Chinese Labour Camps Used Prisoners to Play Online Games for Cash

When I first read this, I was surprised. 
 
But then I suppose these things just move with the times like everything else. 
 
If any of you are engaged in paying for this practice, then you should read the story in today's Guardian. 
 
Anything that exploits the poverty of one nation relative to another will only result in this sort of despicable acts, I suppose. 
 
What do you guys think? Was this old news? 

Well, running a prison takes money, and there are more hasher grunt work like digging ditches so I kinda see it as a win win for everybody. 

China is a bad place in a lot of ways. They have forced child labor, sign oil deals with Iran, and the information is tightly controlled (unlike free nations like the United States and the UK). China also owns 1/3 of the United States Debt, which gives them a huge amount of political power over the United States. It's unfortunate, but I don't know what can be done. If people stop paying for gold in WoW, which I think is stupid anyway, they'll come up with some other use for the prisoners that could be far worse.

Well, running a prison takes money, and there are more hasher grunt work like digging ditches so I kinda see it as a win win for everybody. 

Well, running a prison takes money, and there are more hasher grunt work like digging ditches so I kinda see it as a win win for everybody. 

There are far worse treatment of prisoners happening around the world, and much of that now taking place routinely in the western world. So by and large the "moral outrage" is a little hollow. 

@l4wd0g said:

  and the information is tightly controlled (unlike free nations like the United States and the UK)

The most deluded and imprisoned of men are those that think they're actually free.

I'm sure these unfortunates are expected to churn out ridiculous results for these guards. It's hard to reason with someone who is swinging a rubber hose or stick at you. 
 
Gold farming is bad, but I suppose this goes on to a lesser extent with many other products or services exported from poorer countries. Take the three recent deaths at the Foxconn plant in China, for example. We all know that forced labour is a terrible thing, but do we think about the working conditions for those who make our phones and tablets and suchlike?  We all want cheap stuff, right? 
 
I've just bummed myself out, but the Mango update is coming soon. So that's something.

There are far worse treatment of prisoners happening around the world, and much of that now taking place routinely in the western world. So by and large the "moral outrage" is a little hollow. 

@l4wd0g said:

  and the information is tightly controlled (unlike free nations like the United States and the UK)

 LMFAO.  We all live in a world where information is controlled, shaped and manipulated before your very eyes. US and UK governments don't need such overt tactics because mainstream news media in these countries practice what is called self censorship. They will implicitly and tacitly go along with government policy, and allow dissent only on smaller, more trivial, matters. And that's before we get into government censorship on secrecy or national security grounds (which these days is just about anything the govt doesn't want you knowing about).

The most deluded and imprisoned of men are those that think they're actually free.

@FourWude said:

There are far worse treatment of prisoners happening around the world, and much of that now taking place routinely in the western world. So by and large the "moral outrage" is a little hollow. 

@l4wd0g said:

  and the information is tightly controlled (unlike free nations like the United States and the UK)

 LMFAO.  We all live in a world where information is controlled, shaped and manipulated before your very eyes. US and UK governments don't need such overt tactics because mainstream news media in these countries practice what is called self censorship. They will implicitly and tacitly go along with government policy, and allow dissent only on smaller, more trivial, matters. And that's before we get into government censorship on secrecy or national security grounds (which these days is just about anything the govt doesn't want you knowing about).

The most deluded and imprisoned of men are those that think they're actually free.

The media in the United States is a joke; however, we have unrestricted access to the internet, the Freedom of Information Act, newspapers, and magazines. The same cannot be said of China.

The Freedom of Information Act like half the US Constitution is all but dead. Like I said in my previous post, if the powers that be don't want you finding out, they explicitly censor with implicit consent from the media backing them. In that regard you get very little dissent from the news media when some piece of "news" is blacklisted.

You've also contradicted yourself by stating that the news media is a joke, whilst alluding to a Freedom of Information Act which news media (i.e. newspapers, magazines etc) don't alway obey, neither do they care about, because they practice self censorship. So if the news media is a joke, so are the rules of law which are routinely trodden on.

The US and UK also practice blocking off and blacklisting internet sites which they deem "undesirable" all the time. They do so at their own discretion, much like the Chinese government. So this belief that the internet is completely open and unregulated in the west is false. Pretty much all your internet data logs and record of surfing is tracked and stored on ISP and govt servers where data is routinely shared. China's only difference is that their restrictions are more stringent.

To sum it up, China does nothing which western governments don't also do in some form or another. Except China is overt about it. It's like Soviet and American propaganda. Both practiced propaganda openly on their people, except Soviet propaganda was shit, so it didn't work as well. The fact remains they both committed the same "crimes" on their people. Ironically enough Soviets could actually tell and recognize when the Soviet state had lied to them. Most Americans to this day cannot.

I'm beginning to think that some of you haven't read the article.

Screwed up story but working all day then playing video games all night sounds like....my life? Whats so bad about this exactly? Are we getting annoyed that the poor prisoners are forced to play video games all night? Shit if id known that id have moved to China and stabbed someone when I was 16. Messed up and corrupt sure but its not like they were being sold for body parts.    ...yet.

