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Expand search for missing Malaysia Flight MH370: Expert

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Investigators, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 plane, Indian Ocean, Rodrigues, Kuala Lumpur

Disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370

Bangkok: Investigators leading the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 plane, which disappeared in March 2014, have recommended expanding the search area, official sources said. The experts want the search area expanded to an additional 25,000 square km in the Indian Ocean, Efe news reported on Tuesday.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau made the proposal as it was about to suspend the search for wreckage in a 120,000 sq km area that was initially determined as a priority. Australia is leading the search operation, which also includes Malaysia and China, in the remote area which was made the focus of after analysis of satellite signals and marine currents.

However, no signs of the plane have been found so far. It was now likely that the search operation would be completed in January. The ATSB proposed to expand the search following a meeting of experts in November to reassess the latest available information – including several objects found on the beaches on the western side of the Indian Ocean.

“There is a high degree of confidence that the previously identified underwater area searched to date does not contain the missing aircraft,” the ATSB said in its latest report.

Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014 with 239 people on board, most of them Chinese, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Contact was lost just 40 minutes after take-off when the aircraft’s communication systems were suddenly shut down.

So far, plane debris were found on the beaches of Reunion Island, Mozambique, Mauritius, South Africa and the French island of Rodrigues – places that match the pattern of the Indian Ocean’s currents and where the search is being carried out.

 

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Lockdowns in China Force Urban Communities to Defy Censorship and Vent Frustration Online

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Anyip Mobile Proxies

Shanghai’s rich middle class is leading a wave of online dissent over the strict and prolonged lockdowns imposed in various parts of the country. Chinese internet censorship is struggling as patience is wearing thin in many urban centers, coming up with creative forms of online protests.

Social Media Posts Revealing Lockdown Tension in Shanghai

Drawn-out lockdowns are nothing new in China as authorities insist with the nation’s zero-Covid policy since the start of the pandemic. Currently over This time around, however, metropolitan areas like Shanghai are increasingly difficult to keep quiet, given that its more than 25 million residents have seen weeks of total isolation along with food shortages and many other service interruptions.

Dozens of towns and reportedly over 300 million Chinese citizens have been affected by lockdowns of different severity. As expected, urban netizens have been most outspoken over their difficulties by finding creative ways to get around state censorship and bans placed on topics, news comments and spontaneous campaigns.

Shanghai residents have been using mobile proxies and hijacking seemingly unrelated hashtags to talk about healthcare issues, delivery failures and the overall severity of their situation. The “positive energy” that the Chinese government wants to transmit during the recent prolonged series of lockdowns does not come naturally to those counting food supplies and online censors are working hard to filter words, trending topics and undesired social media sharing.

WeChat groups and message threads are under constant monitoring. Posts questioning the zero-Covid approach have been quickly deleted, including by leading Chinese health experts like Dr. Zhong Nanshan. Video footage is soon censored and protests and investigations are quickly made to disappear.

Where this has not worked, officials have exposed banners with warnings and outright threats like “watch your own mouth or face punishment”, while drones have been patrolling the city skies. Yet, if anything, this has led to further tensions and unspoken confrontation with Shanghai’s educated and affluent middle class.

Creative Online Solutions Harnessing Civic Energy

Announcements by Chinese social media that they would be publishing the IP addresses of users who “spread rumors” have not helped either. Tech industry research has shown that much of Asia’s tech-savvy population has a habit of using mobile proxies and other privacy tools, quickly finding workarounds to browse the internet freely and talk to the world about the hottest topics.

The sheer volume of forbidden posts is already a challenge for the very censorship system, experts explain. Unable to track all trending hashtags, state workers overlook topics that speak about the US, Ukraine or other popular news. Linking human rights elsewhere to their situation, Chinese online dissidents establish their informal channels and “hijack” the conversation to share personal or publicly relevant information about the Covid suppression in their town.

Sarcastic and satirical posts still dominate. Others hope to evade the censors by replacing words from famous poems or the national anthem. One thing is certain – social media, when harnessed with the right creativity, has proven its ability to mount pressure on the government in even some of the most strictly controlled tech environments like China.

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