Headline : Pirate E-Book Site Under Pressure in China, Endangering Access To Banned Books

Read more from the original article on here at chinadigitaltimes.net.

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Z-Library, an online database with tens of millions of pirated and uncensored books and articles available for free download, is closing its Chinese WeChat account. In a statement posted to WeChat, Z-Library claimed that Chinese legal authorities had “attacked” its volunteer staff and intimated that they had refused to comply with censorship demands. The statement also seemed to encourage Chinese users to download virtual private networks (VPNs) (or other “scientific” means) in order to access the website despite “internet surveillance-and-control” policies: 

The official Z-Library account was deleted soon after the statement’s publication. It is unclear whether the account’s administrators took it down early or whether the account was shuttered by WeChat. Underneath the announcement, Z-Library users lamented its departure and compared Chinese information controls to the Berlin Wall:  

China is not the only country to target Z-Library. In 2022, the Department of Justice announced the arrest of two Russian nationals it claimed were behind the site and briefly succeeded in knocking the website offline. Z-Library was also banned in India and in France in 2022. China’s apparent pressure on the site could most charitably be interpreted as intellectual property protection of the kind it has often been accused of neglecting; but the picture is inescapably complicated by the fact that much of Z-Library’s appeal to Chinese users is that its contents are not only “free as in beer,” but also “free as in speech.”

China maintains strict censorship of all material officially published or otherwise distributed within its borders. Last year, a book on the last Ming emperor was recalled from shelves—and all mention of it banned on social media—allegedly because the cover could be construed as a criticism of Xi Jinping. Foreign writers are subject to censorship too. A recent casual survey of history books found that foundational works in international China studies like Jonathan Spence’s “The Gate of Heavenly Peace” and Gail Hershatter’s “Women and China’s Revolution” were no longer being re-printed in China or authorized for distribution, respectively. 

Read more from the original article on here at chinadigitaltimes.net.

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