@DanceDanceKennypants: Making prisoners play video games is hardly a despicable act.

Man, prison sounds like the best.

@sickVisionz said:

@DanceDanceKennypants: Making prisoners play video games is hardly a despicable act.

It's really easy to dismiss bad behavior when you edit out the bad part.  They were making them play games, and if they didn't play them well enough they got beaten. 

Not sure what is worst and more of a torture, getting beaten by plastic pipes, or playing wow and gold farming.

@YoungFrey: Except for the part where if they didn't meat their gold quota by the end of the day they got beaten to within an inch of their lives.

Anyone else feel that there's a war coming? Not immediately of course, stuff hasn't escalated to that level yet, but it just seems inevitable that eventually China will want control of something the United States doesn't want it in control of and bombs will start flying.

I'm confused by this. How do you make money off MMOs and stuff? Is there something I'm not getting? Should I stop being lazy and read the damn story?

@l4wd0g said:

@FourWude said:

There are far worse treatment of prisoners happening around the world, and much of that now taking place routinely in the western world. So by and large the "moral outrage" is a little hollow. 

@l4wd0g said:

  and the information is tightly controlled (unlike free nations like the United States and the UK)

 LMFAO.  We all live in a world where information is controlled, shaped and manipulated before your very eyes. US and UK governments don't need such overt tactics because mainstream news media in these countries practice what is called self censorship. They will implicitly and tacitly go along with government policy, and allow dissent only on smaller, more trivial, matters. And that's before we get into government censorship on secrecy or national security grounds (which these days is just about anything the govt doesn't want you knowing about).

The most deluded and imprisoned of men are those that think they're actually free.

The media in the United States is a joke; however, we have unrestricted access to the internet, the Freedom of Information Act, newspapers, and magazines. The same cannot be said of China.

The Freedom of Information Act like half the US Constitution is all but dead. Like I said in my previous post, if the powers that be don't want you finding out, they explicitly censor with implicit consent from the media backing them. In that regard you get very little dissent from the news media when some piece of "news" is blacklisted.

You've also contradicted yourself by stating that the news media is a joke, whilst alluding to a Freedom of Information Act which news media (i.e. newspapers, magazines etc) don't alway obey, neither do they care about, because they practice self censorship. So if the news media is a joke, so are the rules of law which are routinely trodden on.

The US and UK also practice blocking off and blacklisting internet sites which they deem "undesirable" all the time. They do so at their own discretion, much like the Chinese government. So this belief that the internet is completely open and unregulated in the west is false. Pretty much all your internet data logs and record of surfing is tracked and stored on ISP and govt servers where data is routinely shared. China's only difference is that their restrictions are more stringent.

To sum it up, China does nothing which western governments don't also do in some form or another. Except China is overt about it. It's like Soviet and American propaganda. Both practiced propaganda openly on their people, except Soviet propaganda was shit, so it didn't work as well. The fact remains they both committed the same "crimes" on their people. Ironically enough Soviets could actually tell and recognize when the Soviet state had lied to them. Most Americans to this day cannot.

I'm confused by this. How do you make money off MMOs and stuff? Is there something I'm not getting? Should I stop being lazy and read the damn story?

@FourWude said:

@l4wd0g said:

@FourWude said:

There are far worse treatment of prisoners happening around the world, and much of that now taking place routinely in the western world. So by and large the "moral outrage" is a little hollow. 

@l4wd0g said:

  and the information is tightly controlled (unlike free nations like the United States and the UK)

 LMFAO.  We all live in a world where information is controlled, shaped and manipulated before your very eyes. US and UK governments don't need such overt tactics because mainstream news media in these countries practice what is called self censorship. They will implicitly and tacitly go along with government policy, and allow dissent only on smaller, more trivial, matters. And that's before we get into government censorship on secrecy or national security grounds (which these days is just about anything the govt doesn't want you knowing about).

The most deluded and imprisoned of men are those that think they're actually free.

The media in the United States is a joke; however, we have unrestricted access to the internet, the Freedom of Information Act, newspapers, and magazines. The same cannot be said of China.

The Freedom of Information Act like half the US Constitution is all but dead. Like I said in my previous post, if the powers that be don't want you finding out, they explicitly censor with implicit consent from the media backing them. In that regard you get very little dissent from the news media when some piece of "news" is blacklisted.

You've also contradicted yourself by stating that the news media is a joke, whilst alluding to a Freedom of Information Act which news media (i.e. newspapers, magazines etc) don't alway obey, neither do they care about, because they practice self censorship. So if the news media is a joke, so are the rules of law which are routinely trodden on.

The US and UK also practice blocking off and blacklisting internet sites which they deem "undesirable" all the time. They do so at their own discretion, much like the Chinese government. So this belief that the internet is completely open and unregulated in the west is false. Pretty much all your internet data logs and record of surfing is tracked and stored on ISP and govt servers where data is routinely shared. China's only difference is that their restrictions are more stringent.

