User:Kaylam7/sandbox

Hi it's Kayla. This is my user sandbox.

For my class at the University of Washington I will be editing the Big mama (relating to censorship in China) article. I plan to contribute more information on what Big Mamas are and what they do as well as a section on technology, why they are 'needed'/their purpose, history- how and why they came about, discourse- language around big mamas/stories and the impact, companies who use Big Mama's and some examples.

Draft of Big mama article:

Big mama

Big mamas are human censors and moderators on different online platforms who remove politically sensitive information, comments and postings on news forums and chatrooms. The Chinese government also has a team of censors and internet police to monitor internet content, however it is not possible for them to control the whole internet. Yale Global calls all Chinese censors, including the internet police, big mama's. However, big mama's are generally understood as censors working in the private sector. Private sector companies have a market interest to self-censor their websites and users comments to fall in line with the Chinese government’s internet goals, economic and industrial Chinese development. Private companies use many technologies to censor themselves and their users, one of which is hiring teams, called big mamas, of computer workers and programmers to censor the content of website forums, chatrooms, comment sections and bulletin board systems. Big mamas are prevalent across many companies and have led to a larger discourse on censorship.

Technology

A study of the site Sina Weibo, a microblogging site, was conducted by BBC to see how quickly censors removed material and gain insight about big mamas. The study concluded many things including that those who are censored often are censored at a faster rate. Around 90% of politically risky content is removed in the first 24 hours, 5% within 8 minutes and 30% in the first half and hour. It also concluded just for the site Sina Weibo, a social media platform, there would have to be at least 4,000 monitors if none of the process was automated. The job of big mama’s is becoming more automated as technology becomes more advanced.

China has allowed foreign companies to be part of the market and has relied on foreign technologies and companies to maintain censorship. 

Example

China has allowed foreign companies to invest and be part of the Chinese internet. In order to maintain a piece of the market these foreign companies, like Yahoo, follow Chinese censorship regulations, often by hiring big mamas to monitor bulletin board content.

Yahoo is the most common example of a private company in China that uses big mamas. The chatrooms are censored in real time; when someone posts a politically risky comment big mamas send them an email warning from Yahoo and their post cannot be seen by others. Yahoo in 2002 signed a Public Pledge on Self-discipline (known as The Pledge) promising to regulate chatrooms in line with the Chinese governments laws and regulations. Approximately 300 other companies signed this pledge, many of which also use big mamas and other technologies to censor users and information. All chatrooms and bulletin board systems and news agencies in Chinese cyberspace have a big mama that decide what content is acceptable and what content needs removed.

Self-Censorship

The role of big mamas can be compared to the US concept of Big Brother. The pressure of self-regulation on private web companies from the government and market encourages them to self-censor and censor their users. The Pledge is an example of self-discipline and censorship that has been codified and signed by many web companies in China. The Pledge promised to remove harmful information from the internet.

The censorship by companies of their chatrooms and bulletin boards has led their users to censor themselves to avoid being censored or punished. Lokman Tsui, who has written about Big mamas, calls this concept the Digital Panopticon. Every level of a network regulates itself and censors the level below; this works all the way down to big mamas who moderate chatrooms down to users who regulate each-other’s behavior.

Big mama has created a discourse of self-censorship and control; as Lokman Tsui wrote “Big Mama is watching you”. When users censor themselves at a smaller level it is more effective than direct censorship from the top. Big mamas have led to both societal and self censorship that is beyond government controlled top down censorship.

Annotated Bibliography

Here is my bibliography for the article. I had a hard time finding sources with substantial information. Any suggestions would be great!

Boas, Taylor. "Weaving the Authoritarian Web." Current History 103.677, 438-43, 2004.

http://people.bu.edu/tboas/currenthistory.pdf

• This article describes how China, as an example of an authoritarian regime, censors and controls the internet not just directly but especially in the case of China through indirect institutional constraints. China has pressure on websites/companies/intermediaries so that they censor themselves, their content and their users. One form of this censorship is big mamas who screen posts and chat rooms. I will use this article to contextualize big mamas within the story of censorship in china and how different levels of censorship work.

