Twitch Streaming Banned In China After Gaining Popularity

[Lucian Armasu]

The Chinese government blocked Twitch streaming in the country without warning or a reason for the blocking. The move came after the service saw a recent surge in popularity.

Twitch Streaming Banned In China After Gaining Popularity : Read more

 

[BulkZerker]

Might it have something to do with it being a site that openly promotes and celebrates something the Chinese government has a problem with directly? Or os it that it promotes and even celebrates so ethic g the Chinese government have a priblem with directly that is not the awnser to the first question?
Maybe it's goes soe.thing to do with the Chinese peoe not spending ding their money "in house" too...

 

[poopflinger]

[quotemsg=21340017,0,367869]Might it have something to do with it being a site that openly promotes and celebrates something the Chinese government has a problem with directly? Or os it that it promotes and even celebrates so ethic g the Chinese government have a priblem with directly that is not the awnser to the first question?
Maybe it's goes soe.thing to do with the Chinese peoe not spending ding their money "in house" too...[/quotemsg]

The last point you made seems like it could be very likely. I find it ironic that the Chinese are ok taking all the American money through selling us goods, but they aren't ok with Americans taking Chinese money through a streaming service. They truly are trying to dominate the world economy. Fine, they don't get to watch Americans streaming the games they are playing on Chinese manufactured hardware. That will only hurt their ability to sell even more hardware.

 

[CerianK]

In this case, I'm guessing that it has more to do with the Chinese govt trying to control any additional sources of Internet addiction that they deem time-wasters.

I've noticed that with my high-school aged kids, some of the time they spend on Twitch or playing PoE is not spare time... it eats into time they should be doing homework. It is tough for me to tolerate that behavior, and by definition, the Chinese govt is a parent to all of the Chinese people, thus might take action affecting everyone to try an ensure benefit for school-work.

There might be other reasons, but if the above is the case, they will likely fail to attain that goal.

 

[bit_user]

[quotemsg=21340017,0,367869]Might it have something to do with it being a site that openly promotes and celebrates something the Chinese government has a problem with directly?[/quotemsg]
Well, live video streaming is still quite difficult to censor. So, it could be used as a platform for spreading "dangerous" ideas.

 

[Christopher1]

CERIANK, homework is busywork. The local schools where I live phased out homework a long time ago after parental outcries because if the children got 'stuck' in the homework, their parents usually could not help them because they did not understand the homework in question.
So they simply said "No more homework!" and it has worked well. Student graduation rates have not dropped and grade point average have actually gone up not down.

 

[CerianK]

[quotemsg=21340453,0,75395]CERIANK, homework is busywork...[/quotemsg]
I agree for some classes. However, here, my oldest kid got booted out of an AP Lit class when school started because he hadn't done the required Summer reading. As far as AP Calculus goes, you're right, I took it too long ago to be of much help. However, I recall enough about Calculus to know that you cannot possibly master the material without doing homework (though for AP, you don't have to turn it in... just pass the tests). Long-story-short, lacking good mastery of time-management, he will not likely get into MIT, which was a target-school, but now only a reach-school.

To get back on track, having spent some time in China, I have a fair understanding of the intense pressure kids are under there to compete... and their government tries to maintain that pressure. Here in my state, I used to work with advising educational policy in regard to video telecourses and online learning... long before anyone had an idea that Internet/screen addiction would become a 'thing'. I see the effect of this unintended consequence in my current job, where I am one of the few that has sufficient discipline and attention span to perform certain tasks that I would consider to be basic entry-level. I'm hoping the downward-trend doesn't continue, but unlike China, still believe that the 'cream rises to the top' and government trying to force it to the top is a fool's errand which will (and already does) have other unintended consequences.

 

[henrygates3]

Communism.

 

[bit_user]

[quotemsg=21340938,0,2755474][strike]Communism.[/strike] authoritarianism[/quotemsg]
Modern-day China is Communist in name only.

 

[andrew.maizels]

"Unexpected."

It's China. This is what they DO.

 

[gggplaya]

[quotemsg=21340259,0,198000]In this case, I'm guessing that it has more to do with the Chinese govt trying to control any additional sources of Internet addiction that they deem time-wasters.

I've noticed that with my high-school aged kids, some of the time they spend on Twitch or playing PoE is not spare time... it eats into time they should be doing homework. It is tough for me to tolerate that behavior, and by definition, the Chinese govt is a parent to all of the Chinese people, thus might take action affecting everyone to try an ensure benefit for school-work.

There might be other reasons, but if the above is the case, they will likely fail to attain that goal.[/quotemsg]

My Asus Router has parental controls built in. You can Lock MAC addresses to time blocks of when they can have internet access. That way you can set it for say 7pm to 10pm so they aren't playing video games when you're not home. They have the choice of either playing outside or working on homework.

[quotemsg=21340453,0,75395]CERIANK, homework is busywork. The local schools where I live phased out homework a long time ago after parental outcries because if the children got 'stuck' in the homework, their parents usually could not help them because they did not understand the homework in question.
So they simply said "No more homework!" and it has worked well. Student graduation rates have not dropped and grade point average have actually gone up not down.[/quotemsg]

I don't agree with them doing this. My son's elementary school does this and I still make him do some course work at home. People learn differently, and I didn't get much from classroom time, especially with math. I had to actually go through the problems and work them out for myself to understand them. Especially with AP Calculus and Physics.

 

[dr.allan]

But But But... i thought Gov controlling internet to stop ISPs from taking away freedom of content was a good thing. Surely this very censorship can't be happening by the Gov's program similar to Muh Net Neutrality. But hey it will be different here! Because "Neutrality" is in the name right guys? Giving gov control without oversight is ok as long as you give it a catchy name. Irony is, people see the end result and do NOT want that to happen here, yet they want gov programs like Net Neutrality.

