William Farris
@wafarris
Followers
2,998
Following
201
Media
1,247
Statuses
2,203
Former Google Legal Director managing CN/HK/TW (12yrs Beijing, 4 Taipei). Publisher “State Prosecutions of Speech in the PRC”
Taipei
Joined December 2008
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
ドラフト
• 398173 Tweets
#わたしの宝物
• 73115 Tweets
NuNew Medley Song
• 70918 Tweets
青春18きっぷ
• 51033 Tweets
Baakhabar Sant Rampal Ji
• 49987 Tweets
LINEスタンプ
• 28200 Tweets
ILL BE THERE TODAY
• 26895 Tweets
Errejón
• 26334 Tweets
船井電機
• 24689 Tweets
LIA AT DG BEAUTY POP UP
• 19645 Tweets
WALL SONG OHMLENG
• 18486 Tweets
まっすー
• 15059 Tweets
Razem
• 13738 Tweets
FURIA EN BONDI
• 12954 Tweets
もやしもん
• 12097 Tweets
Adoちゃん
• 11572 Tweets
GENTO SA TAIWAN
• 11216 Tweets
1/9 If someone makes the claim that people in China are "not breaking any law" by using a VPN to access Twitter etc. from inside China, here's a thread you can share to demonstrate they are wrong with 3 screenshots and one court judgment.
41
360
1K
1/5 The PRC said hanging insulting posters of Xi Jinping was "unacceptable for any diplomatic and consular missions of any country." So here's a🧵of pics from the 2012 protests outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing. Here they burn a Japanese flag yards from the Embassy gate.
39
274
751
1/25 Thanks to those who provided feedback on my tweet last week re: the (il)legality of VPNs in China. Apparently it was insufficiently nuanced for some folks, so here's a thread with more examples that also addresses some of the replies critical of my original thread.
10
81
306
A reminder that when deciding if that VPN you got from an app store is legal, you can take advice of some foreign propagandist with no legal qualifications, or you can read this article by a PRC court titled "Wall Climbing is Illegal, Here's Common Sense You Must Know" 1/8
15
95
277
6/9 All of these cases (100 more) are fully translated in my casebook "State Prosecutions of Speech in the PRC," available for free download from my website: .
7
31
246
Not only has Hu Xijin disappeared from social media, Sina Weibo is also censoring the hashtag of his name. The screenshot shows a search for "#胡锡进#" returns a notice: "According to relevant laws, regulations and policies, the content of this topic is not displayed." A🧵on Hu:
24
62
237
Last night the Tencent-owned Sogou search engine began censoring search results for "Spy Balloon" (间谍气球). It is now restricting results to a white list of PRC Party and government controlled websites (China Daily, Xinhua, etc.). /1
7
92
223
Tencent's Weixin (Wechat) censored a repost of a 1980 People's Daily editorial titled "Exaggerating the Personal Role of Leaders to an Extreme Level will Lead to Superstitious Belief in the Individual." It was an exact copy-paste of the editorial, with 2 exceptions: 1/6
9
74
227
I've been reviewing my screenshots archives illustrating Internet censorship in the PRC. I've got images going back to 2008, and one of the most interesting things to me is to find screenshots showing what was NOT being censored back then, but is being censored now. For example:
8
55
193
3/9 This screenshot shows police found Yao Zenglei guilty on the grounds that she "used VPN software to illegally access international networks while playing the game 'Ace Fishing: Wild Catch.'"
1
30
178
9/9 Finally, if they want to argue this is a violation of a "regulation" not a "law," say "you got me," and suggest that if they really want to win the point they should take their phone to the local police station and show the officers how they use their VPN to access Twitter.
4
15
179
2/9 These screenshots from a Zhejiang govt database show the police punish people for using VPNs under the "Public Security Administrative Punishments Law" for violating the "Interim Provisions on the Administration of International Networking of Computer Information Networks."
1
26
168
I took this on one of my morning rides up Guanyin mountain in Bali (Taiwan). Word of honor no photoshopping. Just a guy in a spiderman suit walking up a country road at 7:24 am. I cannot emphasize enough how middle-of-nowhere this was: . Stay weird Taiwan.
