China’s internet regulators have launched a campaign cracking down on puns and homophones, one of the last remaining ways for citizens to safely discuss sensitive subjects without recriminations or censorship.
“For some time, various internet jargons and memes have appeared frequently, leaving people more and more confused,” said an editorial by the Communist party mouthpiece, the People’s Daily
China’s online spaces are strictly monitored and censored. Some sensitive topics and terms are strictly banned, such as references to the Tiananmen massacre, or criticism of President Xi Jinping. Insulting individuals or China generally is also frowned upon.
In response, users have adapted, using funny or obscure references and in-jokes to get around the censorship. Many rely on homophones, using phrases that sound very similar in Mandarin, but were written with different Chinese characters, such as the word for “paratrooper” (sǎn bīng) instead of “idiot” (shǎ bī).
Crickets from the ML crowd
“This is western propaganda, actually everyone can write what they like. Furthermore censorship is necessary to keep capitalist lies out of the country, so being banned from criticizing the government is a good thing.”
They see nothing wrong with this because “it’s necessary in the short term”.
You know, like state capitalism!
Took me a moment to realize you weren’t talking about Machine Learning
Haha, that would make the sentence very confusing!