ZME Science Editor Intrigued By China's Ban On His Online Mag

Tibi Puiu, founder of the ZME Science online magazine, has expressed surprise why China has banned the online outlet, including its IOS and Android apps. Its content is also not indexed on Baidu, China's largest search engine, the equivalent of Google.

Photo Insert: Tibi Puiu, founder of ZME Science

“For all intents and purposes, ZME Science doesn't exist in China. We've been erased, canceled, call it what you may. We're in good company though. Besides tech giants like Google and Facebook, other media outlets currently blocked in China include The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The BBC, Reuters, LeMonde, The South China Morning Post, and Bloomberg. Oddly enough, other popular science websites with content similar to ZME Science, but with a much wider audience, are not blocked. Perhaps it's because we've not shied away from criticizing some of China's policies, particularly environmental ones. We don't know,” he stressed.

"As a science website, we strive to make our reporting of China neutral and factual, whether it's documenting their ambitious space efforts or the ban on wildlife trading. Granted, there may have been a few instances that angered Chinese censors. These include our reports of China's crackdown on free speech in Hong Kong, a feature story about the Tiananmen Square protests (which is beyond taboo in China), or China's horrendous management and censorship during the initial coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan."

“Okay, so maybe an authoritarian regime would find one or two reasons to warrant a ban. This censorship is part of a broader effort to restrict access to free information that has been going on in China for more than a decade, under the unofficial name of the ‘Great Firewall of China.'"

The “Great Firewall of China” is no joke, and it’s growing more with each passing year. According to a Harvard study, there are at least 18,000 blocked websites in China — but the real number is almost certainly much higher. The Chinese-sponsored news agency, Xinhua, stated that censorship targets only “superstitious, pornographic, violence-related, gambling, and other harmful information.”

"However, that's ... just untrue. We dare you to find such content on our website,” Puiu challenged Beijing.

The Great Firewall of China has one goal: to allow the government to decide what its citizens can and can’t see. Our concern is that these efforts are actually working, serving as a model for other authoritarian regimes like Russia, Iran, or Turkey to restrict access to information and crackdown on voices of dissent, he concluded.

WEEKLY FEATURE : PAL READY TO SOAR WITH PANDEMIC