The YouTube block in China has been effective in blocking out video of the Tibet riots. That said, I've been watching the action on Twitter and it's Chinese equivalent Fanfou which are still running unimpeded by any Great Firewall block. Links to videos, photos and news articles are streaming through with ease, so anyone who wants to keep on top of the issue will have no problem at all in doing so.

Chinese citizen journalist Zola is, as would be expected, all over the action on Twitter and Fanfou. He recently published this massive aggregation of news, which certainly deserves attention.

Dave over at Mutant Palm has been doing an awesome job of keeping on top of Chinese language discussions on the Tibet situation. Indeed, he's gone even further than that, issuing a challenge to us all:

For years now I've seen alot of Chinese netizens discussions be completely ignored or simply missed by English-speaking netizens, who too often think that Chinese netizens are all completely brainwashed. Well, guess what? Some of them think you are too. Instead of dismissing each other as fools, how about we try to talk? So I say, Tweet Back! Tweet in English, alot of Chinese people know some. If you know Chinese... what are you waiting for? I've been translating alot of Chinese tweets on Tibet this weekend, and alot of them break the stereotype of the frothing nationalist Chinese blogger. These are Chinese people who adopt alot of Web 2.0 applications alot of the time, they aren't just blowhards in chat rooms. Some are journalists, professionals and students.

He explains that we can easily find discussions of Tibet and Lhasa by searching the public Fanfou feed for 西藏 and 拉萨 (in Chinese) on twifan. It's an admirable call to action, and Dave's efforts to bridge the gap here between two cultures are rare, and should be applauded.

Fanfou is a great tool for pubishing to the Web quickly, especially if the mobile phone SMS feature is enabled. And even more so if you feed your Fanfou posts through Twitter. See my how-to post a few months back on how to go about configuring this. If could be an indispensable tool for journalists on the ground here in China.

If anyone would like assistance in setting up a Fanfou account, drop me a line via email and I'll set you up with one.

Other active Tweeters to watch:
Eyeseast (also see his Google-shared links on Tibet)
Tibetnews on Twitter
Xiaolun on Fanfou
Teamtibet on Fanfou

Other useful tools:
My own news feed
vixy.net--a tool for downloading youtube videos
drop.io--an amazing tool for sharing links, photos, and videos

 

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