I posted about the Urumqi riots and today the post has gone.

Danmairen also posted but it never appeared.

Does GoKunming censor/delete posts on current affairs now?

Just saw a long report on the riots on CCTV9. Report might be the wrong word,, it was basically one long queue of muslims (hui), government officials, overseas Chinese and anyone else they could drum up condemning the seperatists and telling everyone how peaceful Islam is while montages of happy people in Xinjiang and at the factory in Guangdong were displayed. Save that for the CCTV Chinese channels please.

Maybe y'all noticed that Facebook and Danwei.org were blocked this week. The same could easily happen to Gokunming.

GoKunming definitely has someone deleting posts, not only on current affairs. Yesterday, I posted about a volunteer opportunity in Kunming under announcement, and today it is deleted.

Its rather strange, as I wouldn't think it would be the target of GoKunming censorship.

@piers

GoKunming is a site about Kunming and Yunnan. As moonpie alludes to, GoKunming wishes to stay unblocked, and feels that it has a duty to its community and its advertisers in this regard. There are more appropriate places to discuss contentious subjects.

@jia.volunteers

You ad remains up in the appropriate part of the site: www.gokunming.com/en/classifieds/folder/2/jobs_offered Please don't spam GoKunming.

@ Matthew

I take your point about the site's focus and duty to advertisers. I do feel that major events in China do warrant attention and should be permitted to be discussed on the GK fora. The events have been extensively covered in Chinese media and, thus far, it seems there is a fairly large contingent of western journalists still present in Xinjiang covering the story.

When I last saw the thread before it was deleted there was no hint of any contentious or controversial ideas or opinions just people providing links to stories and expressing amazement at the events.

A website that deliberately and openly courts controversy in China probably deserves to be shut down. But one that avoids any issue for fear of any hint of controversy at all can hardly be fulfilling its duty to its community either.

A dilemma for Gokunming: side with openness and apparent justice, or stay in business for the time being. Profit quietly triumphs morality for all but the most ascetic. All we foreigners working here in China are guilty of similar, if lesser, hypocrisy, except perhaps for some pure (if misguided) missionaries, or any statist communist or any amoral Gordon Gecko look-out-for-number-one types.

I think Piers is right: Gokunming should not allow itself to be a platform for blatant political advocacy, but should not delete posts that merely link to news sources. Doing so seems like gratefully bending over to appease and serve the Chinese state, in more ways than one.

I hasten to add that I don't want to see Gokunming shut down. It has a legitimate reason for deleting the so-called offending posts. But perhaps it was just too willing to censor seemingly very mild posts?

I like GoKunming as it is. I get World News on Fox News (Internet), BBC, Australia News, CNN - - and China Daily News. I see no reason for GoKunming to put themselves in "harms way" to satisfy a few locals who want to mouth off.

If y'all want a "contentious" type site - - why not start one?
JJ

Anyone living in Kunming or China, in my opinion, most definitely should have an opinion about the recent events in Xinjiang. I didn't see the removed posts but in terms of any comments left on this site relevant to these events, be they angry or contentious or simple amazement, I think its a cop-out to call them 'mouthing off'. Our reactions should be strong! Disinterest and mildness should be shaken out of people, I'm sick of it! Where is the revolution or common empathy and real concern as a global citizen?
That said, JJ has a point- if this is our only forum, a website that serves many purposes including commercial, then we as a community hold the responsibility for creating something more appropriate, not Gokunming.

One article about the Green Dam Censorware commented in amazement that blogger reactions had been epic enough to stop government plans for it. All that says to me is that this country can muster enough common citizen-voiced complaints about having porn screened from their computers to stop a high-profile, bad policy in its tracks but environmental issues or human rights in no way share that level of attention or concern from people. In my opinion, until big issues like these protests get more honest critical attention, the louder people shout the better.