Cloudy Chinese word processor vendor denies deleting defiant docs
(2022/07/12)
- Reference: 1657598532
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/07/12/kingsoft_wps_denies_document_deletions/
- Source link:
Chinese productivity software vendor Kingsoft has denied that it deletes documents that contain content that might displease Beijing.
China routinely cleanses social media of any commentary that represents opposition to government policy or contains hashtags associated with protest. In recent weeks, posts that [1]complained about conditions during Shanghai's lengthy COVID-19 lockdowns mysteriously disappeared, as did posts about the [2]enormous data leak from Shanghai Police.
Inspection and deletion of documents created with Chinese software and stored in the cloud would represent a new level of surveillance and censorhship.
[3]
Yet a [4]post to China's Twitter analog Sina Weibo claimed that documents created with Chinese word processor WPS were disappearing from the cloud. The post suggested that China's creative community feels its works have been targeted, and that manuscripts are at risk of arbitrary deletion.
China plans laws for 'healthy' development of tech companies [5]READ MORE
Kingsoft, the developer of WPS, took to Weibo to [6]rebut the allegation .
Machine translation of the post suggests WPS has denied deleting documents, but admitted to disabling links to documents created by users suspected of violating its terms of service.
[7]
[8]
That explanation falls well short of ruling out the prospect that the documents in question have angered Beijing's censors. Nor does it explain how Kingsoft decided to block access to the documents in question.
Kingsoft's post does state that the company "has always put user experience and user privacy protection first." The post adds that the company reserves the right to legal action in this case.
[9]UK response to China's tech ambitions labelled 'incoherent and muted'
[10]How data on a billion people may have leaked from a Chinese police dashboard
[11]Florida man accused of selling fake, broken Cisco devices from China to hospitals, schools, military
Beijing has a beef with many types of content, including depictions of "niangpao" – the kind of chap you'd find in a boy band wearing fashionable clothes that don't conform to male stereotypes – [12]suggestive karaoke , [13]fan clubs that get too fevered , and the [14]spiritual opium that is computer games .
If creators feel their work is being surveilled once saved, the chilling effect will be considerable.
[15]
Beijing may not mind if the result is that more literature and filmed drama cleaves to its definition of patriotism.
But China's citizens do mind – especially twenty-somethings who in recent weeks have begun to use the term "last generation" to express their despair at their long working hours and the high cost of living making it unlikely they will ever afford to settle down and start a family.
China's state-controlled press has a different take: [16]insisting that youth adore China and no longer see the temptations of the West as desirable or appropriate. ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/11/lockedin_and_hungry_shanghai_residents/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/05/shanghai_police_database_for_sell/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Ys1GQ4OfLIhgrYB2E6lNJQAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://m.weibo.cn/status/4789972677428933#&gid=1&pid=1
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/12/china_new_rule_of_law_plan/
[6] https://m.weibo.cn/status/4790069371864917
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Ys1GQ4OfLIhgrYB2E6lNJQAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Ys1GQ4OfLIhgrYB2E6lNJQAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/11/tech_and_uk_foreign_policy/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/10/stolen_shanghai_police_data/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/08/cisco_china_import_charges/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/12/china_karaoke_and_drinking_crackdowns/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/16/china_cyberbullying_fan_quan_crackdown/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/04/china_gaming_spiritual_opium/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Ys1GQ4OfLIhgrYB2E6lNJQAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202207/1270042.shtml
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
China routinely cleanses social media of any commentary that represents opposition to government policy or contains hashtags associated with protest. In recent weeks, posts that [1]complained about conditions during Shanghai's lengthy COVID-19 lockdowns mysteriously disappeared, as did posts about the [2]enormous data leak from Shanghai Police.
Inspection and deletion of documents created with Chinese software and stored in the cloud would represent a new level of surveillance and censorhship.
[3]
Yet a [4]post to China's Twitter analog Sina Weibo claimed that documents created with Chinese word processor WPS were disappearing from the cloud. The post suggested that China's creative community feels its works have been targeted, and that manuscripts are at risk of arbitrary deletion.
China plans laws for 'healthy' development of tech companies [5]READ MORE
Kingsoft, the developer of WPS, took to Weibo to [6]rebut the allegation .
Machine translation of the post suggests WPS has denied deleting documents, but admitted to disabling links to documents created by users suspected of violating its terms of service.
[7]
[8]
That explanation falls well short of ruling out the prospect that the documents in question have angered Beijing's censors. Nor does it explain how Kingsoft decided to block access to the documents in question.
Kingsoft's post does state that the company "has always put user experience and user privacy protection first." The post adds that the company reserves the right to legal action in this case.
[9]UK response to China's tech ambitions labelled 'incoherent and muted'
[10]How data on a billion people may have leaked from a Chinese police dashboard
[11]Florida man accused of selling fake, broken Cisco devices from China to hospitals, schools, military
Beijing has a beef with many types of content, including depictions of "niangpao" – the kind of chap you'd find in a boy band wearing fashionable clothes that don't conform to male stereotypes – [12]suggestive karaoke , [13]fan clubs that get too fevered , and the [14]spiritual opium that is computer games .
If creators feel their work is being surveilled once saved, the chilling effect will be considerable.
[15]
Beijing may not mind if the result is that more literature and filmed drama cleaves to its definition of patriotism.
But China's citizens do mind – especially twenty-somethings who in recent weeks have begun to use the term "last generation" to express their despair at their long working hours and the high cost of living making it unlikely they will ever afford to settle down and start a family.
China's state-controlled press has a different take: [16]insisting that youth adore China and no longer see the temptations of the West as desirable or appropriate. ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/11/lockedin_and_hungry_shanghai_residents/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/05/shanghai_police_database_for_sell/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Ys1GQ4OfLIhgrYB2E6lNJQAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://m.weibo.cn/status/4789972677428933#&gid=1&pid=1
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/12/china_new_rule_of_law_plan/
[6] https://m.weibo.cn/status/4790069371864917
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Ys1GQ4OfLIhgrYB2E6lNJQAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Ys1GQ4OfLIhgrYB2E6lNJQAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/11/tech_and_uk_foreign_policy/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/10/stolen_shanghai_police_data/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/08/cisco_china_import_charges/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/12/china_karaoke_and_drinking_crackdowns/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/16/china_cyberbullying_fan_quan_crackdown/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/04/china_gaming_spiritual_opium/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Ys1GQ4OfLIhgrYB2E6lNJQAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202207/1270042.shtml
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Anonymous Coward
Your censors will be looking for un-british thought, to whit: Failure to winge. Not being sufficiently critical of your betters. Suspicious praising of the government and national health.
Paul Crawford
Don't forget an unpatriotic lack of interest in the weather.
There is zero reason to store your documents in a cloud.
Imagines a Pritti Patel Policeman reading your every word for signs of dissent. Do you want that? No. Then why store your documents in a cloud with a "security and law enforcement" catch all surveillance clause? A clause routinely abused for mass surveillance.
This is especially true, right now, of Parliament data. It should not be in the cloud in Ireland.
The Chinese oppression is a cautionary lesson, not an ideas board.