公民力量简报* 2019年1月8日
北京推友关于中国政府强迫国内推友交出账号，删除账号和推文的来信
最近，中国政府大肆骚扰中国国内的推特用户，强迫他们交出账号信息、删除账号和推文，美国华盛顿邮报等国际媒体均有报道
（Washington Post: Chinese Censors Go Old School to Clamp Down on Twitter: A Knock on the Door
北京的一位推友最近给公民力量发起人楊建利博士来函，说明国内推特用户面临的困难和风险，同时给推特公司和美国国会提出了有价值的建议。公民力量研究所将这封来函作为公民力量简报双语推出。
杨博士：
您好！
很冒昧私信要您的E-mail地址，没想到很快得到您的回复。
我是一名来自北京的推友，xxxx是我的英文名字。近期看到很多推友的推特账户被强制删除，交出密码，删除推文等等。感到事件非常迫切，希望得到您的帮助和推动。
我想杨博士应该比任何人都知道，目前中共的力量比之前任何时候都强大。强大到可以迫使外国政府机构，外交部门，公司，人权组织等等，默不作声，甚至妥协成为帮手。从驻国外的强大的外宣部门在国外肆无忌惮，再到外交及外国记者及活动人士的被抓捕，这些都可以看到中共不仅仅是军事，资金、政治上的强大而是深入到了各个领域和行业的蛮横。国内微博刚兴起后，国内的舆论尚处于有表达空间的余地，人们尚且可以讲话及维护自己的权利。然而经过不足8年的时间，基本能发声的各位有良知的律师，维权人员，记者，甚至体制内的开明人员，账号已经删除殆尽，更不要说公开发声。微博上存在的基本都是娱乐和社会信息，敏感的文字也存在不久就被强大的审核团队删除，我的微博账号至今已经被删除2个，而仅仅是发表了一些评论而已，所以网友都开玩笑的说，只有美国大使馆的官方账号无人敢删除。微信公众账号和个人朋友圈所发出的敏感信息多数被删除和屏蔽。
尤其是2018，从脸书的泄密，到之前CEO扎克伯格多次到访中国与网信办交流，及所发生的事件。再到谷歌妥协开发审查版本的“蜻蜓计划”。虽然他们都受到美国国会的质询，但是我想从他们的CEO的内心中已经放弃不作恶的基本价值观，妥协只是暂时的，未来仍旧会继续为利益做他们想做的事情。
杨博士，国内的很多网友是冒着很大的技术障碍和被抓捕的风险，突破防火墙的封锁。翻墙去推特发文和批判，表达自己的观点，传播真相，为那些敏感人士争取和维护他们的权利。从去年苹果公司妥协，删除了商店里的翻墙软件后，国内网友想突破互联网的封锁愈加困难，推特和YouTube 成为他们仅有的发声平台，翻山越岭，历尽千险，很多推友的目的其实只有一个就是和您一样推动中国的民主进步，同时了解和破除更多以前教育和迷惑我们的那些虚假的东西并得到的真相传播给更多的国内的朋友和亲人。
想必您也知道，最近有很多推友的推文被国保和警察找上门，以各种卑劣的手段，强迫他们交出账号，删除账号和推文。让他们的思想，话语，评论永久的消失，而且以后再也不敢到推特去发言，去评论，他们的思想交流被禁止，然而就是这些在西方人看来是最基本的权利，我们都难以保障。为达到禁言的目的，国保威胁我们的工作单位，迫使我们失业，干扰孩子上学，甚至停发退休金，恐吓我们的亲友………我想只要人在国内生活，没有人能承受了这些，他们的所作所为毫无底线。虽然很多被迫删除了自己的账号，但是我仍旧佩服他们的勇敢，他们的勇气和您一样，是出于心里的这种良知。
我认为，国内的通讯和安全部门是掌握所有推特账号的情况和信息的，毕竟翻墙使用推特，很多人使用的国内的电子邮件地址，电信服务商，手机等等。所以他们很容易掌握的这些数据。应该包括，个人的联系方式，姓名，身份信息，工作信息，关注数量等等，所以他们要想掌握和找到一个人简直太容易。打个比方来说，虽然我发的推文和转推的数量并不多，但是我想用不了多久，他们也迟早会找到，要求我交出我的密码，并删除我的推文，清空我的账户。那么这么多年的微小努力也会付诸流水。我并不害怕，因为我给您写这封信之前，我就已经做了这方面的准备。
我是两年前加入推特的，从推特中我关注并了解到你们这些默默为中国的民主事业付出的勇士们，学习并了解到你们的学术，思想和观点，了解墙外的世界，看到不一样的东西，不同宗教，思想和文化的碰撞。更知道了中共所宣传的，虚假的历史，输出的专制和独裁的思想和邪恶的力量。您也知道，我们这代人从小思想被禁锢，学习的教科书都是他们想让我们了解的东西，也就是人们所说的洗脑，然而因为有了互联网，我开始和别人有了不一样的思想，开始学会质疑，开始学会分析，开始给朋友亲人讲述那些不一样的东西，开始学会为他人发声并维护自己的权利。记得从我上大学，美国911事件，当时很多同学喝彩，欢心鼓舞，他们说美国是世界警察，是刽子手，是恐怖分子，他们得到了他们的报应，从那时起我就开始沉默，开始思考，并为发生这样的灾难表示同情和哀悼，而那时候信息尚且不发达，不过是多读了一些书而已，到如今很多人通过互联网也转变了他们的看法。推特是仅有的且非常重要的发声和信息交流平台，这对国内的网友来说比任何平台都重要，互联网是我们这代人80后，90后…真正的思想启蒙工具，是脱离了教科书，新闻联播，大内宣洗脑的唯一渠道，是我们了解外界的信息管道。如果推特沦陷了，中文的推文和推友消失了，对国内外的民主事业损失巨大，所以经过深思熟虑，非常紧急的给您写了这封邮件，希望借助您的影响力，能推动推特的数据保护，隐私保护及美国方面的立法，阻止中共将手伸到海外的社交媒体，保护我们的言论自由权利。
上周我看新闻，推特公司已经注意到了关于推特账户需要绑定国内通讯服务商的账户安全问题。后续没有进一步的消息。我想从几个观点再阐述下，毕竟我不了解美国的法律和政策，不知道这样的事情该从哪里入手。希望能得到您的支持
第一个就是：推特账户的安全认证取消绑定国内运营商，而采用其他的方式。（防止国内运营商截留验证码和识别身份信息）
第二个就是：美国运营商能否帮助推出虚拟的电话号码。（用于更安全绑定推特账户，避免使用国内卡号认证被追踪）
第三个就是：能否推动推特公司增加部分功能，在特殊国家，一旦开启这个功能在清空账户，删除推文的情况下，后台保留个人的推特数据。（防止推友交出账户密码，账户被清空，推文被删除的情况下，能有办法在日后保留和恢复）类似一个强制备份功能。
第四个就是：能否推动相关的立法，引起媒体和美国国会和政府的注意，注意到中共这种强迫，强制，威胁人身安全和言论自由的行为，以立法和法律的形式予以重视和阻止。
此致敬礼！
感谢您对中国民主事业的无私奉献；
感谢您对中国受难同胞的帮助和救助；
