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Ai Wei Wei, Richard McManus and Jack Dorsey at the Paley Center
We’ll be coming to you in real-time (or just about) this evening at the Paley Center conversation between Chinese artist and activist Ai Wei Wei, ReadWriteWeb’s Richard McManus, and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey. If you’re not in the audience, check in to the web site of our parent organization, the Paley Center, for a live stream. Or search for #aiweiwei on Twitter. Read on after the jump.
6:48 p.m. Moderator Emily Parker and panelists are all onstage — Jack Dorsey via satellite.
6:49 p.m. Richard McManus: “The main differences I see between the U.S. situation the Western world and China is only in the degree of freedom of expression.”
6:50 p.m. Ai Wei Wei talking about not being able to access Facebook, Twitter, Google in mainland China and government-created, censorship-supporting social media platforms: “We don’t even want to call it Twitter — it’s an insult to Twitter!”
6:54 p.m. “I thought, 140 words, what am I going to say in such a short message. Then I realized, in 140 words, in Chinese, you can write a novel. The most Confucius used was only four.”
Emily Parker explains the difference between Twitter’s 140-character limit in U.S. versus China — in Chinese, each character is a word.
7:00 p.m. Jack Dorsey explaining the creation of Twitter, starting out as an idea when he was but a young man with a 20-dollar cell phones. Functions like hashtags all came from usage, Dorsey said: “We saw people using an @ symbol and following it with a user name … we saw people using RT …” and then built it into the system to make it easier.
7:06 p.m. Ai Wei Wei to Jack Dorsey: “A lot of Chinese have a lot of questions and demandings … the Chinese people think you’re some kind of god. You’ve created some kind of possibility for people in this very dark room to really discuss … They all ask you, why don’t you provide Chinese language access to Twitter?”
Jack: “It’s just a matter of time and sequence.”
Ai Wei Wei: “Ah. That’s very philosophical. I don’t like to hear that.”
So far, Ai Wei Wei is winning for most clever participant of the night.
7:11 p.m. Richard McManus to Jack and Ai Wei Wei on Google closing Google.cn. — wouldn’t Twitter have to censor a Twitter.cn?
7:15 p.m. Ai Wei Wei: “It’s very difficult for foreign companies to not obey the laws that China places on these companies … especially internet companies.”
7:17 p.m. Jack: “In terms of providing translation, once it’s a little bit easier to get in to using that technology and other technologies around it, then there will [ be more usage.]” He asks: What else can companies do to help people get around China’s Great Firewall?
Confesses that he didn’t know that Twitter was blocked until talking to Parker about it three weeks ago. People in audience cluck and giggle.
Parker asks the three panelists to go over some ideas. Ai Wei Wei: “It’s like a blind date!”
7:22 p.m. Sample tweet on screen: “No one is talking about zuosa!” (Chinese, not-blocked Twitter-type platform) …
7:24 p.m. “We’re not asking for any kind of mercy,” Ai Wei Wei says, but instead technology companies must care about basic values and human freedoms of expression. No excuse for not acting “for human values” he said.
Ai Wei Wei, after talking about how Twitter users in China were disappointed when Obama said he didn’t use Twitter: “Obama’s never used Twitter? He has a lot of followers on there.”
Richard McManus: “I understand his office was Twittering on his name.”
Ai Wei Wei looks a bit sad at this news.
7:26 p.m. Jack Dorsey on positive Twitter usage: “The more we talk about what’s happening in China, on the streets of Iran, in Moldova, in Iraq … the more people understand how other people around the world are living their lives. … This reduces conflict.”
Twitter enhances transparency … and promotes diplomacy?
7:30 p.m. Time for questions from the audience …
What is China so afraid of, in regards to allowing things like Twitter?
“I think China is in chaos now … it’s orderly chaos, it’s a party that ruthlessly violates human rights for its own purpose. It’s been years, decades. Everybody knows it.
7:32 p.m. Emily Parker: How is Ai Wei Wei able to be a digital activist?
Ai Wei Wei: Not afraid “of my head being injured.” And “I do it because not many people don’t do it.”
7:36 p.m. Richard McManus: “What other tools in China can be used for digital activism?”