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result"

 

[sw.testare]

Perfect use case for blockchain based services like BitTube.
Decentralized so it can't be blocked.
https://bit.tube/dashboard

 

[caustin582]

[quotemsg=21347546,0,2770111]But But But... i thought Gov controlling internet to stop ISPs from taking away freedom of content was a good thing. Surely this very censorship can't be happening by the Gov's program similar to Muh Net Neutrality. But hey it will be different here! Because "Neutrality" is in the name right guys? Giving gov control without oversight is ok as long as you give it a catchy name. Irony is, people see the end result and do NOT want that to happen here, yet they want gov programs like Net Neutrality.

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result"[/quotemsg]

It has nothing to do with the name and everything to do with the actual language of the law. You are comparing two completely different things. Please try to develop an opinion on this issue that is at least slightly more nuanced than "government doing literally anything = bad."

 

[bit_user]

[quotemsg=21347968,0,2803778]Perfect use case for blockchain based services like BitTube.
Decentralized so it can't be blocked.
https://bit.tube/dashboard[/quotemsg]
I'm sure, they can block blockchain-based apps, if they really wanted to. They can also block the sites hosting the actual video files (blockchain can't hold video data - only links).

I guess if you run it over Tor, they can't block it. But they can block Tor.

 

[dr.allan]

[quotemsg=21348115,0,300537][quotemsg=21347546,0,2770111]But But But... i thought Gov controlling internet to stop ISPs from taking away freedom of content was a good thing. Surely this very censorship can't be happening by the Gov's program similar to Muh Net Neutrality. But hey it will be different here! Because "Neutrality" is in the name right guys? Giving gov control without oversight is ok as long as you give it a catchy name. Irony is, people see the end result and do NOT want that to happen here, yet they want gov programs like Net Neutrality.

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result"[/quotemsg]

It has nothing to do with the name and everything to do with the actual language of the law. You are comparing two completely different things. Please try to develop an opinion on this issue that is at least slightly more nuanced than "government doing literally anything = bad."[/quotemsg]

Hold up there, Professor. Its not exactly an Apples to Oranges comparison now is it? This censorship is the direct result
of the path that Gov censorship takes. Every time. 100% without fail. Its a matter of (or lack of) accountability. The Chinese gov is not accountable to anyone. Least, it's own people. And the name? The name is just a name, but names like that have been used for more than 100 years to get idiots onboard that do not actually look into what they vote for or virtue signalers that like to hop on a bandwagon.

I do have an idea why China Gov would do such a thing heavily influenced by internal economics and possibly messaging and the exposure that twitch can introduce. Yeah, a 5 year old can google multiple sources and put this together. not rocket science. "The letter of the law" lol.

Boiling down my statement to "government doing literally anything = bad." and trying to attack the manner in which I made the statement as missing 'nuance' makes you look like an ivory tower prat with no actual rebuttal. I would recommend you stop getting your political insights from (I'm guessing) Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and Trevor Noah unless straw-man is your only means or 'debate'.

 

[caustin582]

[quotemsg=21349918,0,2770111]
Hold up there, Professor. Its not exactly an Apples to Oranges comparison now is it? This censorship is the direct result
of the path that Gov censorship takes. Every time. 100% without fail. Its a matter of (or lack of) accountability. The Chinese gov is not accountable to anyone. Least, it's own people. And the name? The name is just a name, but names like that have been used for more than 100 years to get idiots onboard that do not actually look into what they vote for or virtue signalers that like to hop on a bandwagon.

I do have an idea why China Gov would do such a thing heavily influenced by internal economics and possibly messaging and the exposure that twitch can introduce. Yeah, a 5 year old can google multiple sources and put this together. not rocket science. "The letter of the law" lol.

Boiling down my statement to "government doing literally anything = bad." and trying to attack the manner in which I made the statement as missing 'nuance' makes you look like an ivory tower prat with no actual rebuttal. I would recommend you stop getting your political insights from (I'm guessing) Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and Trevor Noah unless straw-man is your only means or 'debate'.[/quotemsg]

Nice guesses, but no, I don't watch or listen to any of those people.

"This censorship is the direct result of the path that Gov censorship takes. Every time. 100% without fail."

So censorship is the direct result of censorship? That's quite an insight, but the point here is that net neutrality is not censorship in the first place. In fact it's pretty much the opposite of censorship, and you'd have to do some huge mental gymnastics to twist the issue that way. Please, point out one instance of net neutrality laws, when they were in effect, enabling the government to censor internet content in ways that it otherwise couldn't. Hell, go ahead and read up on the laws and try to provide me with even a *theoretical* example of how they would do that.

So yes, it is completely an apples to oranges comparison (even calling it that feels charitable). The only things these two issues have in common are "government" and "internet" which apparently is some kind of trigger for certain people. Your entire argument is founded on a vague cliche in the form of something turning out the same way "100%" of the time because of a couple highly abstract similarities.

 

[bit_user]

[quotemsg=21349918,0,2770111]Boiling down my statement to "government doing literally anything = bad." and trying to attack the manner in which I made the statement as missing 'nuance' makes you look like an ivory tower prat with no actual rebuttal.[/quotemsg]
Given that your original post lacked any factual evidence that net neutrality posed such risks and basically read like an allergic reaction to government having anything to do with the internet, it didn't strike me as an unreasonable inference. A bit harsh, but I wouldn't say unfounded.

Furthermore, such baseless claims as those in your original post give the impression you have some sort of vested interest against net neutrality.

Finally, responding with insults and vitriol only serves to undermine any legitimate case you might have.