8
42
170
4/9 This screenshot shows police found Zhang Tao guilty of using "wall-climbing software to illegally browse the Wikipedia website for information."
1
25
159
5/9 This screenshot shows police found Zhang Liping guilty on the grounds that she "downloaded wall-climbing software on her personal mobile phone and utilized the software to log onto the foreign Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc. to browse various kinds of information"
4
13
147
7/9 If they say they can't find these, point them to this blog post which explains how the government systematically deleted the records back in 2020: "Disappearing Government Records Show Police Ordering People, Companies to Stop Using Foreign VPNs"
2
11
141
On the 35th anniversary of the end of the 1989 Tiananmen demonstrations, a🧵on how Internet companies censor it, starting with censorship Microsoft's Bing image search is doing today: Left is what they show PRC users, right is what they show the rest of world for "June 4, 1989."
4
72
146
5/ And by "accept," I mean "organize and oversee." These photos show Beijing police escorting protestors in front of the Japanese Embassy. More photos and examples of police telling protesters what they could and could not say here:
3
23
131
A🧵on how PRC websites are censoring information about what happened in Beijing on June 4, 1989, starting with the obvious - the date. In English Baidu web search returns 2 results, in Chinese 6 results, all from PRC state-sponsored media.
9
59
136
8/9 If they say this was just some overzealous police, point them to Panxing Ximin v. Google, where a court held that gathering evidence with a VPN violated the "Interim Provisions on the Administration of International Networking of Computer Information Networks"
1
11
125
She's surprised by homeless in the US? She must have never read a US newspaper.
She's not seeing homeless in the PRC? She must be staying in the government's Potemkin bubble.
Some of my photos - all taken in Beijing inside the third ring road.
"I have never seen homeless people here in
#China
. Very surprising for me," Josefina F. Ruggeiro from Eviction Defense Collaborative said on Monday during an interview while attending the 2024 China-US Youth Festival in Fuzhou, Fujian.
#Guling
#CulturalJourney
#US
101
126
342
3
18
131
A thread with a (very partial) list of examples of people the PRC government jailed for using this site for political speech that the owner of this site could raise if he cared as much about free speech in the PRC as he claims to care about it in Brazil. 1/13
4
57
135
2/5 I was at the 2012 protests outside the Japan Embassy in Beijing, I saw hundreds, maybe thousands of people take part. Some of the signs in and around the protests were racist, such as this one saying "China should take action and kill the Japanese dogs."
1
21
117
4/5 And while the PRC claims protesters holding insulting posters of China's leader is "unacceptable," it was perfectly willing to accept protesters in Beijing carrying posters like this outside the Japanese Embassy.
2
20
115
Excited to announce that after 16 years as Google’s lead China counsel I’ve submitted my resignation! No plans to go back to work full time. Want to focus on my hobbies (cycling, birding) and working on follow-up volumes to my casebook "State Prosecutions of Speech in the PRC."
11
3
117
3/5 Many of the signs carried by protesters at the 2012 protests outside the Japan Embassy in Beijing threatened, in fact demanded, violence against Japanese, such as this one saying "Cut off the heads of the Japanese devils with six cuts."
3
20
109
1/5 A thread on how PRC websites are censoring information and discussion relating to COVID deaths in mainland China. First, these screenshots show an English report by state-sponsored Sixth Tone was deleted within hours of publication.
2
58
104
PRC national Wang Jixian (王吉贤) posted Vlogs from Odessa wit messages inconsistent with the PRC government's position. Today Tencent censors his name. Left screenshot taken yesterday shows a Sogou "WeChat" search returned 152 results. Today - zero.
5
51
95
Just saw another useful foreign idiot displaying their ignorance of the law on VPN use in the PRC, and it reminded me I had meant to translate the official government documents justifying punishing the VPN user in this well-publicized case: . Here it is:
7
21
96
1/# Teng Biao
@tengbiao
has tweeted that Xu Zhiyong's trial will commence on June 22, so for the next few days I'll be posting to this🧵about #许志永 and the decade-long efforts to silence him, starting with how PRC Internet companies are censoring information about him. . .
