the Chinese government to take up measures in order to control the accessibility of social media.
Technology generally acts as a double-edged sword. It depends on how the user goes about using it. China, being the country with the largest population in the world, faces daunting obstacles in trying to effectively control the information flow online to and from the citizens or even the world. Hence, there are plenty of incidents where circulation of false information has caused chaos in the country. False information includes disaster warnings, war/terrorism reports or even false reports of the deaths of top Chinese officials (Chen, , 2014). These fear-mongering scares have caused not only horror among the citizens, but also may drive citizens to desperate actions out of fear. False information has the capacity to be an extremely harmful influence, which means that the Chinese government has to come up with measures to halt the circulation of such attempts.
The circulation of false information travels fast in China, despite China’s large population. One reason might be that because these false reports touch on issues of common concern of the people, for example, economic and political development, environmental issues, food safety or corruption. The people are very likely to come across this information through regular web usage. Some Citizens don’t have the proper channels or resources quickly available to check the validity of all the information read, but due to the perceived importance of these reports, they quickly incite anger among citizens; this is the root for social unrest.
The Chinese government has come up with several measures to counter the problem. One of them is to improve and tighten internet security and they go about this by introducing censorship programs. In addition, China has even formed a new cyber-security group, led by minister Xi JingPing .( Mozur, 2014).* Moreover, China is currently developing 40,000 strong police officer force to monitor internet traffic and to prevent the circulation of false information on social media. To do so, they work day and night to scan through information uploaded on social media websites, deleting any misinformation they find and arresting the person spreading the false information .( Hedberg. 2012). For example, to monitor a well-used social media website in China, Micro
blog, China’s government hired two million people to control the content flowing within the social media site everyday, in order to detect and remove all content that could possibly lead to social unrest .(Hunt & Xu, 2013). However, it was not that effective. Because internet has too many ways to deliver information, it is hard for the security personnel to control every sliver of information that is delivered online. Two millions sounds like a large number, but against the number of social media users in China and throughout the world, it is largely ineffective.
The second measure that has been implemented by the Chinese government is to limit accessibility to social media for all users in the country. Foreign social media sites in China are becoming more and more difficult to access. Most of the foreign social media sites are banned by the government. For example, Twitter and Facebook were both banned after a deadly riot happened in Xin Jiang, which was sparked by the rumors floating around those mediums .(Wauters, 2009). To prevent this sort of event from happening again, China’s government has to effectively limit the damage done by the foreign countries circulating false information that can compromise China’s security. Moreover, the government works together with big local companies like Qianlong, Sogou, Sohu, Netease, Baidu and Sina Weibo microblogging services to control the information that is uploaded by their users, effectively limiting the possibility of the circulation of false information online.(Phneah, 2013). However, it may not be effective, as tools such as tunneling websites can be used by users to break though or bypass the firewalls set up by the government.
It is clear that the circulation of false information has become a serious problem in China. Circulation of false information in social media will not only affect an individual’s life or just the local population. Although the government has employed several measures to counter the problem, these were not enough to solve the problem. As we can see, there is still a long way for China government to progress in order to solve the problem. It is very much a worldwide issue that all countries must pay attention to. It is possible the reason for next world war may very well start with a widespread false rumor online.