Young generation born in ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, spend so much time on internet, Ai Wei Wei says. So the internet alone
has been a tremendous influence on China today.
7:40 p.m Parker says she’s gotten a question from China — Chinese want to translate Twitter. Where do they sign up? Jack says the company is still working on that infrastructure.
Another question from Chinese readers, to Jack: “Given the suggest of Avatar, would you consider making a movie about a digital hero like Twitter?”
Audience members expressing dismay that Jack didn’t know that Twitter was blocked in China until three weeks ago. Jack says when building the company possible to get head in the sand and forget about what’s going on in the outside world — not sure if audience is buying it. Talks about necessity of translating Twitter into other languages.
7:45 p.m. Sample tweet on screen: “@jack can really talk bullocks. #twitter could already support Chinese and even as interface. he seems hesitant to do”
7:48 p.m. Most successful story about Twitter is the ability to report in real-time, Ai Wei Wei. Says he gets all of his news from Twitter.
7:50 p.m. Another audience member to Jack: What you really need is input and display in Chinese on Twitter, not “translation.” Says he hasn’t seen Chinese characters on Twitter. Audience members seem a bit out for blood tonight.
7:52 p.m. Chinese-American business woman to Ai Wei Wei: “We need people like yourself. I commend you.” But at the same time, the daily people that she sees, she says, aren’t feeling oppressed — they’re happy. China wants to grow the middle class, she says, not more unrest. Panelists on stage look a little lost for words. Asks Ai Wei Wei, “How do you help the government reconcile its timetable (for democracy) and someone like you?”
Ai Wei Wei: “I don’t think you should give a credit to a nation who is [not allowing] basic rights. You say people are happy? They’re scared and they’re not speaking up.”
7:55 p.m. Emily Parker changes the subject to Google.
Ai Wei Wei asks Chinese-American businesswoman’s name and company (SinoCentury) and says “this is on record.”
Jack Dorsey: “I think it benefits everyone on the internet that censorship does not fly and does not exist.” Can’t depend on one company — i.e. Google — to take care of this issue.
8 p.m. Is internet freedom a human right? Jack Dorsey agrees with Secretary Hillary Clinton on yes, internet freedom as a human right.
Richard McManus: Google saying they would cease censoring in China was a big move. And if all of the internet companies in China were to do the same thing, it would really send a message.
8:04 p.m. How to deal with self-censorship in China?
In order to exist in China, internet companies have to adhere to self-censorship in China or be shut down, McManus says. Calls Google “brave” for what it’s doing, and says it’s “much more difficult … quite another thing” for a native Chinese company to risk its livelihood to do it.
8:07 p.m. Tibetan audience member gives shout-out to Ai Wei Wei for being a Chinese activist supporting Tibet. “You have the support of 6 million Tibetans who will do anything it takes to struggle for our freedom. What kind of things can Tibetans do to help or aid the activism of Chinese people like yourself? And what can Chinese people and netizens” do to help Tibetans?”
Material goods can’t be shared, but freedom can be, Ai Wei Wei says. Notes how there’s been no internet access in Xinjiang or Tibet for some time.
“8:11 p.m. “Do you think Twitter can make a truly fundamental change in governments?” RT @AmanpourCNN
Jack Dorsey: “Twitter is just a tool. It’s what people do with it.”
Ai Wei Wei: “Twitter is the tool of the people with no other resources who want to share their thinking, their way of talking. If people change, the government change.”
Richard McManus: Problem is that Chinese government control content that go on that tool.
What would they post on Twitter now?
Ai Wei Wei: “Hopefully one day we won’t have to use Twitter.”
Jack says he’s looking forward to meeting Ai Wei Wei and Richard McManus in person — talks about what happens when you’re wrapped up in technology and don’t have face-to-face meetings.
8:19 p.m. Chinese tweets haven’t been working all night on the Tweet-projection screen. Ironic. But Jack ends the night by saying he wants to follow through and sustain the conversation started tonight.
Posted in: Uncategorized | Tagged: Ai Wei Wei, democracy and the internet, digital activism, Emily PArker, Jack Dorsey, Richard McManus, twitter