4
48
79
My casebook "State Prosecutions of Speech in the PRC" is available for free download from my website: . Over 100 indictments, court judgments, trial transcripts, and RETL and administrative punishment decisions in translation from 1998 to the present.
2
27
69
Note that in tweet "6/9" of this thread, the link to the case should (I left out the "www" and folks are getting a 403 error. Apologies for the confusion.
3
8
63
A somewhat-regular reminder that in the PRC it is illegal to use a foreign VPN to access Twitter/Youtube/FB, or to watch news, check information, etc. That's according to the Hohhot Police (English captions mine).
More on VPNs:
1/25 Thanks to those who provided feedback on my tweet last week re: the (il)legality of VPNs in China. Apparently it was insufficiently nuanced for some folks, so here's a thread with more examples that also addresses some of the replies critical of my original thread.
10
81
306
2
19
67
6/25 Even Fang Binxing, the guy who claims to be the "Father of the Great Firewall," admitted to using VPNs to access websites that he helped block.
1
14
62
"What Happened Today In Hong Kong?" Baidu Image Search vs. Google Image Search
#OccupyCentral
http://t.co/WQ45dcI5IJ
10
168
61
The PRC has sentenced scholar Rahile Dawut to life imprisonment, so I'm doing a🧵on another PRC scholar sentenced to life imprisonment: Ilham Tohti. The PRC never published his court judgment, but the Supreme People's Court summarized it the book "Reference to Criminal Trial."
3
36
64
8/25 So if someone claims they are in China and accessing Twitter legally, ask them to explain how. If they don't answer, you can assume its because they don't want folks to know they are among the privileged few using a foreign SIM card or government-approved VPN. Lucky them!
1
10
60
My casebook "State Prosecutions of Speech in the PRC" is now available at SSRN: and the Stanford Law Library: . Over 100 indictments, court judgments, trial transcripts, and RETL and administrative punishment decisions in translation
4
19
59
@chontang
Glad you agree that its illegal to use a VPN.
I don't want to sell the book. Its free to get it into as many hands as possible.
Your Chinese-English translation needs work - "训诫" is "reprimand" or "admonish," not "lecture."
Another incorrect/snarky reply and you'll be blocked
5
1
56
25/25 Finally, some folks seem to think that police punishments like reprimands aren't a big deal. For those courageous scofflaws, I'll close this thread with how Dr. Li Wenliang felt when police told him to sign his reprimand for trying to alert friends about the Wuhan outbreak
8
11
56
Yesterday I posted screenshots of a PRC police video warning people how VPN use is illegal. Here's a similar message from a video posted by the People's Court of Wenchuan County (English captions mine).
There's also this from the People's Court of Horqin
A reminder that when deciding if that VPN you got from an app store is legal, you can take advice of some foreign propagandist with no legal qualifications, or you can read this article by a PRC court titled "Wall Climbing is Illegal, Here's Common Sense You Must Know" 1/8
15
95
277
12
23
56
1/3
@tengbiao
reminds us there was a time in 2005 when the Asia Weekly's "People of the Year" included 14 PRC civil rights lawyers. Of the 14, Xu Zhiyong & Guo Feixiong are imprisoned, Gao Zhisheng is disappeared, Li Heping, Zheng Enchong & Pu Zhiqiang were jailed & disbarred...
几天前的聚会上见到香港媒体人王健民，他因在香港出版争论杂志被中判刑5年零3个月，同案呙中校被判刑2年零3个月。王健民发给我这本《亚洲周刊》，这是2005年他和纪硕鸣主笔的“2005年度亚洲风云人物”，当选的是14位中国人权律师。
4
13
95
2
26
56
1/3 Example of PRC foreign relations rule "I demand my rights in the name of your principles and I deny you your rights in the name of mine": CD employee uses blocked-in-China Twitter to exercise free speech that would land him in jail if he did the equivalent in China. Examples:
2
10
53
Ever wonder what the Bund in Shanghai looks like without the crowds? Wonder no more. . . .