感谢您的思想，观点和行动，这些将继续引领中国青年人寻找自由的脚步。
x x x x
2018/12/30
*公民力量研究所不定期发表中英文双语“公民力量简报“（CPIFC Briefing Series）和“公民力量研究报告”(CPIFC Monograph Series)。前者是简明准确反映中国现实的叙述式或学术简报式的短篇文章，后者则是公民力量研究所有关中国的政治、经济、社会、文化、历史、宗教、国际关系、人权改善、民主变革战略等议题的学术性分析预测文章。
Dec. 30, 2018
Dear Dr. Yang:
Greetings!
I apologize that I took the liberty of asking for your E-mail address. Thank you for your prompt reply.
I am a Twitter user in Beijing. xxxx is my English name. Recently, many Twitter users in China have been coerced to delete their accounts and tweets, and hand over their passwords, etc. I feel that the situation is very urgent and hope you can help us.
I believe you know quite well that the Chinese Communist Party (the CCP) is more “powerful” than ever before, to the extent that it can silence foreign government agencies, diplomatic departments, foreign companies and human rights organizations, etc., or even force them to become their accomplices. From the unscrupulous CCP propaganda agencies abroad to the arrest of diplomatic and foreign journalists and activists, we can see that the CCP is not only “powerful” militarily, financially and politically, but has penetrated various fields aggressively. When the domestic microblogs or Weibo (the China’s equivalent of Twitter) were just emerging, domestic public opinion still had some room for free expression, and people still could speak out and defend their rights. However, in the past 8 years, almost all the conscientious lawyers, activists, journalists, and even the open-minded people in the CCP have been forced to delete their Weibo accounts and keep silent. Now the domestic Weibo is just flooded with entertainment and social news. The sensitive information is usually deleted by the “efficient” censorship team instantly. My Weibo accounts have been deleted twice, just because I had posted some comments. Therefore, the Chinese netizens remark jokingly that only the official account of the US Embassy the censorship team dare not delete. Most of the sensitive information on WeChat public accounts and WeChat Moments (a feature in WeChat like Facebook Timelines) has been deleted and blocked.
Especially in 2018, many events occurred, for instance, the information of tens of millions of Facebook users’ accounts was leaked; Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg visited China many times and communicated with officials from Cyberspace Administration Department; Google was developing a censored search engine for China – Dragonfly Project. Although they were all questioned by the US Congress, the CEOs of these companies have given up the basic value of not doing evil in their hearts. Therefore, I believe the compromise is temporary and they will continue doing what they want to do for the profits in the future.
