State researchers fear Web can be used for subversive ends

New media could at best be a double-edged sword in online anti-graft campaigns, while at worst, some websites like Facebook could be subversive forces, researchers from a top state-sponsored think tank said.

New media forms such as Facebook could be used as a force to subvert society if they are manipulated by people who have ulterior motives, Professor Cui Baoguo , vice-dean of Tsinghua University's School of Journalism and Communication, said yesterday at a press conference for the Bluebook of New Media, compiled by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

'Media could transform a society ... in an underdeveloped country. Media [are] revolutionary and could dismantle a society. [They have] influence in a relatively conservative society,' Cui said. 'I believe that in the development process of newly emerged things, they will gradually merge with the state system.'

He added that though traditional media could shape society's attitudes, the fact that they operated under government censorship restricted any real power to be subversive.

New media, on the other hand, have what Cui called 'ambiguous boundaries', so conflicts are to be expected.

The mainland had 417 million internet users by the end of May, or 31.2 per cent of the population, according to the China Internet Network Information Centre.