2
17
55
The new Chinese Academy of Sciences Code of Conduct says its members must "model love of the Party" (Art. 2), "cherish the fatherland" and "serve national security" (Art. 3), and "be consistent with the major policies of the Party" (Art. 19) See: 1/2
6
34
55
1/9 Since people caught using VPNs in the PRC are typically punished directly by the police, I thought I'd do a thread explaining the powers the police have to mete out punishments for speech-related conduct. Standard caveat – I'm not a PRC lawyer and this isn't legal advice.
1
13
52
1/8 A🧵on PRC Covid reporting on 12/24. Minimizing the number of reported Covid cases and deaths is important for the PRC, because PRC officials, such as Hua Chunying, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, have consistently used the high US Covid numbers for propaganda purposes.
3
19
46
6/5 Here's a pic with a clearer view of a banner carried by protesters in front of the Japan Embassy in Beijing in 2012, apparently showing then-premier Noda being decapitated and saying "Little Japan Fuck Off." Another sign says "Drive out the [racist term for Japanese]"
3
12
45
1/ 8 On May 10, 2022, an article by Gao Yusheng (高玉生), former PRC Ambassador to the Ukraine, was published on, and quickly censored from, PRC websites. The article explained why Russia is losing the war in Ukraine. Here's a thread showing examples of the PRC's censorship.
5
20
48
Sina Weibo is censoring search results for "Burial at Sea" today.
2
50
46
Section 2 of the article could not be clearer: "Wall Climbing is illegal! As long as you use "wall climbing" software, no matter what the purpose is, whether it is learning English, checking information, or even if you don't browse anything at all, it is a violation of law." 3/8
4
8
47
Over the last few days Bali district (Taiwan) had great views of gorgeous lenticular clouds over Yangmingshan. Here's a couple of views from different times/days/angles.
1
4
47
4/25 And apparently the legal department of one major hotel chain determined that PRC law requires the blocking of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and The New York Times, as evidenced by this hand-out they gave customers.
1
13
42
But the greatest irony is that Hu Xijin knows he is defending an unjust system. As he said himself (and later self-censored): "Without those such as Liu [Xiaobo], Ai [Weiwei], & Pu [Zhiqiang], China would be North Korea" (没有刘、艾、浦等，中国就是朝鲜).
5
10
46
These screenshots were taken on the 5th anniversary of Liu Xiaobo's death, and show that both Baidu's & Sogou's wiki articles for "Nobel Peace Prize" omit the year 2010 - the year Liu was awarded it "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China."
1
9
42
If you read this thread and are asking "Ok, but does anyone ever get punished for using a VPN?" The answer is "yes," and I've covered this topic extensively here: . 7/8
1/25 Thanks to those who provided feedback on my tweet last week re: the (il)legality of VPNs in China. Apparently it was insufficiently nuanced for some folks, so here's a thread with more examples that also addresses some of the replies critical of my original thread.
10
81
306
1
5
41
In 2007 I was hired as Google's first China product counsel. Over the next few days I'll share photos of swag I acquired over the last 16 years which, as I begin my last month at the company, have taken on some sentimental value, starting with the 1st piece of swag I ever got:
3
5
42
The PRC court's article concludes by saying it is forbidden to:
"Download apps and software such as YouTube, Chrome, FaceBook, Twitter, and Google services."
"Use any 'wall climbing' tools to browse overseas websites." 5/8
3
11
39
Yesterday was one of those days that reminds me how lucky I am to live in Taipei. Got to check out:
✅Tamsui Environmental Arts Festival Parade
✅Daniel Pearl World Music Day Music Festival
✅Nuit Blanche at the Taipei Performing Arts Center and the Shilin Night Market
3
5
41
Section 3 of the PRC court's article states that the "dangers of wall climbing" include "getting ensared in political traps," "falling for unofficial political histories," and "becoming bewitched by the infiltration of reactionary ideas." 4/8
1
9
40
The PRC has ALWAYS banned foreign companies from operating Internet services (like search). See: Special Administrative Measures for Foreign Investment Access, Item 14: "... the foreign shareholding ratio of value-added telecommunications businesses shall not exceed 50%."
"There was never a ban".
but "VPNs easily solved it".
