MCLC: Twitter user arrested

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: pjmooney <pjmooney at me.com>
Subject: Twitter user arrested
***********************************************************

Source: China Change (6/9/14):
http://chinachange.org/2014/06/09/young-chinese-twitter-user-arrested-for-t
eaching-a-method-to-spread-illegal-information/

Young Chinese Twitter User Arrested for Proposing Method to Spread Truth
about June 4th Massacre
By China Change

China’s state-run media outlet China News (中新网) reported
<http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2014-06-09/141730323112.shtml> that Beijing
police had arrested a 22-year-old young female by the family name Zhao for
posting an article on Twitter that teaches how to use a pseudo base
station “to send illegal information.” According to the report, the
Chinese internet security police formed a task force to solve the case as
soon as they discovered this particular tweet, and a multi-agency
investigation led to Zhao’s arrest and the confiscation of her “criminal
tool” – a laptop computer.

The news alarmed the Chinese Twitter community. Many of them recalled a
tweet <https://twitter.com/RFITB/status/470205154130554880> they had read
before June 4th, the 25th anniversary of Tian’anmen democracy movement, by
“赵你@RFITB” on May 24, 2014:

“My brain hole opened up briefly [had a flash of genius] this afternoon,
and I wrote a June 4thAnniversary • A Conceptual Plan for Using Pseudo
Base Station 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dVKJEvRk2meACO4oVRgR5OrvkkoRgTKP8Mysrw8
ZNzk/edit?usp=sharing … <https://t.co/gD1U12ebdS> I have no idea whether
this is doable. I don’t have the capacity to do it, but if you think it is
an actionable concept, please spread it. #重回天安门 #六四”

The tweet has the hashtag of “return to Tian’anmen” and “June 4th” but the
Chinese official report avoided mentioning any of these phrases.

The conceptual plan
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IiaIfMqQtBsPGtdv6bVdFZumtEm8pei94kD33M
q9MsU/edit> (new link embedded as the original link seemed to have been
severed as this report was written) first thanks CCTV’s March 15 evening
show that airs consumer product scandals for learning about the pseudo
base station, what it is and how it works. The plan’s stated purpose is to
use pseudo base station to spread “knowledge about June 4th and send
messages to 2G cellphone users in certain areas to promote a ‘Return to
Tian’anmen’ campaign.”

Taking into consideration risk factors, the plan calls for multiple
vehicles to drive through Tian’anmen Square during days leading up to June
4th to send information, each making a quick excursion to avoid being
Detected.

The proposed plan also provides links to literature on how a pseudo base
station works and where to purchase one. The author states that he or she
is a student and this is only an idea that needs to be perfected with
others’ input. The author says he or she is willing to provide RMB200 to
support the purchase and use of pseudo base stations.

Tweeps in Twitter’s Chinese community quickly found information about the
22-year-old female on Facebook, Twitter and on China’s Renren. Her name
appears to be  Zhao Huaxu (赵华旭), a sophomore in Beijing International
Studies University, better known among Chinese as Beijing Second Foreign
Language College (北京第二外国语学院), majoring in business English.

(via @Arctosia <https://twitter.com/Arctosia/status/476011477459935232>,
@wenyunchao <https://twitter.com/wenyunchao/status/476000907566800896>,
@lijiansion <https://twitter.com/lijiansion/status/476013904569454592>
@OutdoorAYA <http://blog.renren.com/share/331923749/13957585914>).

What is a pseudo base station? @OutdoorAYA
<https://twitter.com/OutdoorAYA/status/475995640661426176> explains: It is
a security flaw of the GSM, or Global System for Mobile Communications,
where a base station will verify a user, but the end user will not verify
the base station. In other words,  as long as you can send radio signals
similar to that of a GSM base station, you can connect GSM cellphones in
your vicinity with your pseudo base station, and you can send text
messages to these cellphones.

The Chinese authorities, led by the Central Internet Security
<http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2014-05/06/c_1110563722.htm?utm_source=
twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter> and Informatization Leading Group (中央网络安
全和信
息化领导小组),  have been conducting a nationwide crackdown
<http://www.chinanews.com/fz/2014/04-29/6115342.shtml?utm_source=twitterfee
d&utm_medium=twitter> on the use of pseudo base stations since February.
On May 22, a Beijing court announced a verdict on the city’s first pseudo
base station case <http://finance.ifeng.com/a/20140522/12386462_0.shtml>,
and a man was sentenced to four years in prison for sending 160,000 or so
“trash text messages” in the city’s busy districts. Many fraud groups have
been using pseudo base station to send information, others use it to send
real estate commercials for real estate companies.

Ms. Zhao Huaxu was aware of China’s crackdown on the use of pseudo base
stations and, in her proposed plan, she warned that “if the 25th
anniversary pseudo base station activities are discovered, those who are
arrested for it could very well be facing several charges.” She didn’t
seem to have thought about the risk in making the kind of proposal she did
in the Chinese society of  today where you seem to be free until you
exercise your most fundamental rights.

One tweep <https://twitter.com/WXZ0909/status/476018747811979265> is of
the opinion that “the arrest of @RFITB is not because she has interacted
with someone or discussed the topics of Tian’anmen movement, but because
of the proposal she made. As a method of breaking information blockage,
pseudo base station hits CCP’s weakness. When it is used in an one-man
guerrilla style without him or her revisiting the same location too soon,
such asymmetrical strategy can make offline impact that is hard to control
and remedy, and it is very costly to try to prevent it.”

A Twitter newcomer asked how the Chinese police could have found out the
identity of Ms. Zhao Huaxu. A veteran tweep
<https://twitter.com/leo3194/status/475966984757055491> who attended  the
June 4th vigil in Victoria Park in Hong Kong replied,  speaking of his
return to mainland China after the vigil, “As soon as my plane landed, I
was approached and interrogated by Big Brother’s people. I would say every
single tweet is being closely watched by someone.”