Facebook Deletes Post on Tibetan Monk’s Self-Immolation
A prominent Tibetan writer says Facebook deleted her post on the self-immolation of a monk in Sichuan Province, raising concerns about politically motivated censorship.
Tsering Woeser, who has written several books about Tibet and is a prominent critic of Chinese policies in the region, said she posted a short item about Kalsang Yeshi, a 37-year-old monk who set himself on fire in front of a police station on Dec. 23 in Dawu County, part of the Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in northwestern Sichuan.
Ms. Woeser’s post included a link to a video about Kalsang Yeshi. A message from Facebook said the post had been deleted because it “didn’t meet Facebook’s community standards,” without offering specifics.
Facebook did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Saturday.
Self-immolations by Tibetans, who generally describe the act as a protest against restrictions on religious and cultural freedoms in Chinese areas of Tibet, surged in 2011 and 2012. The rate has tailed off in recent years, but rights groups say that in the past two weeks, three people have died after lighting themselves on fire in Tibetan areas of China. The International Campaign for Tibet, a rights group, says 136 Tibetans have self-immolated since Feb. 27, 2009.
Ms. Woeser, who is based in Beijing, said she believed the post may have been deleted because of the disturbing nature of the self-immolation, or because of efforts to sanitize material that might be critical of the Chinese authorities. She joined Facebook in 2008 and has posted extensively about self-immolations, but says this was the first time the company had removed her content.
“I was really surprised. I couldn’t believe my eyes,” she said of her reaction to the deletion notice. “I thought, ‘How is it that this has become like a Chinese website?’ ”
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has expressed an interest in expanding the company’s presence in China, where its site is blocked. In October he held a question-and-answer session at Tsinghua University in Beijing using Mandarin, which he has been studying. And earlier this month, Lu Wei, China’s top Internet regulator, visited Facebook’s offices in Menlo Park, Calif., and was photographed grinning as he sat at Mr. Zuckerberg’s desk, where a book by President Xi Jinping of China was prominently placed.
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王霜舟 2014年12月29日
一位知名的藏族作家称，Facebook删除了她发布的僧人在四川自焚的帖子。这引发了出于政治动机而审查内容的担忧。
茨仁唯色(Tsering Woeser)曾出版过几本有关西藏的书，她经常批评中国的西藏政策。茨仁唯色表示，她发布了关于格绒益西(Kalsang Yeshi)自焚的简短消息。这名37岁的僧人于12月23日在四川省西北部甘孜藏族自治州道孚县的一个派出所前点火自焚。
唯色的帖子中包含格绒益西自焚视频的链接。Facebook周五发送消息称，该帖子已被删除，因为这“不符合Facebook的社区标准”，但没有具体说明原因。
Facebook于周日就删帖一事发表声明称：
“Facebook长期以来一直是一个供人们分享事情和经历的平台。有时候，这些经历涉及暴力和直白的视频。我们努力在表达和安全之间保持平衡。然而，由于一些人反感这种直白的视频，我们正努力向用户提供更多控制权，决定他们看到的内容。比如可能会预先提醒他们，即将看到的图像包含一些直白的内容。我们目前没有解决问题的工具，所以只能删除内容。”
在2011年和2012年，自焚事件激增。藏人通常表示，自焚行动是为了抗议中国治下的藏区对宗教和文化自由的限制。近年来，自焚事件开始减少，但人权组织称，过去两周，中国藏区有三人自焚身亡。倡导团体“国际声援西藏运动”(International Campaign for Tibet)称，自2009年2月27日以来，共有136名藏人自焚。
居住在北京的唯色称，她认为这个帖子之所以被删，既可能是因为自焚事件本身令人不安的性质，也可能是因为想清理对中国官方持批评态度的材料。她于2008年开始使用Facebook，而且曾发布过大量关于自焚的内容，但是她说，这是Facebook第一次删除她发布的内容。
“我非常惊讶，简直不敢相信自己的眼睛，”她在谈到自己对删帖通知的反应时说。“当时我想，‘这怎么变得像个中国网站了？’”
Facebook的首席执行官马克·扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)曾表示过有兴趣扩大公司在中国的影响力。目前，中国屏蔽了Facebook的网站。今年10月，他用自己一直学习的普通话在北京的清华大学举行了一场问答会。本月初，中国管理互联网的最高官员鲁炜参观了Facebook位于加利福尼亚州门洛帕克的办公室。照片显示，他坐在扎克伯格的办公桌前，露齿而笑。桌上的显眼位置摆着一本中国国家主席习近平的书。
王霜舟(Austin Ramzy)是《纽约时报》记者。
转自：纽约时报中文网 http://cn.nytimes.com/china/20141229/c29facebook/
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