To sum it up, China does nothing which western governments don't also do in some form or another. Except China is overt about it. It's like Soviet and American propaganda. Both practiced propaganda openly on their people, except Soviet propaganda was shit, so it didn't work as well. The fact remains they both committed the same "crimes" on their people. Ironically enough Soviets could actually tell and recognize when the Soviet state had lied to them. Most Americans to this day cannot.

In regards to the Freedom of Information Act. I don't think we're talking about the something. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a federal law that allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States Government. The Act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure procedures and grants nine exemptions to the statute.    You'll need to back the "Half of the US Constitution is dead" statement up with some hard facts.  Yeah, Barak Obama violated it when he told America to boycott Arizona, but that's not what your talking about.   When I say the news is a joke, I mean they care more about ratings than anything else. Remember Balloon Boy? There was no way that  story was real and yet all of the media outlets ran the story, and ran it live. The major news outlets are also guilty of running propaganda and heavily editorializing the news. If you want to see the reeal news you need to read the ticker at the bottom of the screen, and then read it from three different sites.   The media also speaks out against the government, without repercussions. Maybe not as true in say China.  There is no blacklisting of the internet  in the US. Period. If there was, would people be allowed to visit Wikileaks? Or would they be able to visit the Mujahideen home page? Would people be able to write blogs on government corruption? Would there be political podcast all over iTunes? Would you be able to say what you just did?   Tracking IP addresses is another matter entirely. I'm sure the webmaster at Giant Bomb could give me you home address based on IP address, but won't unless I have a warrant and law enforcement must follow due process.

That Freedom of Information act is a joke because even by law it mandates the US govt to be open, the reality is that on sensitive matters (those pertaining to non-trivial) issues, you are NEVER told the truth. Theory and reality do not correlate. In theory the govt is meant to be open, in reality they act in secrecy. We see that even today where cases are dismissed out of court because they may reveal national secrets. This is implicitly upheld by the news media who will never willingly on its own reveal the truth.

The news media is a joke, and not just for banal news ratings, even the ticker tapes. You are never given the full picture by the news media. Even the ticker tape you alluded to barely shows any "facts" whatsoever. You want a better understanding of how news media in western countries work, then read the seminal piece on Manufacturing Consent by Herman and Chomsky, (google it). Sorry to tell you but US news is not nearly as "fair or balanced" as you'd be led to believe.

What examples would you like me to clarify that the US constitution is violated on an almost daily basis? A Patriot Act which itself has universally encroached on everyday freedoms of the US people? Routine FBI wiretapping programs and invasion of privacy. Just last week the TSA and Federal Govt was interfering in Texas State politics regarding naked body scanners. Texas was voting to outlaw such machines, but the federal authorities not only interfered directly in State politics, but actively lobbied for the continuation of body scanners in direct violation of non-interference rules. But why stop on isolated incidents, there are plenty of sites which catalog constitutional violations. And that's before we even come to the wars the US wages, notably recently with Libya where Obama broke the 1973 War Powers Resolution for congressional approval, (he still doesn't have authority).  1. List of constitutional violations.   2. Bush govts violation of the constitution as far back as 2002.  3. A rudimentary list of Obama's violation of the US constitution so far.  4. Just another list.   5. And another one.

The worst part is that most of those recent violations are still on-going, so they can't be dismissed as isolated incidents. And many will never be rescinded. I could easily spend a whole day listing to you specific cases of violation if you'd like, but I assume the above is enough. If you want more, simply Google "Violations of US Constitution", and you'll be given all the proof you need.

Coming now onto the Wikileaks question, the trials and avails of Julian Assange and him being denied his freedom of speech by the US govt is well known. And Bradley Manning, the original US soldier whistleblower is still in prison facing trial. So what exactly does this prove? Quite clearly there are things the US govt doesn't want you finding out about. Which effectively backs up my original point, that being that when pushed the US govt will act no differently than most other nations including China.

And finally we come to violations of civil liberties by government agencies through privacy laws by invading and data mining information from cell phones and the internet. NSA eavesdropping program ruled unconstitutional, and FBI Talon data mining program was for spying and tracking civilians,  and you now have a Protect IP/Blacklist bill making its way through Senate as we speak. It's not the first nor will it be the last of such bills. Govt efforts are so extreme nowadays in trying to censor the internet that they re-try mere months after such bills get defeated. Domestic spying programs are now so pervasive that there are literally dozens of accounts of programs being "outed". Standard operating procedure is to temporarily shut down a program and re-instate it a few months later under a different name. They can get away with this simply because they operate above the law, and the law by and large can't stop them.

This is modern day USA. And it's increasingly indistinguishable from the abuses you level at China. Look at home before pointing fingers at others.

I can't wait for Cool Hand Luke 2 to take place here.

I'm not sure if you've noticed, but we've been exploiting China's poor for decades. It shouldn't surprise people that they abuse prison labor, this just happens to be a slightly surreal variation.

I'm confused by this. How do you make money off MMOs and stuff? Is there something I'm not getting? Should I stop being lazy and read the damn story?

At least its not runescape.

Don't support this. If you are that kind of gamer, keep buying your online currency if you HAVE to, but please try to make sure your not supporting this. And if your not sure then don't do it your just supporting them. 

What happened to real labor camps?