{"id":1998,"date":"2014-07-05T16:11:57","date_gmt":"2014-07-05T16:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=1998"},"modified":"2014-07-05T16:11:57","modified_gmt":"2014-07-05T16:11:57","slug":"an-online-shift-in-china-muffles-an-open-forum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/an-online-shift-in-china-muffles-an-open-forum","title":{"rendered":"An Online Shift in China Muffles an Open Forum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #444444;line-height: 1.7\">By IAN JOHNSON JULY 4, 2014<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2014\/07\/05\/world\/CHINACHAT-1\/CHINACHAT-1-master675.jpg\" width=\"675\" height=\"412\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In recent months, Weibo has been eclipsed by WeChat, which allows instant messaging within self-selected circles of followers. Credit Sim Chi Yin for The New York Times<\/p>\n<p>BEIJING \u2014 For the past few years, social media in China<!--more--> has been dominated by the Twitter-like Sina Weibo, a microblogging service that created an online sphere of freewheeling public debate, incubating social change and at times even holding politicians accountable in a country where traditional media outlets are severely constrained.<\/p>\n<p>But in recent months, Weibo has been eclipsed by the Facebook-like WeChat, which allows instant messaging within self-selected circles of followers.<\/p>\n<p>The shift from public to semiprivate communication, accelerated by a government crackdown on Weibo, has fundamentally reordered the social media landscape for the country\u2019s 600 million Internet users, curbing what had been modern China\u2019s most open public forum.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a new phase for social media in China,\u201d said Hu Yong, a journalism professor at Peking University. \u201cIt is the decline of the first large-scale forum for information in China and the rise of something more narrowly focused.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>WeChat has its advantages and its defenders. It is less censored than Weibo, and some users say it allows them to speak more freely, knowing that their conversations are private. Many users relish its added functions, including voice messaging.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/07\/05\/world\/asia\/an-online-shift-in-china-muffles-an-open-forum.html?ref=world\" target=\"_blank\">For detail please visit here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By IAN JOHNSON JULY 4, 2014 In recent mo &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/an-online-shift-in-china-muffles-an-open-forum\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,110],"tags":[37,1343,1348,273],"views":1278,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1999,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998\/revisions\/1999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}