Is "there was never a ban", why do the Chinese need VPNs to google?
50
35
248
7
12
40
@EnesKanter
tweeted about Tibet & shoes (by
@badiucao
). This thread shows the PRC censorship that followed. First, screenshots of Sogou (owned by Tencent) results for "Enes Kanter" (伊内斯·坎特): Left: 8 hrs after his 1st tweet (8k+ results), right: 8 hrs later (12 results)
1
18
36
The censorship of "Spy Balloon" (间谍气球) is especially obvious on Sogou's WeChat search engine - after it implemented the censorship last night the only results left are from China Central Television. /2
3
17
40
1/4 While foreign media is reporting overwhelmed crematoriums, the PRC government is reporting "There were no new deaths" (无新增死亡病例). . So I decided to see what PRC search engines would turn up for the query "Covid Deaths" (疫情 死亡) . . . .
3
17
38
The article by the People's Court of Horqin in Inner Monglolia () begins by explaining that "Wall" refers to the "GFW," and "Climbing" means evading "content filtering...and illegally accessing overseas websites prohibited by the State." 2/8
1
5
39
If you read that and want to reply with "the punishments for using a VPN are like a speeding ticket," then let me just preempt you by saying "Thank you for acknowledging that using a VPN is illegal, just like exceeding the posted speed limit is." 8/8
4
3
37
When floods hit Beijing in 2012 the government censored information about it - . Seems nothing's changed - Left is a WeChat post from today "Zhengzhou Floods & Dams Failing: We Want Truth, Not Muddled Accounts", Right is that post a few hours later.
3
28
37
These screenshots show that overnight Baidu began censoring "Peng Zaizhou" (彭载舟). If you want clean versions, I archived the search results here:
October 13:
October 14:
It's likely the man who staged the protest is
#PengLifa
, social media name Peng ZaiZhou (twitter
@lifa_Petter
), Beijing Melon Network Technology Co. Ltd.
Hopefully it can be verified soon.
#newtankman
#xijinping
#china
#xitler
1
10
41
0
8
32
How it started . . . . . . . . . . How its going. . . . . . . .
2
9
34
Gorgeous sunset this evening over a mist-shrouded Guanyin Mountain in Bali, Taiwan.
0
3
37
18/25 If someone says they can't find these, point them to my blog post explaining how the government systematically deleted the records in 2020: "Disappearing Government Records Show Police Ordering People, Companies to Stop Using Foreign VPNs"
1
4
36
1/9 This is not a🧵about people saying horrible things on Sina Weibo (or any social media) - that's a "dog-bites-man" story. This is a🧵about what the PRC means by a "civilized Internet" model as illustrated by which posts about Abe's assassination did (and did not) get censored.
1
15
34
To be honest, I think the court's article lacks nuance, as there are in fact legal "wall climbing" methods, such as foreign SIM cards and VPNs from PRC licensed telecos. But that VPN you downloaded from an app store – almost certainly what the court was referring to. 6/8
1
3
35
Compare that 2011 search result with the following image that was taken on November 14, 2023, and shows that the same search on Baidu now only returns results from a whitelist of websites under the direct control of the PRC central government and Communist Party.
2
3
34
No rain today, so pleasantly surprised to be gifted with a gorgeous rainbow over the Guandu Bridge.
1
7
33
13/25 So what happens to people in China who use unauthorized VPNs to access Twitter etc? Well, if the police don't know about it – nothing (duh). If the police find out, then they can, and do, impose punishments including reprimands, warnings, fines, and cease-and-desist orders.
1
7
32
The left screenshot taken in 2011 shows a search for "Civil Society" on Baidu's Zhidao Q&A platform returned results. The right screenshot taken in 2023 shows the same search returns no results, just a notice saying "Sorry, no answers related to 'civil society' were found."
1
2
33
7/25 It should be noted that there are "legal" ways to circumvent the GFW. For example, foreign SIM cards allow access through the GFW without a VPN. And here's a Hong Kong Telecom advertisement for "Internet access for browsing overseas websites."