Many netizens in China, at the risk of being arrested, attempt to break through the blockade of the Great Firewall and tweet to express their opinions, spread the truths, and support the “sensitive” people. Since Apple’s removal of the censorship-evading software in the App Store last year, it’s been more difficult for the domestic netizens to “cross” the Great Firewall. Twitter and YouTube have become their only platforms for free expression. Their purpose of crossing the Great Firewall is to promote China’s democracy like you, recognize the falsehoods that were indoctrinated by the CCP, know more truths and spread them to domestic friends and relatives.
I believe you also know that many domestic Twitter users have been coerced to delete their accounts and tweets and hand over their passwords recently by the state security officials or policemen in very despicable means. The authorities attempt to make the netizens’ thoughts, words, and comments disappear permanently, and intimidate them not to speak, comment or exchange ideas on Twitter any more. These basic human rights which Westerners take for granted are very hard to be guaranteed in China. In order to make us silent, the state security officials threaten our employers to fire us, prevent schools from accepting our children to study, suspend our pensions or even intimidate our relatives and friends, etc. No one can handle it if he or she still lives in China, because the CCP has no bottom line. Although many Twitter users have been forced to delete their accounts, I still admire them. Their courage is out of conscience, like yours.
I believe the domestic telecommunications companies and state security department have collected the information and data of all Twitter accounts, because many Twitter users must log on to Twitter with their domestic email addresses or mobile phone numbers. The data they collected probably include the information of the users’ cell phone numbers, names, identity numbers, jobs, the people they are following on Twitter, etc., so they can easily obtain the information of a Twitter user and find him/her. Take myself as an example, although I didn’t post a lot of tweets and retweets, I believe they will find me sooner or later, requiring me to hand over my password and delete my tweets and accounts. All my efforts of many years will go down the drain, but I am not afraid of it, because I had prepared for this when I decided to write this letter to you.
I began to use Twitter two years ago. On Twitter, I have been following the warriors like you who dedicate yourselves to China’s democracy, learning your thoughts and views, and understanding the world outside the Great Firewall. On Twitter, I can read different views and see the collisions between different religions, ideas and cultures. On Twitter, I can also know the real history, the evil of the CCP and its attempts to export its authoritarianism and dictatorial model. As you know, the thinking of our generation has been stifled since our childhoods. The textbooks we study at school are fabricated by the CCP and are used to indoctrinate us. However, thanks to the emergence of the Internet, I started to have different ideas from others. I began to question, analyze, and tell friends and relatives about the truths, and began to speak for others and defend their rights. I remember when the 9/11 Incident took place in the United States, I was at college, and many of my classmates cheered. They said that the United States acted as a “global policeman”, an executioner and a terrorist, so Americans got the retribution they deserved. Since then, I have started to think more and show sympathy and condolences for disasters like this. At that time, the information technology was still underdeveloped, but I read more books than others, so my views were different. Up to now, many people have changed their views through the Internet. Twitter is a very important platform for free expression and information exchange. It is more important for domestic netizens than any other platforms. The Internet is the real enlightenment tool for the generations born in 1980s and 1990s. It is also the only channel for us to know the outside world and keep us from not being brainwashed by official textbooks, news broadcasts, and internal propaganda. If Twitter is not accessible for China’s netizens and our tweets and accounts disappear, the loss of democracy cause at home and abroad will be enormous. Therefore, after careful consideration, I decided to write you this email, hoping you can promote data and privacy protection of Twitter and US legislation to prevent the CCP from extending their “hands” to foreign social media in order to protect our freedom of speech.
Last week I read a news report saying Twitter had noticed the issue of account security –– requiring users to tie their accounts to domestic telecommunications carriers, but there is no further news afterwards. I have no idea about American laws and policies, so I venture to present to you my suggestions and hope to get your support.
The first suggestion: the security authentication of the Twitter accounts should be untied to the domestic carriers, instead, other methods should be adopted. (The purpose is to prevent domestic carriers from intercepting verification codes and identifying the users’ information.)
The second: Can any US carriers provide some virtual phone numbers? (The purpose is to avoid the use of domestic phone number authentication that might be tracked.)
The third: Can you suggest Twitter company to add a new function in some special countries which enables Twitter to run data backup? (The purpose is to help Twitter users to retrieve and restore their accounts and tweets in case they are forced to delete their accounts and tweets.)
The fourth: Can you promote the relevant legislation in the U.S to draw attention of the media, the US Congress and the government? (The purpose is to urge them to prevent the CCP from continuing to coerce, threaten our personal security and depriving us of freedom of speech in the form of legislation and law.)
Last, thank you so much for your selfless dedication to the cause of China’s democracy, and your help and assistance to the Chinese people. Your thoughts, views and actions will continue enlightening the Chinese youth to find freedom.
Sincerely,
xxxx