Damm, Jens. “The Internet and the Fragmentation of Chinese Society”. Critical Asian Studies, 39:2,

273-294, 12 July 2007.   http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14672710701339485

• This article talks about the discourse around internet and censorship from the viewpoint of the West and their idea of a strict controlling China as well as the viewpoint of the Chinese authorities and their idea of the purpose of the internet. I will use this article to discuss the language used around internet censorship and concerning Big Mamas. The term Big Mama is like big brother and encourages people to censor themselves thinking that someone is always watching. This will be added to the language section of the article.

Farrell, Kristen. "The Big Mamas are Watching: China's Censorship of the Internet and the Strain on

Freedom of Expression." Michigan State Journal of International Law 15.3, 577-604, 2007.

• (this source is restricted access but I include it for now) This article in detail describes levels of internet censorship in china including the use of big mamas by companies like Yahoo!  It talks about how big mamas censor content and examples. I will use this for general information on how internet censorship works, how big mamas fit in, and to provide example uses of big mamas (Yahoo!).

Green, Jonathon, and Nicholas J. Karolides. Encyclopedia Of Censorship. New York: Facts on File, Inc, 2005. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 10 Nov. 2016.

• This encyclopedia has a section on internet censorship in China that talks about self discipline programs like The Pledge in China.

Mooney, Paul. “China’s ‘Big Mamas’ in a Quandary”. Yale Global, 12 April, 2004.

http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/chinas-%E2%80%98big-mamas-quandary

• This article talks about big mamas as being all Chinese censors. This provides a larger picture of Big Mama like the concept of Big Brother. This article talks about the role of Chinese censors in a new time with growing amounts of netizens/hacktivists who protest and get around censors. I will use this to discuss big mamas as a larger picture idea and its role in censorship as the use of the internet changes and impacts Chinese politics.

News, BBC. "The Astonishing Speed of Chinese Censorship." BBC News. N.p., 27 Mar. 2013.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-21743499

• This article does not mention big mamas specifically but talks censors and about the process of what a big mama would do and how quickly posts get taken down. It provides some findings on those who monitor and censor sites as well as statistics about removal of content and how many censors would need to be employed to keep up with their job. I will use this to provide information on how big mamas work, more information about them and their job, how efficient they are and some findings.

Sinclair, Gregory. “The Internet in China: Information Revolution or Authoritarian Solution?”.

Dissertation, University of Leeds, May 2002.

• This paper discusses internet censorship in China broadly, technologies of censorship, the Great firewall, and foreign companies’ role in censorship in China. The article mentions that the job of big mamas has begun to be more automated. It also talks specifically about the Yahoo example. I will use this article to discuss the Yahoo example in depth and the role of foreign companies in Chinese censorship.

Tsui, Lokman. “Internet opening up China: Fact or Fiction?”. Media in Transition: Globalization &

Convergence Conference, Boston MA, May 2002. http://cmsw.mit.edu/mit2/Abstracts/LOKMANTSUI.pdf

• This article talks about censorship from the government versus self-policing. It references the idea of Panopticon. I will explain this concept. I will use the information in this article to talk about this self-regulation and the private sectors economic and political interest to censor itself in China.

Tsui, Lokman. “Internet in China: Big Mama is Watching You”.  Dissertation, University of Leiden,

July 2001. http://www.lokman.nu/thesis/010717-thesis.pdf

• This article talks about the legal, technical, social, and economic aspects of internet control in China. It talks about the role of big mamas in news and how every news agency has a team of moderators known as big mamas that censor content and how their role has a social impact since they decide what is acceptable. The other role big mamas play is the concept that someone is always watching and will censor content which leads to self and societal censorship. I will use this article as a basis for the role of big mamas.

Zhang, Yin, and Leung, Laifong. “Internet Control in China: A Digital Panopticon”. ProQuest

Dissertations and Theses, 2004.

• This article also talks about the legal technical social and economic aspects of Chinas control of the internet as well as its history and current state, punishment of violations, and more. It talks about how all chat rooms have big mamas and mentions Yahoo. I’ll use this to discuss the prevalence of big mamas.

United States. Report to Congress of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. 2008 110th

Congress, 2nd session, 291-310, 2008.

• This report talks broadly about censorship in China and the role of the US in its technology. It discusses the Golden Shield Project, the Great Firewall, and internet police. This includes the private sector and public institutions use of big mamas to monitor sites. I will use this to describe the role of the US and technology as well as provide context to the larger censorship project and how big mamas fit in to that.