It looks like MySpace has finally made a move into China four days ago, with almost of all of its control in local hands  (i.e. with no direct connection to its overseas office). Furthermore, in a move that surprised no one, MySpace China has made moves to limit prohibit certain controversial topics of conversation.  What’s interesting is how its done so. [Since I don’t read Chinese, much of this information was gleaned from texyt who has done a great job covering the issue.]

1. On publicly available message boards and forums, certain topics just don’t exist — religion and politics, for example
2. There is a keyword filter to any searches, postings and comments, where trying to query a specific term, or post using a suspicious keyword will flag your post and tell you to “try again”.
3. (the most troubling) There is now a means for users to flag *other* content, whether it be messages, profiles, or what not, so as to alert their overseers administrators for “misconduct” by other users. What does this mean? The usual things like “endangering national security, leaking state secrets” and so on — but it also, apparently, includes the vaguely worded phrase “disturbing the social order”.

While I take the translation with a grain of salt until I can confirm it myself, it does seem like MySpace is using “social tools” so that it can keep a greater eye on its citizens. And it does make sense in an Orwellian fashion. After all, what better way to monitor users activities than to get users to monitor themselves?

Its an issue of scale, really. When some social systems get large, things that were in place previously to monitor “deviant” activity may not be as effective; getting people to monitor things themselves is no different, really, than say, adding +/- to comments in a forum like Slashdot, so that people can censor the trolls themselves.

Or, like Digg, where they rely on their users to report “spam” or questionable content.

Well, I guess its no different except for the consequences that is. After all, getting your post pulled on Digg or marked as (minus) on Slashdot doesn’t get you hauled away in the middle of the night and thrown in jail (or worse).

Oh, that and contributing to self-imposed censorship, I guess.

MySpace China shows a different side of user-generated activities, and I guess it really shouldn’t be all that shocking. In a time when China is making a move to clamp down on suspicious Internet activity, I wasn’t really surprised to hear that MySpace China was toeing the line, and actively encouraging people to snitch on each other.

What’s kind of interesting though, is to think about the motivation behind doing so. In other social networking systems on the net now, sometimes there’s an altruistic reason behind contributing, but more often than not, its motivated by self-interest.

*Is* MySpace China “rewarding” its users for reporting suspicious content and the misconduct of others? Would it go the Netscape route, and ever encourage user activity, moderation, and checking up on suspicious activity with real-world dollars? Would the government, in turn be rewarding MySpace China for encouraging such reporting?

I don’t know the answers to any of these questions, but if you do, you can leave a comment or three below.

tip: Steve O’Hear