2
6
31
Good example of how what the PRC censors shifts over time. Back in June Baidu returned over 1 million results for searches for "Biden Dictator." But after Biden called Xi Jinping a dictator on Nov. 15, Baidu needs to censor searches for that term, and now returns only 52 results.
5
5
31
For example, this screenshot was taken Jan. 12, 2011, and shows a search on Baidu for "Civil Society" (公民社会) returned results from social media (, Baidu's forum website) and overseas websites ( is a university in Taiwan).
1
3
33
1/11 A thread🧵about censorship of a video that began circulating on May 12 showing police threatening a couple that failure to cooperate will "follow you for three generations." A man is heard replying "This is our last generation, thank you." More here:
1
8
31
The death of SARS whistleblower Jiang Yanyong (蒋彦永) shows how Baidu's censorship has changed over time. Left screenshot from 2015 has Baidu showing a censorship notice and 18k+ results. The same search last week has Baidu showing no censorship notice, and 31 results.
1
14
31
15/25 This screenshot shows police punished Yao Zenglei with a reprimand on the grounds that she "used VPN software to illegally access international networks while playing the game 'Ace Fishing: Wild Catch.'"
1
5
32
3/25 Now, onto issue of the (il)legality of VPN use in the PRC. To start, PRC state-sponsored media is quite forthcoming about the fact that the Great Firewall exists and that it is used to block certain foreign websites, like these articles from the Global Times.
1
5
29
The following screenshot illustrates another interesting facet of Internet censorship in the PRC - it does not always strive for perfection. In the case of this query, it is possible to find results from non-Party/non-State controlled sources by adding the "site:" operator.
1
2
31
Censored People's Daily editorial: "The view that 'the first secretary has absolute truth, the second secretary has relative truth, and the others have no truth' is not in line with the facts." I translated additional portions of on my blog here: 6/6
0
1
32
The China Daily even reported that PRC leaders have acknowledged that over 600 million people in the PRC have an income "barely enough for the rent in mid-sized cities." So for the China Daily to push this simplified narrative is a shameful insult to millions of PRC citizens.
1
3
31
The censored PD editorial said: "Deification of, and superstitious belief in, the individual begins with exaggerating the role of the individual. . . All Party members must implement the Party's line, rather than the entire Party following the line of a certain individual." 4/6
1
4
31
The great brickening continues apace - the same Beijing alley in 2014 and 2018
7
11
30
23/25 In compiling my casebook-"State Prosecutions of Speech in the PRC" free @ –I looked for examples of people being acquitted or winning on appeal. I never found a single example of support for a right to "climb-the-wall." Ball's in your court doubters.
1
2
30
9/25 If someone claims there are "millions" of VPN users, ask them for a citation. If their citation includes users of non-PRC-government-licensed VPNs, well, those are people who could be punished by the police for illegally circumventing the GFW. To wit:
1
6
28
I know not everything in Taiwan is perfect, but where else in the world do you see an honor system like this? Sign (in Japanese, Korean, and English) asks you to pay NT$ 100 (about US$3) if you take a bag of fresh-picked tangerines.
8
5
31
7/# Why would PRC websites have to censor information about Xu Zhiyong, a lawyer and professor the China Daily once described as "well-known for his active role in guaranteeing rights of migrant workers"? I'll continue this thread tomorrow. . .
1
4
28
12/25 PRC courts have also made it clear its illegal to use foreign VPNs like ExpressVPN: In Panxing Ximin v. Google, a court held gathering evidence with a VPN violated the "Interim Provisions on the Administration of International Networking of Computer Information Networks."
1
8
30
The censored 1980 People's Daily editorial also cited how "Abnormal practices gradually took shape: obeying the Party's leadership means listening to a certain person, implementing the Party's line means doing what a certain person says." 5/6
1
1
30
Likely to be left out of state sponsored media's remembrances is Jiang Ping's co-signing of two open letters criticizing the PRC government's suppression of freedom of expression. A short🧵 . . .
Jiang Ping, a prominent Chinese legal scholar and educator who played a pioneering role in building the country’s contemporary legislative system, passed away in Beijing Tuesday, Caixin learned from Jiang’s family. He was 92
2
5
5
3
7
30